Coke is very addictive. It can be difficult to resist the craving and strong psychological dependence due to changes in the brain. Recent evidence suggests possible long-term changes to the nervous system.
Although psychological dependence is more of a problem than physical withdrawal symptoms - low moods and feeling very rough soon after stopping can tempt people to take more coke.
Publications reposted from NIDA
Addiction to stimulants such as cocaine or amphetamine is a chronic,
difficult-to-treat psychiatric disorder characterized by very high rates
of relapse that can occur following many months or even years of
abstinence. Years of diagnostic observations of drug addicts have
shown that chemical dependency, including dependency on
stimulants, is associated with a variety of coexisting psychiatric and
neurological disorders.
This monograph grew out of a technical review sponsored by the
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) in July 1994 that evaluated
the existing clinical and preclinical evidence of neurotoxicity and
neuro-pathology associated with chronic abuse of stimulants,
particularly cocaine. The individual chapters presented in this
publication discuss different facets of this topic and together provide
convincing proof of neurotoxic effects of stimulants.
The present chapter describes the logic underlying the notion that
addiction to cocaine/stimulants could be viewed as a
neurodegenerative or neuro-logical disorder and that treatment should
address problems of coexisting neurochemical abnormalities. The
proposed concept aims to stimulate thoughts and further research in
this area, which may ultimately aid the development of effective
medications for the treatment of stimulant addiction.
Read on below...
Cocaine Addiction as a Neurological Disorder
Maria Dorota Majewsk
...The rise in the rate of complications related to the increasing use of
crack cocaine has been reflected in the medical literature: Initial
isolated case reports were replaced by a series of accounts of medical
and neuro-psychiatric complications of crack cocaine. These
accounts were followed by publications describing specific
complications such as strokes, seizures, myocardial infarctions, and
rhabdomyolysis (Brust 1993; Sanchez-Ramos 1993).
The CNS effects of cocaine seem to result from the reuptake blockade
of NE DA (norepinephrine (NE) release, dopamine (DA) release), and serotonin, which can
potentiate the action of these three neurotransmitters, leading to serious complications
(Dackis and Gold 1988; Johanson and Fischman 1989).
Although emergency room visits and hospital admissions due to cocaine-induced symptoms are more commonly related to medical and psychiatric problems, neurologic sequelae are frequent and severe...
...Neurologic complications related to cocaine use can be classified as neurovascular events (cerebral or spinal), seizures, abnormal movements, headache, hyperpyrexia, and rhabdomyolysis, as well as rarer miscellaneous complications involving the nervous system.
Read on below...
crack cocaine has been reflected in the medical literature: Initial
isolated case reports were replaced by a series of accounts of medical
and neuro-psychiatric complications of crack cocaine. These
accounts were followed by publications describing specific
complications such as strokes, seizures, myocardial infarctions, and
rhabdomyolysis (Brust 1993; Sanchez-Ramos 1993).
The CNS effects of cocaine seem to result from the reuptake blockade
of NE DA (norepinephrine (NE) release, dopamine (DA) release), and serotonin, which can
potentiate the action of these three neurotransmitters, leading to serious complications
(Dackis and Gold 1988; Johanson and Fischman 1989).
Although emergency room visits and hospital admissions due to cocaine-induced symptoms are more commonly related to medical and psychiatric problems, neurologic sequelae are frequent and severe...
...Neurologic complications related to cocaine use can be classified as neurovascular events (cerebral or spinal), seizures, abnormal movements, headache, hyperpyrexia, and rhabdomyolysis, as well as rarer miscellaneous complications involving the nervous system.
Read on below...
Neurologic Complications of Cocaine
Michael Daras
...The frequent use of cocaine in the United States has resulted in a high
degree of morbidity and mortality. Although cocaine was initially
believed to be a relatively safe drug, there is now evidence that cocaine
is one of the most toxic drugs of abuse (Johanson and Fishman
1989). In fact, laboratory animals given free access to cocaine will
self-administer until death (Koob and Bloom 1988). Though cocaine
is toxic to various organs in the body, the most frequently involved
are the brain and the heart (Dackis and Gold 1990).
Cardiac toxicity is the most frequent complication of cocaine abuse.
Cocaine use can trigger myocardial infarction (Huester 1987; Isner et
al. 1986) and lethal cardiac arrhythmias (Gradman 1988). Both
central (Jones and Tackett 1990; Wilkerson 1988) and peripheral
mechanisms (Beckman et al. 1991; Hale et al. 1988; Pitts and Marwah
1989) are responsible for cocaine's cardiotoxic properties. Cocaine's
peripheral actions involve the release of adrenaline and noradrenaline
from the adrenals (Chiueh and Kopin 1978), inhibition of
noradrenaline reuptake sites in myocardial tissue (Iversen 1965), and
local anesthetic effects in myocardial cells (Seifen et al. 1989).
Cocaine is directly toxic to the myocardium (Peng et al. 1989;
Przywara and Dambach 1989), and its anesthetic properties can
trigger cardiac asystole (Nanji and Filipenko 1984)
Read on below...
Nora D. Volkow, Joanna S. Fowler, and Yu-Shin Ding
http://archives.drugabuse.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Effects of Cocaine Addiction video
Effects of Crack Cocaine Addiction video
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Polydrug use—use of more than one drug—is common among substance abusers. When people consume two or more psychoactive drugs together, such as cocaine and alcohol, they compound the danger each drug poses and unknowingly perform a complex chemical experiment within their bodies. Researchers have found that the human liver combines cocaine and alcohol to produce a third substance, cocaethylene, which intensifies cocaine’s euphoric effects. Cocaethylene is associated with a greater risk of sudden death than cocaine alone.
Also, a cocaine crisis associated with severe cardiac problems hits in a big way the hospital's emergency rooms in the UK. Read on below, extracts reposted from the Guardian here...
· Up to 10% of patients with chest pains took drug
· Greater acceptability and lower prices fuel growthA surge in cocaine use is pushing Britain towards a "healthcare disaster" that will see a dramatic rise in heart attacks, strokes and neurological problems among young people, says a leading specialist. The warning follows a three-year investigation into cocaine use carried out at a London hospital emergency unit which indicates that the medical complications of the drug will become a significant burden on hospital resources.
The study looked at levels of cocaine in people who arrived at the accident and emergency unit of St Mary's hospital, Paddington, London, who were complaining of chest pains, a common side-effect of the drug. It found that on Friday or Saturday nights up to half the young people tested had cocaine in their system...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Effects of Cocaine Addiction video
Effects of Crack Cocaine Addiction video
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Added Danger: Cocaethylene
Also, a cocaine crisis associated with severe cardiac problems hits in a big way the hospital's emergency rooms in the UK. Read on below, extracts reposted from the Guardian here...
Health timebomb as rising cocaine use threatens heart problems in young
· Up to 10% of patients with chest pains took drug
· Greater acceptability and lower prices fuel growth
The study looked at levels of cocaine in people who arrived at the accident and emergency unit of St Mary's hospital, Paddington, London, who were complaining of chest pains, a common side-effect of the drug. It found that on Friday or Saturday nights up to half the young people tested had cocaine in their system...
[...]
... John Henry, a leading toxicologist and professor of accident and emergency medicine, who led the study. "...We're going to see more severe addiction, more strokes and heart attacks in young people, and more of the other complications linked to its usage," said Professor Henry, who is regarded as the UK's leading expert on illicit drug use. "It's a healthcare disaster and it's coming here."
The study confirms the fears of other healthcare professionals that cocaine use in Britain has reached an unprecedented level. In an audit of drug tests carried out by the City Hospital NHS teaching trust in Birmingham cocaine use was found to be increasing by about 50% every three years, a trend showing no sign of slowing. "The arrival of the cocaine epidemic has now started to become a reality in the UK," said Stephen George, the doctor who did the survey...
...Experts fear cocaine use will continue to soar until it reaches a peak, as it did in the 1990s in the US where there are now 25 million users and two million addicts...Cocaine tightens up blood vessels, making the heart work harder and raising blood pressure. While long-term heart problems can build up in cocaine users, as little as two 100mg lines (a fraction of an ounce) is enough to cause chest pains...
...US studies found that 5% of cocaine users attending A&E departments with chest pains had heart attacks because of their drug usage. Hospitals are already reporting patients in their early 30s suffering strokes and severe coronary heart disease brought on by cocaine use. Many do not smoke, are not overweight and do not have naturally high blood pressure...
...In the US a condition called aortic dissection has become common among cocaine users. Caused by blood being forced into the lining of big vessels, it essentially creates a new channel for blood to flow down. The rupture itself causes crushing chest pains but also reduces blood flow to vital organs, leading to brain and kidney damage in many cases. A third of the cases of aortic dissection in the US are attributed to cocaine use...
...The drug has also lead to a rise in foetal deaths in the US. It is believed that one in 10 babies dying in the womb do so because their mother took cocaine - a factor that leads to a rupture of the placenta, making it shear away from the womb...
Conclusions (from here) — In an inner city population, acute aortic dissection in the setting of crack cocaine use is common, presumably as a consequence of abrupt, transient, severe hypertension and catecholamine release. This diagnosis should be considered in cocaine users with severe chest pain.
so sorry...
Κοκαίνη , το ξέπλυμα 380 δις , και η παγκόσμια ύφεση (Μax Κeiser report)
...On 10 April 2006, a DC-9 jet landed in the port city of Ciudad del Carmen, on the Gulf of Mexico, as the sun was setting. Mexican soldiers, waiting to intercept it, found 128 cases packed with 5.7 tons of cocaine, valued at $100m. But something else – more important and far-reaching – was discovered in the paper trail behind the purchase of the plane by the Sinaloa narco-trafficking cartel.
During a 22-month investigation by agents from the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and others, it emerged that the cocaine smugglers had bought the plane with money they had laundered through one of the biggest banks in the United States: Wachovia, now part of the giant Wells Fargo.
The authorities uncovered billions of dollars in wire transfers, traveller's cheques and cash shipments through Mexican exchanges into Wachovia accounts. Wachovia was put under immediate investigation for failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering programme. Of special significance was that the period concerned began in 2004, which coincided with the first escalation of violence along the US-Mexico border that ignited the current drugs war.
Criminal proceedings were brought against Wachovia, though not against any individual, but the case never came to court. In March 2010, Wachovia settled the biggest action brought under the US bank secrecy act, through the US district court in Miami. Now that the year's "deferred prosecution" has expired, the bank is in effect in the clear. It paid federal authorities $110m in forfeiture, for allowing transactions later proved to be connected to drug smuggling, and incurred a $50m fine for failing to monitor cash used to ship 22 tons of cocaine.
More shocking, and more important, the bank was sanctioned for failing to apply the proper anti-laundering strictures to the transfer of $378.4bn – a sum equivalent to one-third of Mexico's gross national product – into dollar accounts from so-called casas de cambio (CDCs) in Mexico, currency exchange houses with which the bank did business.
"Wachovia's blatant disregard for our banking laws gave international cocaine cartels a virtual carte blanche to finance their operations," said Jeffrey Sloman, the federal prosecutor. Yet the total fine was less than 2% of the bank's $12.3bn profit for 2009. On 24 March 2010, Wells Fargo stock traded at $30.86 – up 1% on the week of the court settlement.
The conclusion to the case was only the tip of an iceberg, demonstrating the role of the "legal" banking sector in swilling hundreds of billions of dollars – the blood money from the murderous drug trade in Mexico and other places in the world – around their global operations, now bailed out by the taxpayer.... συνέχεια & αναδημοσίευση εδω/reposted/published & continues here
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.