First, it can be difficult to accurately measure the amount of crack being injected, which increases the risk of overdose. Additionally, sharing needles or using unclean needles can lead to the transmission of bloodborne diseases, such as HIV and hepatitis. Finally, injecting drugs can cause serious damage to the veins and other tissues, leading to long-term health problems. Many people may wonder if it is possible to shoot crack cocaine, also known as freebase cocaine. While crack cocaine is typically smoked, some individuals may attempt to inject it in order to achieve a more intense and immediate high. However, injecting crack poses serious health risks and can lead to a range of dangerous consequences.
Health Effects Of Crack Cocaine Abuse
Unlike heroin addiction, there is no licensed medication for cocaine withdrawal. This is where the person who injects cocaine urgently needs help as without it they can be in trouble. By the time it reaches the user, most powder sold as cocaine has been adulterated in some ways with ‘cutting agents’ (4). Ultimately, the user will find that the only substance that can give pleasure of any kind is cocaine. Thanks to the effects of IV cocaine use, the nervous system loses its ability to give reward feelings for any normal activity such as sex or eating food. As the user feels the side effects of withdrawal, so they seek more and more to avoid the negative sensations described above.
Preparation Stage
With habitual Crack Cocaine use, the natural production of dopamine is diminished as the body becomes dependent upon the drug. Get professional help from an online addiction and mental health counselor from BetterHelp. Due to its potency, there is a high risk of fatal overdose from using Crack Cocaine. Your nasal passages are lined with soft, thin tissue that’s full of blood vessels.
Finally, be considerate of others—no one likes coming across a used needle and syringe in their apartment building or seeing bloody tissue in a public toilet, and there’s no reason they should have to. If you’re injecting in a relatively public place, like a toilet stall in a public bathroom, try to make it look like you’re changing your clothes or freshening up. Most importantly, always try to stay as calm as possible no matter where you’re injecting.
However, shooting crack cocaine can be dangerous and comes with its own side effects and health risks. Often, the actual ingredients of the substance are unknown to the individual taking the drug, as is the potency. The exact treatment for crack cocaine overdose depends on the severity of the overdose symptoms. Ensuring that someone’s heart is still beating and they can breathe are the top two concerns during a crack overdose.
Physical Signs Of Intravenous (IV) Cocaine Abuse
This can lead to serious complications of the heart, including heart attacks, stroke, and even death. Injecting crack increases your risk of overdosing because the process of melting the drug down into a liquid makes it difficult to determine how much of the drug you are taking. Additionally, your tolerance for crack cocaine will increase as you continue to inject the drug. This means you will begin to take large doses of the substance to experience the desired effect, putting you at a higher risk of overdosing. Also, chances are that if you’re shooting coke, you’ll be injecting many times in a short period of time with perhaps only several minutes between each injection.
Substance Abuse Treatment Programs
- This highly addictive substance is typically smoked, providing an intense and immediate euphoric effect.
- Routinely cleaning the skin prior to injection is one of the most important things you can do to reduce your risk of endocarditis, blood poisoning, and similar infections (discussed in chapter 3).
- Heroin and cocaine are often used together in a combination known as speedball.
- Additionally, the interview data indicated that situational factors, such as cost, quality, and availability of crack over powder cocaine, often impacted upon decisions to initiate crack injection.
- Additionally, the majority of injectors initiated crack injection since 1998 – particularly in 1999 and 2000 – indicating that crack injection continues to be an emerging practice in these two cities.
It is never safe to inject any type of illegal drugs into the body because of the potential damage that can be caused to the skin and veins, especially when someone doesn’t know how to inject cocaine. At Recovery Guide, our mission is to connect as many individuals struggling with mental health and substance abuse disorders to reputable treatment facilities. Cocaine is nature’s most powerful stimulant and is used by an estimated 14 million people worldwide. In powdered form, it is a hydrochloride salt and can either be snorted or dissolved in water and injected.
- Crack cocaine is usually substantially cheaper than the powder form of cocaine.
- Crack is a highly concentrated form of cocaine, making it much more potent and highly addictive.
- When you begin to intravenously use a potent drug like crack cocaine, the risks of IV drug use multiply.
- It is also possible for a person who injects cocaine regularly to contract hepatitis or HIV.
Recognizing Overdose Signs
Table 1 presents demographic characteristics of the two smaller samples of crack injectors and the combined larger sample. The following results are based upon the combined sample of 38 crack injectors. Additionally, we provide data on crack injection initiation, which may help to locate the emergence of crack injection as a new form of injection drug use. People who inject crack cocaine are at a higher risk for dependence, addiction, and overdose. Cocaine abuse can quickly lead to addiction and can cause several adverse health effects.
How To Reduce Harm When Using Crack Cocaine
Other people might see track marks and begin to ask questions about what caused them. This can make it difficult for a person to get a job or even spend time with their friends and family members without exposing their cocaine abuse issue. This can result in cellulitis of the skin, gangrene, or staph infections. It is also possible for a person who injects cocaine regularly to contract hepatitis or HIV. Cocaine doesn’t always dissolve very easily, especially if any other substances have been mixed in with it.
Injecting Crack
It will help with the primary source of noise at the shooter’s ear – the muzzle blast. If you want to remove the sonic crack, subsonic ammunition is the answer. On the other hand, I built a single-shot pistol in 300 Blackout for the purpose of suppressing it.
Because it is more concentrated, the intensity of the high is elevated; this further contributes to the addictive qualities of the substance. The high achieved by smoking cocaine also dissipates quickly, so individuals may want to quickly use another dose to maintain the original high. This is why people can end up smoking large amounts of cocaine in a short period.
Clients at Carolina Center for Recovery will undergo a personalized journey through one of our highly effective treatment programs. Throughout treatment, clients experience the warmth and compassion of an entire staff that cares deeply about their success. While these effects may fade after a person abstains from crack for several weeks or months, they can make it extremely difficult to quit using crack in the first place. As a result, many people will shoot crack again in order to avoid feeling sick from withdrawal. When crack is dissolved and diluted, it is difficult to tell how strong it is or how much is in the shot. And, when a person pushes the plunger to inject the substance, it enters the body and takes effect within seconds.
Crack houses also tend to include guards who may use violence to keep people out or resolve conflicts. It may also smell like nail polish remover and other chemicals, depending on what is used in the manufacturing process. After repeated use, your brain’s reward system reinforces drug use as you become more dependent on it. It also impacts your threshold for pleasure, causing you to take larger amounts to achieve the same high. All of the information on this page has been reviewed and verified by a certified addiction professional. Hitting a nerve can be very dangerous and result in paralysis or the loss of a limb.
Additionally, the body’s temperature regulation system can malfunction, leading to dangerously high body temperatures, known as hyperthermia. Neurological complications, such as seizures, also arise from the abnormal electrical activity in the brain caused by the drug’s powerful stimulant effects. The term “crack babies” refers to children who were exposed to crack cocaine in utero. In the 1980s and ‘90s, many people believed that all of these children would experience severe health issues later in life. Your body can quickly become dependent on crack cocaine, causing withdrawal symptoms when you stop using it.
