Cocaine is a stimulant, a drug that speeds up the central nervous system. It is usually sold as a fine white powder and its street names include coke, snow, flake or stardust. Often it is "cut" or diluted with similar-looking substances such as icing sugar, cornstarch, talcum powder, or laxatives. Cocaine can also be mixed with products, such as benzocaine, which imitate cocaine's numbing effects.
Methods of use are snorting (through the nostrils), injecting, or free basing (smoking). Typical doses are 30 to 100 mg when snorted, 10 to 25 mg when injected.
Smoking and injecting cocaine produces a more intense effect then snorting. In order for the typical street cocaine to be smoked, it must first be treated chemically. Chunks of cocaine that are ready for smoking are known as crack or rock.
Cocaine is still used medically as a local anesthetic.
People under the influence of cocaine typically feel more confident, energetic, and alert.
Physical effects include rapid heart beat and respiration, increased body temperature, dilated pupils, sweating, paleness, and decreased appetite.
Large quantities of cocaine can cause unusual or violent behaviour, tremors, loss of coordination, twitching, hallucinations, pain or pressure in the chest, nausea, blurred vision, fever, muscle spasms, convulsions, high blood pressure and stroke.
Users with a cocaine "hangover" may have insomnia and a stuffy nose.
Fatal overdose is possible and is most commonly the result of respiratory arrest brought on by seizures and heart failure.
Regular cocaine users are often restless, extremely excitable, suspicious, and suffer from insomnia, hallucinations and delusions, weight loss, constipation, impotence and difficulty in urination.
Continual heavy use eventually leads to lethargy, apathy, and sleeplessness. Regular users often abuse other drugs to relieve these symptoms.
Characteristic signs of chronic cocaine sniffing are nasal stuffiness, a runny nose, sore or bleeding nose, and chapped nostrils. Damage to the lining of the nose is not uncommon and may include the development of holes in the barrier separating the nostrils.
Tolerance is the body adapting to the presence of a drug. When tolerance to a drug increases, more of the drug is necessary to achieve the same effect. Tolerance does develop to cocaine over time.
Regular users of cocaine are at risk of becoming addicted. Users can develop a strong craving for the drug, especially if the have been injecting or smoking it.
Withdrawal symptoms may include depression; fatigue; long, but restless sleep; irritability; violent tendencies; confusion; anger; and strong craving for cocaine.