Side Effects Of Cocaine

Cocaine is a psychiatric drug that affects every part of someone’s life and health. The drug does not only cause major side effects that harm the mind and body, it creates destruction to the person’s loved ones. The addict will not stop at anything to get their next high, even if it is morally wrong. The drug throws all morals out the window and puts the person in overdrive to just get the next hype. Cocaine is a very dangerous drug and it is illegal for a reason.

When cocaine is used repetitively, the brain becomes highly addicted to the substance causing the brain’s chemical balance to change. Since the high from cocaine only lasts about ten to fifteen minutes, people will go on a “binge pattern” to keep the high going. This repeated use

This causes problems with the nucleus accumbens, which effect the part of learning associated with reward and motivation. Since the nucleus accumbens are affected by addictive drugs, both animals and humans, become reinforced to self-administer the drug to create a pleasing experience. However, the high might be fantastic for them, there are plenty of downsides and side effects to becoming dependent on cocaine (Breiter, H. C. 2000). Cocaine causes people to not eat or sleep while they are on the drug. It does not matter if the body is tired, the drug will keep the person up for day on end. Right after the high the person will experience extreme depression, irritability, anger, hostility, and paranoia. Addition to the emotions the chances of them having a heart attack, stroke, seizure, or a respiratory failure become surprisingly high. This could all happen using at least once, however, the symptoms become worse the longer they use

This results in sleep deprivation and loss of appetite, so if they do not die of anything listed before they will most likely die of starvation. Since they are not sleeping the person can become psychotic and experience hallucinations. Some of the symptoms of long term usage include; liver, kidney, and lung damage, severe tooth decay, and permanent damage to blood vessels of the heart and brain. Although, these symptoms only happen if they do not overdose first (Watch Truth). In 2016 more than 64,000 Americans overdosed on drugs in general. Although, in 2015 more than 6,000 Americans overdosed on cocaine. According to the NIH the majority of overdoses were males (National Institution on Drug Abuse, N. 2015). People normally overdose when they mix cocaine with another mind altering substance. Cocaine is most deadly when it is mixed with heroin to make a “speedball.” The overdose could include a cardiac arrest, respiratory arrest, stroke, or a sudden