Cocaine hydrochloride, the form in which cocaine is snorted or injected is often "cut," or mixed, with things that look like it. The final product can be from 1% to 95% pure. Common additives are sugars, such as mannitol, lactose, or glucose, or even sugar substitutes, and local anesthetics such as tetracaine, procaine, and lidocaine. Quinine, talc, and cornstarch have also been used. Some consumers may unknowingly purchase a supply without any cocaine, but just a cocaine substitute such as caffeine, amphetamine, PCP, procaine, and lidocaine. According to federal government studies, shifts in the international drug market have doubled heroin production since the mid-1980s, leading to lower street prices for the drug. Those same studies conclude there are about eight million heroin abusers worldwide, with approximately a quarter of that group - two million - in the United States. Cocaine looks like a white crystalline powder. It is often sold in aluminum foil, plastic/paper packets, or small vials. The cocaine that is distributed on the street in two main forms: powder cocaine and crack cocaine. Crack is cocaine hydrochloride that has been processed with ammonia or sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and water into a freebase cocaine — chips, chunks, or rocks. On the illicit market, crack is sold in small, inexpensive dosage units. Withdrawal from methamphetamine can produce effects such as craving, exhaustion, depression, mental confusion, restlessness and insomnia, deep or disturbed sleep sometimes lasting up to 48 hours, extreme hunger, psychotic reaction, and anxiety reactions. |
