Cocaine, alas, offers only a tragically delusive short-cut.
In pre-Columbian times, the coca leaf was reserved for Inca royalty. The natives subsequently used it for mystical, religious, social, nutritional and medicinal purposes. They exploited its stimulant properties to ward off fatigue and hunger, enhance endurance, and to promote a benign sense of well-being.It was initially banned by the Spanish. But the invaders discovered that without the Incan "gift of the gods", the natives could barely work the fields - or mine gold. So it came to be cultivated by the Catholic Church. Coca leaves were distributed three or four times a day to the workers during brief rest-breaks.
Returning Spanish conquistadores introduced it to Europe. Coca was touted as "an elixir of life". In 1814, an editorial in Gentleman's Magazine urged researchers to begin experimentation so that coca could be used as "a substitute for food, so that people could live a month, now and then, without eating..."
The active ingredient of the coca plant was first isolated in the West around 1860. Freud described cocaine as a magical drug. He wrote a song of praise in its honour. He also practised extensive self-experimentation. To Sherlock Holmes, cocaine was "so transcendentally stimulating and clarifying to the mind that its secondary action is a matter of small moment". Doctors dispensed cocaine as an antidote to morphine addiction. Unfortunately, some patients made a habit of combining both.
Cocaine was soon sold over-the-counter. Until 1916, one could buy it at Harrods. It was widely used in tonics, toothache cures and patent medicines; and in chocolate cocaine tablets. Prospective buyers were advised - in the words of pharmaceutical firm Parke-Davis - that cocaine "could make the coward brave, the silent eloquent, and render the sufferer insensitive to pain".
When combined with alcohol, the cocaine alkaloid yields a further potently reinforcing compound, now known to be cocaethylene. Thus cocaine was a popular ingredient in wines, notably Vin Mariani. Coca wine received endorsement from prime-ministers, royalty and even the Pope. Frédérick-Auguste Batholdi observed that if only he had used Vin Mariani earlier in his life, then he would have engineered the Statue of Liberty a few hundred meters higher.
Coca-cola was introduced in 1886 as as "a valuable brain-tonic and cure for all nervous afflictions". It was promoted as a temperance drink "offering the virtues of coca without the vices of alcohol". The new beverage was invigorating and popular. Until 1903, a typical serving contained around 60mg of cocaine. Sold today, it still contains an extract of coca-leaves. Coca Cola imports eight tons from South America each year. Nowadays the leaves are used only for flavouring since the drug has been removed.
A coca leaf typically contains contains between 0.1 and 0.9 percent cocaine. If chewed in such form, it rarely presents the user with any social or medical problems. When the leaves are soaked and mashed, however, cocaine is extracted as a coca-paste. The paste is 60 to 80 per cent pure. It is usually exported in the form of the salt, cocaine hydrochloride. This is the powdered cocaine most common, until recently, in the West.
Drug testing for cocaine aims to detect the presence of its major metabolite, the inactive benzoylecgonine. Benzoylecgonine can be detected for up to five days in casual users. In chronic users, urinary detection is possible for as long as three weeks.
I had a surgical proceedure done on my sinus cavities. One of the side effects of cocaine is the constriction of blood vessels in the vicinity of the area where it is being absorbed. With this in mind, surgeons order a cloth covered wire be soaked in a cocaine solution, then stuffed up the nasal passages to allow better access to the sinus area.
Let me tell you this: pharmecutical grade cocaine is impressive. I can assure you that becomeing addicted to it would be extremely easy. An absolutly incredible waking-dream feeling. Peace. Even when I could hear the "bone biter" doing it's work inside my skull, it was all good. The becoming-drunk-euphoric feeling, all over my body. wow.
I spent a week with tampons (for lack of a better description) crammed up my nose to stop the bleeding, but I would be willing to have the surgery again just for the cocaine.
Don't judge people too harshly for addictions if you have never tried the drug. A lot of what hooks people is the feelings they get when taking things. Many people just do what feels good, you know?
There are a few more back at drug slang.
We may have more words for snow than the Eskimos have.
Formula: C17H21NO4 Melting Point: 90 Degrees (Celsius) Boiling Point: 187 Degrees (Celsius) Molecular Weight: 303.4g
Also known as: Crack, Snow, Coke, Flake, Blow
Cocaine is a powerful stimulant, which affects the Central Nervous System. Cocaine heightens alertness, while inhibiting the appetite as well as the need for sleep. It also provides intense feelings of pleasure.
Prepared from the leaf of the Erythroxylon Coca bush, which grows primarily in Peru and Bolivia, Cocaine has had its history since about 3000 B.C., where Coca chewing was practiced throughout South America. It was believed that Coca was a gift from God.
During the 1850s, Coca was used extensively in throat surgery. Around 1855, Cocaine was first extracted from Coca leaves. In 1884, Cocaine became widely used as a local anesthetic. That same year, Sigmund Freud published a series of papers praising Cocaine for its use as a treatment for depression, alcoholism, and morphine addiction.
Two short years later, John Pemberton introduced a new beverage containing a mixture of Cocaine-laced syrup and caffeine. Deriving the name from one of the base ingredients, Pemberton names his beverage "Coca-Cola." Cocaine was removed from the formula in 1901.
Around 1905, it was discovered that snorting Cocaine had became popular. 5 years later, the first cases of nasal damage from Cocaine snorting are being seen in hospitals, and documented in medical literature. By 1912, the United States recorded approximately 5000 Cocaine-Related fatalities during the span of one year. The U.S. banned Cocaine in 1914.
Cocaine was eventually replaced by synthetics, such as lidocaine and procaine for medicinal use. However, Cocaine is still used medically in very rare cases.
Cocaine's short-term effects start to appear shortly after the single dose, and usually disappear within a few minutes or hours. When taken in small amounts of up to 100mg, Cocaine usually provides sensations of euphoria, energy, talkativity, and mental alertness, increasing sensitivity of the five senses. It can also temporarily cancel the need for food and/or sleep.
Cocaine is usually distributed as a white, finely-ground powder.
Users typically report a huge mind and body rush, clarity of thought and the general feeling of being "Superman". After they come down they often feel depression, anxiety and a huge desire to do more.
The function is primarily through blocking dopamine and less so, serotonin re-uptake, (a number of other neurotransmitters are also affected, but they are relativity insignificant compared to these two) causing the neurotransmitter to stay in the synapse longer than normal.
The function of dopamine in the brain is primarily to re-enforce an action that one takes. Not necessarily a positive kind of reinforcement. This is the reason people think that having "just one more line" will solve their problems. It does, for roughly 15 minutes, then they crash again. People can be addicted to dopamine release without actually enjoying the release. It also has a number of other roles including mood and aggression. The primary component of a cocaine high is the dopamine release. It is also greatly responsible for telling yourself that you have the ability to do things. This is why people can get delusional into thinking they can do the impossible on cocaine. It is a huge ego boost.
Serotonin is responsible for inhibiting aggression, is included in a large part of perception and mood. Antidepressants are generally serotonin uptake blockers. MDMA releases a whole lot of serotonin at once elevating mood. Cocaine releases some as well, instilling a sense of calm.
The powder can be converted into a smokable form. (either freebase or crack, there are slight differences) This method is more prone to overdose due to the chemical almost instantly going to the brain. Also in the case of creating a freebase an explosion is quite likely.
A fatal overdose of cocaine is usually not from the actions in the brain but rather the effect on the respiratory system, since the body uses the same neurotransmitter in the body as the brain only for different functions.
It is most commonly sniffed in lines but it is occasionally injested orally or injected into the bloodstream. When sniffed effects begin within a couple of minutes and last between a half hour and an hour. When ingested orally the effects are more mild and onset can take up to an hour.
I'm a curious lass by nature, willing to try most anything twice. In the past year I've been working on filling in the blanks in my corruption and integrating all the deviance I've ever wanted into my normal day-to-day life. Last year I injected kink. Started down the drug path again, as I hadn't really done much more than smoke weed over the years. First two journeys were with a bum friend, and of course, bum E. This past New Year's Eve was quite a different story. So, I'm on a roll this year, so to speak. *grin* Lost my acid virginity (thanks, kitty cat), fell in love with E a few times over now. Oh yeah, and shrooms were cute, and I couldn't have asked for better ambiance than running around nekkid in the Smokey Mountains. I've got the right people in my life right now to show me anything my debaucherous heart desires. I can moderate my cravings for my candy of choice, but something else has been residing in my subconscious.
Cocaine. Whoa, nelly!
There must be one last snowstorm on its way or something, because I've been hearing nothing but coke mentioned over and over again from different sources. The trailers for that movie Blow that's coming out. I flip open the Sunday NY Times Magazine to find more mention of it. A close relative of mine fondly talked about a 4'x10' pile of cocaine on a table in her Studio 54 days. There was barely a dent in that pile after hours of consumption by a horde of people. She got so excited reminiscing she got the hiccups. And this is a woman who's 12 years sober, mind you.
There was the article in whatever girly magazine I suffered through recently about a suburban, yuppy, executive chick getting hooked and coke practically destroying her life. Consumption at an orgy a few months ago, I passed. Then seeing Pulp Fiction again. Then a friend partaking with his dealer.
Cocaine gets my cock hard. This time last year, though, I was absolutely refusing to ever even consider snorting. A history of addiction in my family and my impulses are hard enough to control sometimes. I can get carried away. Then I met the most arrogant, driven, powerful, successful, enticing, and charming Leo. We played our D/s games, he liked holding me when I cried. He likes his girls vulnerable. And dammit, I liked being vulnerable to him. See where this is all going?
I was *so* close to doing it with him. I looked at his drug box ("if you want to see how naughty I've been, just look here," he said) sometimes when I was alone in the apartment. Stared at the vials. Rolled them between my thumbs. Thought about it. He was quite recreational about usage. Had complete control and had been doing it for years with clients on occasion. He's a much stronger person than I am when it comes to willpower and self-motivation. And so I passed, out of fear. But I walked away with a newfound curiousity about this power powder.
And the worst thing that could have happened did: I eroticized cocaine.
I can almost feel it, I can almost taste it. I can picture us kissing afterwards. I can picture myself the giddy girl, you pouncing on me. Sure, I don't need drugs to act out these fantasies, but it's now intertwined and feels like some part of the fun is missing without our favourite stimulant. Black lipstick, black hair, white powder. A shared kiss, parallel lines. That look in my eyes. That look in your eyes.
Oh God, I'm hooked. And my nostrils are virginal. I'll just have to keep on passing.
CH3 / O \ C=O / CH2--CH--CH / / \ CH2 N-CH3 CH-O \ / / \ CH2 ------CH2 C=O / Ph
