As a result, physical and psychological addiction can occur in as little as two weeks. When cocaine is "snorted" the effects begin within a few minutes, peak within 15 to 20 minutes and disappear within a few hours.
Low doses produce a short-lived euphoria and feelings of increased energy, alertness, self-esteem and sensory awareness. While artificially depleting the body's energy supply, cocaine also reduces the perceived need for food and sleep and can cause impulsive behavior and mood changes. Smoking freebase produces a shorter more intense "high" lasting from 2 to 3 minutes because inhalation is the most direct and rapid way to get the drug to the brain.
Because larger amounts are getting to the brain more quickly, smoking also increases the risks of using the drug. Such risks include: confusion, anxiety, slurred speech, and psychological problems. When crack is smoked, an intense and rapid euphoria, commonly known as a "flash high," is produced. The cocaine molecules reach the brain in less than ten seconds.
The three to five-minute high is followed by an unpleasant crash. The user feels irritable, agitated and has an intense craving for more cocaine. The craving is caused by a high concentration of the drug in the bloodstream. The initial high is never reached again and the subsequent lows keep getting lower.
This cycle reinforces the craving. Injecting cocaine produces an effect within 30 seconds, which peaks in 5 minutes and lasts about 30 minutes. Users who inject run the risk of getting hepatitis, AIDS and other infections from using unclean needles. Heart- Cocaine and crack constrict the heart's blood vessels, making it work harder and faster to move blood through the body. In some users, this stress may trigger chest pain or a heart attack.
She added: "But no one wants to be an addict. And I think to have a bit more empathy for people we need to look beyond the drug-taking to the reasons for the drug-taking.
Author Dr Gabor Mate, a world-renowned expert on addiction, said it was a "product of childhood experience combined with worsening social circumstance, which here in Britain have been exacerbated by three decades of the breaking down of the social network".
He added: "The current cocaine 'epidemic' you might call it in the UK is really a social malaise, that's totally related to larger social, political and economic factors. Watch Live. Fill 2 Copy 11 Created with Sketch. Saturday 12 October , UK. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Why you can trust Sky News.
More on New Lines. Related Topics: New Lines. Listen to "Has Britain got a cocaine problem? New Lines Sky News examines the state of modern Britain in Related Topics New Lines.
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