Cocaine Essay -- essays research papers

My report is on the drug cocaine. I will tell mainly how it affects the body and nervous system. I also have included where Cocaine comes from to help understand exactly what we’re talking about, and to clear up any misunderstanding about the drug. Cocaine is both a central nervous system stimulant and an anesthetic. It is found in the leaves of the coca plant. The traditional method of coca use is to chew the leaves, producing a mild stimulation. Outside of South America it is generally used in it’s more refined and extracted forms, either powder cocaine, or freebase cocaine and makes a much stronger effect than chewing the leaves. The term "Crack" is alternately used to refer to street quality freebase cocaine, or to refer to the product of a particular manufacturing process, which uses sodium bicarbonate rather than a flammable solvent. Powdered cocaine is mostly snorted and crack or freebase cocaine is generally smoked. Smoking freebase cocaine causes a strong, short-lived peak of about 3-5 minutes, while snorting cocaine provides a lower high with major effects lasting closer to 30 minutes. The Mental facts of Cocaine vary with dose and the tolerance of the user. It increases alertness, wakefulness, elevates the mood, mild to high degree of euphoria, increases athletic performance, decreases fatigue, clearer thinking, increases concentration, increases energy, increased irritability, insomnia, restlessness. With high doses someone may exhibit a pattern of psychosis with confused and disorganized behavior, irritability, fear, paranoia, hallucinations, may become extremely antisocial and aggressive. Physically, it increases heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature. It also increases the blood pressure, temperature, pulse, and the respetory system. It dilates the pupils, decreases sleep and appetite, gives you seizures, strokes, heart attacks, and may even cause death. Cocaine comes from the Cocoa plant that mostly grows in South America. Long ago, Inca Indians would chew the leaves to get a mild, but long-lasting stimulation. Chewing the leaves produces no â€Å"high.† Coca is consumed by chewing the leaves with a pinch of lime. Prior to adding the lime, the leaves are chewed to moisten and break them, as well as remove the stalks and strings. Then the... ...ith too little dopamine. As a result, the user suddenly feels sad and depressed. As a result, the user quickly goes for another dose. A lot of people will do almost anything to get cocaine if they are in fact addicted because the drug is so powerful. Another bad thing about this drug is that it often takes more and more of the drug to achieve the same effect, which leads to overdoses. Surprisingly, a lot of Cocaine addicts are football players, weather they are in High School or the NFL. This is true because some football players take the drug so that they get a boost of energy that cocaine gives you. When you are on cocaine, you are basically a machine. You do things that you wouldn’t normally do, just because you can. Sometimes people do things as stupid as racing there dogs as in one story I’ve heard. Why did they do it? They did it because they could. In conclusion, the effect that cocaine has on the body is incredibly powerful. What people have done is taken a small, useful, and almost harmless plant, and transformed it into a problem in today’s society. The plant in South America that was used to relieve hunger, was not meant to be used as such a powerful stimulant. .