Cocaine & Crack
Cocaine is a powerfully addictive stimulant drug. The powdered hydrochloride salt form of cocaine can be snorted or dissolved in water and injected. Crack is cocaine base that has not been neutralized by an acid to make the hydrochloride salt. This form of cocaine comes in a rock crystal that is heated to produce vapors, which are smoked. The term “crack” refers to the crackling sound produced by the rock as it is heated.
How is Cocaine Abused?
Three routes of administration are commonly used for cocaine: snorting, injecting, and smoking. Snorting is the process of inhaling cocaine powder through the nose, where it is absorbed into the bloodstream through the nasal tissues. Injecting is the use of a needle to release the drug directly into the bloodstream. Smoking involves inhaling cocaine vapor or smoke into the lungs, where absorption into the bloodstream is as rapid as by injection. All three methods of cocaine abuse can lead to addiction and other severe health problems, including increasing the risk of contracting HIV and infectious diseases.
The intensity and duration of cocaine’s effects, which include increased energy, reduced fatigue, and mental alertness, depend on the route of drug administration. The faster cocaine is absorbed into the bloodstream and delivered to the brain, the more intense the high. Injecting or smoking cocaine produces a quicker, stronger high than snorting. On the other hand, faster absorption usually means shorter duration of action. The high from snorting cocaine may last 15 to 30 minutes, but the high from smoking may last only 5 to 10 minutes. In order to sustain the high, a cocaine abuser has to administer the drug again. For this reason, cocaine is sometimes abused in binges—taken repeatedly within a relatively short period of time, at increasingly high doses.
How Does Cocaine Affect the Brain?
Cocaine is a strong central nervous system stimulant that increases levels of dopamine, a brain chemical associated with pleasure and movement, in the brain’s reward circuit. Certain brain cells, or neurons, use dopamine to communicate. Normally, dopamine is released by a neuron in response to a pleasurable signal (e.g., the smell of good food), and then recycled back into the cell that released it, shutting off the signal between neurons. Cocaine acts by preventing the dopamine from being recycled, causing excessive amounts of dopamine to build up, amplifying the message, and ultimately disrupting normal communication. It is this excess of dopamine that is responsible for cocaine’s euphoric effects. With repeated use, cocaine can cause long-term changes in the brain’s reward system and in other brain systems as well, which may eventually lead to addiction. With repeated use, tolerance to the cocaine high also often develops. Many cocaine abusers report that they seek but fail to achieve as much pleasure as they did from their first exposure. Some users will increase their dose in an attempt to intensify and prolong the euphoria, but this can also increase the risk of adverse psychological or physiological effects.
What Adverse Effects Does Cocaine Have on Health?
Abusing cocaine has a variety of adverse effects on the body. For example, cocaine constricts blood vessels, dilates pupils, and increases body temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure. It can also cause headaches and gastrointestinal complications such as abdominal pain and nausea. Because cocaine tends to decrease appetite, chronic users can become malnourished as well.
Different methods of taking cocaine can produce different adverse effects. Regularly snorting cocaine, for example, can lead to loss of the sense of smell, nosebleeds, problems with swallowing, hoarseness, and a chronically runny nose. Ingesting cocaine can cause severe bowel gangrene as a result of reduced blood flow. Injecting cocaine can bring about severe allergic reactions and increased risk for contracting HIV and other blood-borne diseases. Binge patterns of use may lead to irritability, restlessness, anxiety, and paranoia. Cocaine abusers can suffer a temporary state of full-blown paranoid psychosis, in which they lose touch with reality and experience auditory hallucinations.
Regardless of how or how frequently cocaine is used, a user can experience acute cardiovascular or cerebrovascular emergencies, such as a heart attack or stroke, which may cause sudden death. Cocaine-related deaths are often a result of cardiac arrest or seizure followed by respiratory arrest.
Added Danger: Cocaethylene
When people consume cocaine and alcohol together, they compound the danger each drug poses and unknowingly perform a complex chemical experiment within their bodies. Researchers have found that the human liver combines cocaine and alcohol to produce a third substance, cocaethylene, which intensifies cocaine’s euphoric effects. Cocaethylene is associated with a greater risk of sudden death than cocaine alone.1
What Treatment Options Exist?
Behavioral interventions—particularly, cognitive-behavioral therapy—have been shown to be effective for decreasing cocaine use and preventing relapse. Treatment must be tailored to the individual patient’s needs in order to optimize outcomes—this often involves a combination of treatment, social supports, and other services.
Currently, there are no medications for treating cocaine addiction, so this remains one of NIDA’s top research priorities. Researchers are looking for medications that help alleviate the severe craving experienced by people in treatment for cocaine addiction, as well as medications to counteract other triggers of relapse, such as stress. Several compounds are currently being investigated for their safety and efficacy, including a vaccine that would sequester cocaine in the bloodstream and prevent it from reaching the brain. Research so far suggests that addiction medications are most effective when used as a part of a comprehensive treatment program.
How Widespread is Cocaine Abuse?
Monitoring the Future Survey*
According to the 2007 Monitoring the Future survey—a national survey of 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-graders—cocaine use among students did not increase significantly, though it remained at unacceptably high levels: 3.1 percent of 8th-graders, 5.3 percent of 10th-graders, and 7.8 percent of 12th-graders have tried cocaine; 0.9 percent of 8th-graders, 1.3 percent of 10th-graders, and 2.0 percent of 12th-graders were current (past-month) cocaine users.
Use of Cocaine in Any Form by Students
2007 Monitoring the Future Survey
| |
8th-Graders |
10th-Graders |
12th-Graders |
| Lifetime** |
3.1% |
5.3% |
7.8% |
| Past Year |
2.0 |
3.4 |
5.2 |
| Past Month |
0.9 |
1.3 |
2.0 |
|
Crack Cocaine Use by Students
2007 Monitoring the Future Survey
| |
8th-Graders |
10th-Graders |
12th-Graders |
| Lifetime** |
2.1% |
2.3% |
3.2% |
| Past Year |
1.3 |
1.3 |
1.9 |
| Past Month |
0.6 |
0.5 |
0.9 |
|
National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH)***
According to the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 35.3 million Americans aged 12 and older reported having used cocaine, and 8.5 million reported having used crack. An estimated 2.4 million Americans were current (past-month) users of cocaine; 702,000 were current users of crack. There were an estimated 977,000 new users of cocaine in 2006—most were 18 or older when they first used cocaine. Among young adults aged 18 to 25, the past-year use rate was 6.9 percent, showing no significant difference from the previous year.
1 Harris DS, et al. The pharmacology of cocaethylene in humans following cocaine and ethanol administration. Drug Alcohol Depend 72(2):169–182, 2003.
* These data are from the 2006 Monitoring the Future survey, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, and conducted annually by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research. The survey has tracked 12th-graders’ illicit drug use and related attitudes since 1975; in 1991, 8th- and 10th-graders were added to the study. The latest data are online at www.drugabuse.gov.
** “Lifetime” refers to use at least once during a respondent’s lifetime. “Past year” refers to use at least once during the year preceding an individual’s response to the survey. “Past month” refers to use at least once during the 30 days preceding an individual’s response to the survey.
*** NSDUH (formerly known as the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse) is an annual survey of Americans aged 12 and older conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. This survey is available online at www.samhsa.gov and from NIDA at 877-643-2644.
Source: The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) website
(http://www.nida.nih.gov/)
 |
Crack Cocaine Rehab and Drug Treatment Detox Facility
Seabrook, New Jersey (NJ)
(800)761-7575
Seabrook House is an internationally
recognized, private and exclusive, and CARF accredited inpatient drug rehab and alcoholism rehab treatment center. Our main facility is located in rural Bridgeton, New Jersey (NJ), convenient to New York (NY), Pennsylvania (PA), Maryland (MD), Delaware (DE), Virginia (VA), Connecticut
(CT), Rhode Island (RI) and Massachusetts (MA). Our extended-care luxury transitional living facility is located in Tioga County, Pennsylvania (PA), within minutes of the New York state border.
Our alcohol and drug rehab campus in New Jersey extends over a 40-acre manicured estate,
providing a serene and healing drug rehab environment. Our 90 day rehab transitional living facility in Pennsylvania is similarly situated on a 14-acre estate with rolling hills and spectacular views of the surrounding mountains. For over
34 years we have been helping families find the courage to find
recovery from alcoholism, drug addiction, substance abuse such
as marijuana addiction, heroin dependency, cocaine addiction, xanax abuse, prescription medication abuse and other compulsive diseases.
If you have a loved one that does not want help, don't give up! Many have come to our rehab program and into full recovery as a direct result of a Family Intervention. Call or click now for more information on how family intervention may work for you.
Applying
our research-based recovery treatment center methods for drug addiction
and alcoholism, which we call The Seabrook
House Model®, we assist patients in restoring their lives
by embracing a way of life based upon the 12-Step principles of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA). We apply
a variety of recovery therapies including cognitive behavioral
(CBT) and adjunct therapies including music, yoga, massage, EMDR,
psychodrama, equine assisted, Reiki, and outdoor adventure ropes
course. Belief systems of Adler, Rogers and Jung and many other
psychological theorists are applied during CBT.
Our rich history and CARF accredited quality alcohol and drug addiction treatment rehab
programs have earned Seabrook House a citation in "The 100
Best Treatment Centers for Alcoholism and Drug Abuse - The
Only Complete Guide to the Most Outstanding Drug Rehabs in the
Country" by Linda Sunshine and John Wright. This Avon Publication
is available through most bookstores.
Seabrook House addiction drug rehab center specializes in a withdrawal
treatment for opiate detox i.e. heroin, oxycontin, using specific
medication protocols with Suboxone, whose primary active ingredient
is buprenorphine. Suboxone (buprenorphine / naloxone), at the
appropriate dose, can suppress symptoms of heroin withdrawal,
decrease cravings for opioids, block the effects of other opioids,
and help patients stay in drug rehab treatment. You may also apply
for admission online to our drug rehab center by using our
encrypted Preadmission
Assessment form. Please be assured that your alcohol and drug
rehab addiction treatment records and information are protected
by Federal confidentiality laws and we cannot share your information
with anyone unless you give us written consent. Contact a Clinical Outreach Representative in your area if you have any questions or need further assistance.
Our main drug rehab facility
is located in southern New Jersey (NJ), approximately 1 1/2 hour
drive from Princeton, New Jersey (NJ), Seabrook House's residential
drug rehab addiction recovery treatment services are convenient
to rehab Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (PA), Radnor, Pennsylvania (PA),
Reading, Pennsylvania (PA), Wilmington, Delaware (DE), Dover,
Delaware (DE) or within a 2 to 3 hour drive from New York City, New York (NY), Long Island, New York (NY), Bridgeport, Connecticut (CT), Gaithersburg, Maryland (MD),Washington, DC, Virginia Beach,
Virginia (VA) and Baltimore, Maryland (MD), or within a 5 hour
drive from Boston, Massachusetts (MA), Worcester, Massachusetts (MA). We have treated individuals from as far away as Honolulu, Hawaii (HI) .
We accept addiction treatment admissions 24 hours
per day for rehabilitation services for alcoholism, alcohol withdrawal
and drug withdrawal detoxification,
so please call now if you are in need of immediate assistance
or would like more information about detoxes, drug rehabs, heroin
detox, family intervention, substance abuse treatment or residential
addiction treatment in the New Jersey (NJ), Pennsylvania (PA),
Delaware (DE), New York (NY), Massachusetts (MA), Connecticut
(CT), Rhode Island (RI), Virginia (VA) and Maryland (MD) areas.
Who
Are Seabrook House's Alcohol Rehab and
Drug Addiction Rehab Patients?
Seabrook House's alcohol and drug addiction rehab
patients come primarily from New Jersey (NJ), many from the Cherry
Hill / Haddonfield / Moorestown area, as well as the Princeton
area in central New Jersey and Montclair area in northern New
Jersey. In addition, from the Philadelphia area of Pennsylvania
(PA), the mainline Philadelphia, PA suburbs, New York City (NYC)
including Manhattan (NY), Delaware (DE), Maryland (MD) and other
Mid Atlantic states, although we have treated many from as far
away as Connecticut (CT), Rhode Island (RI), Massachusetts (MA),
New Hampshire (NH), Vermont (VT), California (CA), Bermuda, Puerto
Rico and the Virgin Islands. They range in age from 17 to 80.
Many of our patients are referred by family members, employers,
large union health & welfare funds, health insurance companies,
small local unions, employee assistance professionals (EAP), and
managed care companies. Many patients transfer directly from hospitals,
other detoxes, community mental health centers, intensive outpatient
programs (IOP), union member assistance programs, and primary
care physicians. We have provided them drug detox, drug rehab,
alcohol detox, alcohol rehab, and many other forms of addiction treatment. Substance abuse treatment is our specialty.
Because of our close proximity to Manhattan, New
York (NY), New York City (NYC) and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
(PA), Seabrook House addiction rehab center has for many years
provided alcoholism and drug addiction rehab treatment to members
of the arts & entertainment communities. These have included radio,
television, stage and film industry associates from the east coast
as well as California (CA). We understand that high profile individuals
with substance abuse and alcoholism problems may have special
needs related to the media as well as confidentiality issues.
Protecting the anonymity of alcoholic or drug addicted patients
in rehab and controlling media takes experienced addiction professionals.
Many addiction rehabs cannot address these special needs. We understand
that addiction does not discriminate. In addition, many physicians,
nurses, pharmacists, psychologists, lawyers and other professionals
have sought our alcohol rehab and drug addiction rehab treatment
services and gone on to lead happy, healthy, clean and sober lives.
Contact
800.761.7575 for Immediate Admission for Alcoholism Detox and
Drug Treatment or Family Intervention
Seabrook House addiction rehab center is a licensed
residential addiction treatment facility with 125 beds and provides
alcohol and drug detox treatment and inpatient rehab treatment
through its Adult Rehab Program for both men and women, and its MaterLiber Program, for alcoholic
and drug addicted mothers and their dependent children. We specialize
in detox treatment for opiates such as heroin, morphine, oxycontin,
vicodin, codeine,demerol, fentanyl, methadone, percodan and percocet.
In addition, Seabrook House addiction rehab center offers professional Family
Intervention treatment services to those families attempting
to help a resistant loved one with a substance abuse problem in
need of heroin detoxification or addiction rehab treatment services.
The family education and drug information programs, family intervention
treatment services, and substance abuse counseling treatment services
of Seabrook House have been nationally recognized.Our addiction rehab center and detox program accepts
most health insurance companies, managed care, and union health
& welfare funds for partial payment of its alcoholism and
drug rehab treatment programs. Please review our rates
for all detox and addiction drug rehab programs. When choosing
any alcohol withdrawal and drug addiction rehab treatment center,
follow the CARF
guidelines to ensure that the addiction drug rehab treatment
program you choose is a licensed and accredited substance abuse treatment facility.
Call
our 24 Hour Alcohol Rehab & Drug Treatment Rehab Helpline
for Immediate Detox Addiction Help
Transportation Services for Alcoholism
Detox and Drug Rehab Centers from New Jersey (NJ), New York (NY),
Connecticut (CT), Massachusetts (MA), Rhode Island (RI), Pennsylvania
(PA), Delaware (DE), Maryland (MD), Virginia (VA), Washington,
DC, California (CA), Washington (WA), Oregon (OR), Nevada (NV),
Idaho (ID), Utah (UT), Arizona (AZ)
Seabrook House will provide private and discreet
individualized transportation to and from all airports to ensure
the safety and confidentiality of all of our patients. Please
speak to your Admissions Counselor for more information on how
you may qualify for direct airport pickup. Seabrook House also provides "sober escorting"
if the patient is clinically and medically appropriate. This specialized
service offers a Seabrook House staff person to fly to the home
location of the patient and personally pick them up and accompany
them directly to our drug rehab treatment facility. The escort
is an experienced addiction professional, also in recovery from
chemical dependency. Upon discharge the escort will then accompany
the patient to the next level of care at a transitional sober
living environment. Flight times to Seabrook House are brief from many east coast and Midwestern
airports (see chart below). The Philadelphia International Airport
located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (PA), is the closest airport
to our alcohol detox and drug rehab facility
From Boston, Massachusetts
(MA) - 45 minute flight time
|
From Providence, Rhode Island
(RI) - 45 minute flight time
|
From Columbia, South Carolina (SC) - 60 minute flight time
|
From Atlanta, Georgia (GA) - 90 minute flight time
|
From Miami, Florida (FL) - 2 hour flight time
|
From US Virgin Islands (USVI) - 3 hour flight time
|
From Columbus, Ohio (OH) -
45 minute flight time
|
From Hartford, Connecticut
(CT) - 45 minute flight time
|
From Bermuda (BM) - 90
minute flight time
|
From Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
(FL) - 2 hour flight time
|
From Indianapolis, Indiana
(IA) - 2 ½ hour flight time
|
From Los Angeles, California
(CA) - 5 hour flight time
|
From Chicago, Illinois (IL) - 3 hour flight time
|
| From Honolulu, Hawaii (HI) - 10 hour flight time |
Patients coming from out of state may fly into
a variety of airports at discounted airfare rates. All airports are conveniently
located within minutes of the Seabrook House addiction
rehab facility:
Philadelphia International Airport, Pennsylvania (PHL) 45 minute drive
|
Atlantic City International
Airport, New Jersey (ACY) 60 minute drive
|
Newark International Airport, New Jersey (EWR) 90 minute drive
|
Princeton Airport, New Jersey (PCT) 75 minute drive
|
John F. Kennedy International
Airport, New York (JFK) 120 minute drive
|
LaGuardia Airport, New York (LGA) 120 minute drive
|
Baltimore Washington International
Airport, Maryland (BWI) 120 minute drive
|
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