Cocaine comes from the coca plant which grows
in the South-American Andes mountains.
Chewing coca-leaves is an ancient custom of the
Incas against fatigue and altitude sickness. It
only turns into cocaine after a chemical process.
The white crystalline powder can also be turned into freebase cocaine and
crack. Crack is cooked cocaine cut with baking
soda. Freebase cocaine is cooked pure cocaine.
How is cocaine used?
Cocaine is primarily sniffed but can also be
injected. With sniffing, the cocaine is laid out in
a little line and through a snort pipe inhaled into
the nostrils. Crack and freebase cocaine are
'chased', cl or smoked. With 'chasing the dragon',
the drug is placed on a piece of aluminium foil
and heated. The vapour is inhaled into the
mouth through a pipe. With freebasing, the
cooked cocaine is smoked in a crack pipe or a
water pipe. Smoking has the advantage that all
of the active substances are inhaled with several
deep breaths. A water pipe compensates for the
heat of the vaporised material. The flash derived
from smoking on foil is less intense than that
from freebasing.
How does cocaine work?
When sniffed, cocaine takes effect within
several minutes. The effects last for
approximately 30 minutes. Cocaine gives
energy, makes people talkative and alert and is
sexually stimulating. The
effects of crack and freebase cocaine are much
more explosive. The 'rush' (an intensely
stimulating effect) only lasts for several
minutes.
How can you tell cocaine use in prison?
Users react energetically and act speedy. Speed
of movement often is increased and in a
discussion, coke users often argue more
intensely than usual. Although cocaine does not
create aggression as such, a feeling of aggression
can be intensified.
'Crystal clear 'psychoanalysis
Cocaine is coupled with a strong urge to analyse
things. Coincidence or not, the founder of the
famous psychoanalysis the psychiatrist,
Sigmund Freud from Vienna, Austria - was a fervent user of the white
crystalline
powder.