Crack cocaine is a stimulant that is made from powdered cocaine. Water and ammonia or baking soda are mixed with cocaine and boiled until a solid substance forms. The solid is then removed and left to dry. Once dry, the solid is broken into white chunks (rocks) and then is smoked by the user. It is typically smoked in a glass pipe or tube, called a crack pipe. Crack is easy and inexpensive to make, which makes smoking crack affordable and obtainable for many people.
Chemically, crack and cocaine are identical, so they produce closely matching results. The main difference is in the way they are consumed. Cocaine is usually snorted, injected, or swallowed. When cocaine is snorted, it must travel from the blood vessels in the nose to the heart, then to the lungs to be oxygenated, and then the oxygenated blood with the drug is pumped throughout the body, finally reaching the brain. Crack is smoked, skipping some of this process and going straight to the lungs, giving the user an immediate rush. However, the effects of crack do not last as long.
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Smoking crack is a fast and easy way to become seriously addicted to the drug. It can destroy your physical and mental health, and even first-time users can have heart attacks and seizures. Some crack addicts are unable to function sexually without the drug. The opposite is true as well; some crack cocaine addicts are unable to function sexually while using crack cocaine. Many crack users turn to prostitution, stealing, or drug dealing to be able to afford their habit. Crack and cocaine have been a major factor in many car crashes, burns, falls, drownings, and suicides. Because the drug targets the reward center of the brain, it is possible to become addicted from smoking crack one time. Some of the long-term effects of smoking crack are:
Some signs that you or someone you know is suffering from a crack cocaine addiction are behavioral signs like changes in motivation level, academic performance, social groups, and overall attitude. Other signs include deteriorating relationships with family and friends, depression, hostility, and carelessness with grooming. According to a study published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, smoking crack has a greater propensity for dependence and more severe consequences, compared to snorting cocaine. After entering into treatment, people who snorted cocaine had better outcomes than smokers. They remained in treatment longer and achieved longer periods of sustained abstinence than smokers. However, there was no difference in how severe the drug negatively impacted their lives.
A national survey states that in American adults 26 and older, 4.1% of them have tried crack in their lifetime. Only .3% have smoked crack in the past year, and .2% in the past month. The numbers are higher for snorting cocaine: over 16% of American adults have tried cocaine in their lifetime, with 1.60% of them using it in the past year. Despite the drugs being chemically identical and having similar negative effects on life, many people believe snorting cocaine is somehow better for you than smoking crack. Regardless of the way the drug is consumed, it holds the same dangerous and addictive properties.
This created the 100:1 ratio, sending millions to prisons and jails based on the form of cocaine they used, while others walked free. Because crack is less expensive than cocaine, this law targeted lower income Americans while letting affluent drug users face less harsh punishments. Experts all agreed that crack and powdered cocaine are the same chemically, have the same effects, and one is not more dangerous than the other, but the law stayed in place for the next 24 years.
In 2010, Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act (FSA) which reduced the sentencing disparities from 100:1 to 18:1. And in 2011, they let the FSA apply to people who were sentenced before the law came into place so a judge could review their case. Regardless of if the drug is smoked, snorted, injected, or swallowed, any form of cocaine is dangerous and addictive.
Unlike alcohol and heroin withdrawal, cocaine often has no physical symptoms. The come down from using the drug starts as soon as the effects wear off. The user will crave more of the drug, feel a lack of pleasure, and may feel tired, anxious, irritable, or suspicious. Symptoms of crack cocaine withdrawal include discomfort, agitation, nightmares, and depression. Cravings for the drug and depression can last for months after stopping long term heavy use. If symptoms are severe, a treatment program may be able to help and provide medications, counseling, and health monitoring.
Even though smoking crack can lead to a powerful addiction, you can stop today. There are inpatient and outpatient rehab facilities across the country that are to providing you or your loved one with the care and support necessary to get started on the road to recovery. Contact a treatment provider to learn more about treatment options.
Background: Both early life stress (ELS) and substance abuse, especially cocaine, have robust effects on the inflammatory system. Considering the role of the tumor necrosis factor system in inflammatory signaling and its association with ELS, the aim of the study was to compare plasma levels of TNF-alpha, its soluble receptors and ligands during early abstinence of crack cocaine.
Methods: This study included 24 crack cocaine-dependent women with (CRACK-ELS) and 20 without (CRACK) a history of ELS. A healthy control group (HC), containing 25 participants, was included to provide reference values. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) retrospectively assessed childhood maltreatment history of patients. Plasma levels of TNF-alpha, TNF-related weak inducer of apoptosis (TWEAK), TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL), soluble receptors TNFRI (sTNFRI) and TNFRII (sTNFRII) were assessed on the 18th day of treatment.
Results: The CRACK-ELS group had higher TNF-alpha and lower TWEAK levels compared to the CRACK and HC groups. sTNFRII was increased, but only in comparison with the crack cocaine group and the controls. TRAIL levels were slightly higher in the CRACK-ELS group, while no differences were found for sTNFRI levels. Also, TNF-alpha plasma level was positively predicted by abstinence severity and childhood maltreatment severity, and TWEAK was negatively predicted by childhood maltreatment severity.
Conclusions: This is the first study to evaluate the newly secreted tumor necrosis factor superfamily ligands, TWEAK and TRAIL, during crack cocaine abstinence, supporting the association between early life stress and peripheral pro-inflammatory levels.
President Biden has taken action to make our communities safer during his first 18 months in office. He has funded the police and issued an Executive Order to improve police accountability. President Biden has taken more executive action to tackle gun violence than any other president at this point in their Administration, including by reining in the proliferation of ghost guns and cracking down on gun traffickers and rogue gun dealers. President Biden is the first president in nearly 30 years to bring together Members of Congress from both parties to take action on gun violence, signing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. The President also secured Senate confirmation of career prosecutor Steve Dettelbach to serve as Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), empowering this law enforcement agency with its first confirmed leader since 2015. And, the President has made unprecedented investments in community-led crime prevention and intervention.
The Safer America Plan includes several legislative fixes needed to address emerging crime trends, target resources at violent crime, and support commonsense criminal justice reform. To crack down on serious crime, the Plan will:
The nickname Freeway came from Ross owning properties along Los Angeles' Interstate 110, also known as the Harbor Freeway.[6] According to an October 2013 Esquire magazine article, "Between 1982 and 1989, federal prosecutors estimated, Ross bought and resold several metric tons of cocaine," with Ross' gross revenue claimed to be more than $900 million (equivalent to $2.7 billion in 2021) and profits of almost $300 million ($990 million in 2021).[7] During the height of his drug dealing, Ross was said to have sold "$3 million in one day."[8] According to the Oakland Tribune, "In the course of his rise, prosecutors estimate that Ross exported several tons of cocaine to New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, and made more than $500 million between 1983 and 1984."[9]
Ross began selling cocaine after his illiteracy prevented him from earning a tennis scholarship for college. He began spending time with an upholstery teacher at a Los Angeles community college who revealed he dealt cocaine and offered Ross a small amount to sell.[14] Ross used his profit to purchase more cocaine to sell, expanding his small operation.[15] Ross eventually began to ask for quantities to sell that exceeded what the teacher was willing to procure, so he turned to find a new dealer.[16]
The teacher referred Ross to his supplier, Ivan Arguellas, who offered to keep Ross supplied. Arguellas was able to provide larger quantities at a better price, and Ross quickly went from dealing in grams of cocaine to dealing in ounces.[17] About eight months after becoming Ross's supplier, Arguellas was shot in the spine, resulting in months of hospitalization that forced him out of the cocaine business. His brother-in-law Henry Corrales took over the business, but was not enthusiastic about the trade and had failed to make any connections of his own to suppliers.[18]
A Nicaraguan exile and cocaine distributor named Danilo Blandón was acquainted with Arguellas and Corrales, and although he did not know him personally, was impressed with the amount of cocaine that Ross was moving. Blandón offered to supply cocaine to Corrales to sell to Ross, for a fifty-fifty split of the profit.[19] Eventually, Corrales lost his appetite for the cocaine business and retired, at which point Ross became a direct customer of Blandón.[20] 2ff7e9595c
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