The Effects & Dangers of Injecting Cocaine | BLVD Treatment Centers

Most people associate cocaine abuse with snorting. After all, there’s virtually no effort or accessories needed to snort cocaine. Just roll up a dollar bill and have at it.

Then there’s smoking cocaine, which may be better known as smoking crack. Crack, essentially, is cocaine, but manufactured in a much different manner than the powder. It needs to be smoked to achieve a high.

Injecting cocaine is a much different experience for the user. Those who do inject cocaine claim it produces the most intense high between smoking cocaine and snorting it.

WHY IS INJECTING COCAINE MORE INTENSE THAN SNORTING OR SMOKING IT?

Purveyors of injecting cocaine, as well as medical doctors and anyone else who remotely knows the human body, will understand the reason a cocaine high is more intense when injected is because the drug goes straight to the bloodstream.

Nevertheless, the high that accompanies injected cocaine is as short-lived as when the drug is snorted or smoked. This, of course, makes the user want more of the drug to experience that same high they had when first injecting cocaine, which in most cases is the first sign of addiction.

SHORT-TERM EFFECTS OF INJECTING COCAINE

Probably the shortest effect injecting cocaine has on a user is the high itself. That short-term effect leads straight into the short-term lull that occurs before a user is addicted. Other short-term effects can include:

• Dilated pupils
• Track (needle) marks
• Euphoria
• Jumpiness
• Nervousness
• Paranoia
• Anxiety
• Accelerated heart rate
• Extreme need for more of the drug

LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF INJECTING COCAINE

The usual appearances of any long-term drug user will show themselves in the long-term abuser who injects cocaine.

Appearing unkempt is one sign as well is agitation during periods of withdrawal. Other long-term effects can include:

• Irritability
• Physical thinness
• Solitude/social withdrawal
• Bruising from needle injections
• Collapsed veins from needle injections.

No matter how cocaine is taken, it still remains a very potent, highly addictive and deadly drug similar to heroin.

Beyond the inherent dangers that go along with injecting cocaine, such as contracting hepatitis or HIV from unsanitary needles, to accidentally hitting an artery which could cause a person to bleed out, there always are the dangers of cocaine itself.

The drug obviously is not regulated, so in the long run, a user may not know exactly the potency of what they’re putting into their system, which is a recipe for potential death in and of itself. If you are struggling with cocaine addiction there are detox programs that can help you get the drugs out of your system.

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