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Crack Cocaine

Crack cocaine is very similar to cocaine but is processed with baking soda or ammonia and water and formed into rocks or chunks of cocaine. Crack is usually cheaper to buy than cocaine and is most often smoked from a pipe. Crack produces a type of high when smoked that feels like euphoria to the user. Because the high achieved from crack does not last very long, drug users chase the crack high wasting money and their lives away trying to feel that euphoria again. Following the high felt off crack users come down hard, what is commonly known as "crashing" and feel many negative side effects as a result. Crack cocaine effects include depression, mood swings, paranoia, and anxiety. People who use crack cocaine on a regular basis often find that they have adapted to this paranoid, mentally raw way of life. Heavy or habitual users will also develop an intense craving for the drug that is never satisfied. Like with any other drug, crack cocaine users become dependent on the drug and are unable to function without it.

Drug users often steal, cheat and lie in order to maintain their high. People who were once normal, functioning members of society find that they can no
longer hold a job or participate in any normal life activities. In addition, crack cocaine users are subject to compulsive and obsessive behaviors and find
that they cannot control some of their paranoid thoughts. Instead of having an involved life with many different activities and people, crack cocaine users are only interested in one thing: finding their next high. Long-term crack cocaine effects include sensory related hallucinations, predominately tactile, as well as depression, delirium and problems with bodily functions. The brain's pleasure receptors are also damaged by crack use. Crack can cause heart attacks as well as fatal respiratory problems.

Once a person has become dependent on crack cocaine it is very difficult to get out of the addictive cycle. Many people try to stop using this drug on their own
and realize that it is almost impossible. People who use crack habitually and then stop often undergo crack cocaine withdrawal, with symptoms including intense cravings, irritability, hunger, anxiety and paranoia. These feelings are often too painful for the crack user to endure and he/she just returns to using as a result. One of the most effective solutions to crack cocaine addiction is treatment. Undergoing treatment can give addicts the tools needed to live a drug-free life. Through the use of a medical detox and addiction specialists, many crack cocaine addicts are able to stay clean and in recovery for long periods of time.

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