Cocaine addiction can have severe impacts on an individual's health and wellbeing, causing both short-term and long-term effects such as dry mouth, dilated pupils, heightened senses, anxiety, paranoia, and severe physical symptoms like tremors and nausea.
Cocaine can make you have a dry mouth, be more talkative and mumble, dilate your pupils and have heightened senses of light, touch and sound.
Cocaine can make you feel more severe effects such as tremors, dizziness, violent behavior, nausea and rapid breathing.
If cocaine is taken for a long period of time, you can develop symptoms such as low blood oxygen, difficulty breathing, collapsed lungs, losing various senses, as well as heart and stomach problems that can affect you in the long-term.
Cocaine can cause you to panic, feel anxiety, be happier than you really are, feel extra energetic and make you be extra paranoid.
Impacts Locally, Nationally, and Internationally
The province of Ontario invested over 194 million dollars in response to the Covid-19 pandemic funding support groups and other mental health and drug addiction services, which was payed for by tax dollars.
In 2021, the United States Government spent over 3.2 billion dollars funding the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency), which is primarily used to seize large quantities of drugs, such as cocaine. This money comes out of American tax dollars.
The international drug trade is a 400-billion-a-year industry, that has killed and destroyed millions of people's lives. This money is used to fund and pay murderers and traffickers, making the world a worse place.
The prevalence of cocaine use in Canada in 2019 was around 2%, which doesn't seem like a large number, but is still equal to over 605,000 people, having a huge impact on the country.
Where You Can Get Help
You can get help from a help-line like 1-866-531-2600 for drug addiction aid.
You can also simply talk to someone you trust about your addiction and how it has affected you in your life. This person can then help you decide your next move on getting help.
You can go to a support group, where you discuss your drug addiction with others who suffer from similar issues. An example of a support group is The Southern Ontario Cocaine Anonymous Area which organizes support groups every week.
You can go to a rehab center that specializes in drug addiction for intense addiction help. Examples of rehab centers in Ontario is The House of Sophrosyne, which specializes in women's drug addiction recovery, or The Ken Brown Recovery Home which is a residential addiction treatment program.
Public Issues
Possession of crack cocaine can lead to a long prison sentence. Possessing only 5 grams of cocaine will automatically give you a 5 year prison sentence.
A prevalent amount of cocaine is laced with an extremely dangerous and deadly opioid known as fentanyl. Fentanyl is the leading cause of death, with 81% of opioid related deaths being caused by it. Fentanyl can easily be mixed in with cocaine, known as lacing it, and can cause inexperienced drug users to suffer from life threatening overdoses.
Crack is very similar to cocaine, but uses an alternative method consumption, with the ability to smoke it. Being able to smoke a drug like crack is very dangerous. It is much easier to smoke a drug opposed to snorting or injecting one. Having that ulterior method greatly increases the chance of death and addiction.
Cocaine is a seriously addictive drug with which minimal use can lead to a long-term addiction, progressively worsening your physical. mental, and emotional health over-time.
