Term Paper on "Cocaine Botanical Origins"

Term Paper 5 pages (1382 words) Sources: 0

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Behavior

False hallucinations are common among cocaine users. Tactile hallucinations - "cocaine bugs" - sensations of itching and particles moving under the skin, visual hallucinations - "snow lights" - the flashing of lights behind closed lids, olfactory hallucinations - smelling repulsive odors of feces, garbage, and urine, and digestive hallucinations - failure to detect strong food and drink - are often reported in users of short duration (i.e., three to six months) and become more pronounced as the abuse lengthens.

An addict will often display a personal fascination with their own thought processes and become quite philosophical about the meaning or core of things. Repetitious, almost compulsive behavior can be seen in the moderate to heavy user of cocaine.

Chronic use and defined addiction often leads to a "reverse tolerance," convulsive behavior, dysphoria, paranoid psychosis, insomnia, apathy, anxiety, and melancholy.

Morbidity and Mortality

Violence is usually present in the addicted cocaine user. Crack users have an even higher rate of hallucinations, paranoia, suicide attempts, violent behavior toward others, and assaults. A study was conducted in Los Angeles to determine the correlation between homicide and cocaine use/abuse. One of every five homicides was positive for cocaine at the time of autopsy. The majority died violent deaths, e.g., shootings and stabbings. Violence has a clear connection in those using cocaine with alcohol becoming a predictable cross-addictive chemical preferred by cocaine users.

Many researchers and forensic scientists have studied the relationship between cocaine, violence, and death. The emerging model seems to support that violent behavior is in direct proportion to the ingestion of cocaine. Another factor is the necessary violence in participating and distribution of an illegal drug. The behavior necessary to support an expensive cocaine habit (e.g., theft, armed-robbery, rape, murder) also contributed to the pattern of violence.

Interestingly, only the psychopharmacology has empirical data to support the validity of violence in association with cocaine use. Oral cocaine or placebo was given to 30 "average" volunteers. These volunteers were then placed into a controlled situation in which they could choose to give their opponent electrical shocks of different severity. The more aggressive the volunteer became (cocaine-induced aggression) the higher the shock that was delivered. The clinician's concluded that "cocaine intoxicated individuals do not need to be psychotic (paranoid) to be more aggressive."

Summary

Cocaine is the product of a naturally occurring botanical mixed with non-botanicals to produce an unnatural state of euphoria in the human brain. With the unpredictability of addiction - one never knows if they will fall victim to its lure - it is unwise to take the first "snort," smoke, or injection.

With the emerging data on the side effects, social stigma, naturally attendant aggressive and violent tendencies, illegality and criminal consequences, family decimation, economic drain, and psychological problems, which stem from its use, cocaine is a dangerous drug.

Flirting with this drug can result in a lifetime of problems - including poverty, loss of job, paranoid-affective inability to function, loss of family and support systems, diminished self-esteem, repeated criminal records, and even loss of life, the wise will never try it at all and those who have will never do so again!

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Franquemont, C., Plowman, T., Franquemant, E., King, S.R., Niezgoda, C., Davis, W., Sperling, C.R. "The ethnobotany of Chinchero~ an Andean community in southern Peru." Fieldiana Bat. 24:66-67.

Tippo, O., and Stern, W.L. Humanistic Botany. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc., Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi, 1977.

Archer, S. And Hawks, R.L. Cocaine: Chemical, Biological, Clinical, Social and Treatment Aspects. Cleveland, OH: CRC Press, 1976.

Honer, W.G., Gewirtz, G., Tuey, M. "Psychosis and violence in cocaine smokers." Lancet 288:451.

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Licata, A., Taylor, S., Berman, M., et al. "Effects of cocaine on human aggression." Pharmacol Biochem Behav 45 (1993):549-552. READ MORE

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