Drugs: Cocaine, LSD, and Marijuana

Drugs: Cocaine, LSD, and Marijuana

Cocaine Drug

Cocaine is a strongly addictive stimulant drug. Cocaine that is in powdered hydrochloride form can be snorted or dissolved in water and then injected. Cocaine drug also include another form that is called crack- a street name, this form is processed to make a rock crystal. This rock crystal when heated generates vapors that are smoked. The name 'crack' is referred to the crackling sound generated by the rock when it is heated (www.drugabuse.gov).

How is Cocaine Abusive?

There are three ways commonly used for taking in cocaine drug: smoking, injecting, and snorting. All of these three methods of cocaine abuse can result in addiction and other serious healthcare issues such as increasing the danger of contracting HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases. The method of drug administration determines the duration and effect of cocaine that involves enhanced energy, mental alertness, and decreased fatigue. The quicker the cocaine is absorbed into the blood and conveyed to the brain, the more forceful the pressure is.

The sought after effects of cocaine includes a feeling of euphoria, exhilaration, and well-being; enhanced energy and alertness; and overdue fatigue and hunger. Where, the possible short-term heath effects include appetite loss; quicker breathing; increased blood pressure; raise body temperature that results in sweating; dilated pupil; and unpredictable, weird and aggressive behavior (www.saps.gov.za). The large doses of cocaine can lead to hallucination, sense of superiority and power, talkativeness, restlessness, hyperexcitability, and irritability that can turn into anxiety and paranoid psychosis. Research indicates the dangerous abusive results of taking cocaine such as respiratory issues due to cocaine smoking; tissues destruction in nose when cocaine is sniffed; abscesses when cocaine is injected; disorientation; indifference; higher psychological dependence on drug; paranoid psychosis; exhaustion; and some other hazardous heath effects (www.saps.gov.za).

Treatment and Prevention

Mostly the abusers of cocaine seeking treatment are smoke cracks and are possible to be polydrug abuser. The strategies for treatment address the social, neurobiological, and medical aspects of cocaine obsession. Further, the behavioral and pharmacological strategies are also incorporated. To treat cocaine addictives specifically, no medication is currently available. However, there are measures taken in order to pursue the identification and testing of new treatment medications for cocaine. Two of the medicines that have shown promising signals for cocaine's treatment are modafanil and topiramate. Besides them, baclofen, a GABA-B agonist, also indicated promising treatment for the subgroup of cocaine drug addicts with intense use pattern (SAMHSA, 2012). The behavioral interventions involve cognitive behavioral therapy or relapse prevention, which is a focused advance for helping individuals who are cocaine addictive. Further, the therapeutic communities or residual programs with planned lengths to stay can lead to better treatment results for cocaine addictives. While research indicates that integration of both types of treatments i.e. medications and therapies, can eventually prove to be the most effective approach for treatment of cocaine addicts (SAMHSA, 2012).

LSD Drug

LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) is one of the key drugs that are generating hallucination ...