Street+Youth+and+Cocaine+and+Crack

__**Cocaine**__
====**Cocaine is a stimulant drug. Stimulants make people feel more alert and energetic. Cocaine can also make people feel euphoric, or "high."**. **Cocaine can be snorted or dissolved in water and injected**==== ====**Pure cocaine was first isolated from the leaves of the coca bush in 1860. Researchers soon discovered that cocaine numbs whatever tissues it touches, leading to its use as a local anesthetic. Today, we mostly use synthetic anesthetics, rather than cocaine.**==== ====**Cocaine is contained in small amounts in the leaves of several species of the erythroxylum (coca) bush, which grow on the slopes of the Andes Mountains in South America. For at least 4,500 years, people in Peru and Bolivia have chewed coca leaves to lessen hunger and fatigue. Today, most of the world's supply of coca is grown and refined into cocaine in Colombia. Criminal networks control the lucrative cocaine trade.**====

**A 2000 survey of Ontario adults reported than 6.4 per cent had used cocaine at least once. 1.2 per cent had used it in the past year. (CAMH 2008)**
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**__ Crack __****__ cocaine __** -
== **According to Health Canada (2001) use of crack/cocaine ranged from 18% to 64%.**  Crack cocaine is derived from powder cocaine. Powder cocaine is dissolved in a solution of sodium bicarbonate and water then it is boiled. A solid substance separates from the boiling mixture and this solid substance is allowed to dry once it has been removed from the boiled mixture. Crack cocaine can them be broken down into little pieces or "rocks" in various sizes usually weighing from one-tenth to one-half of a gram. The following website gives information on how to reduce the risk of unsafe use of crack. [] ==


=EFFECTS OF COCAINE AND CRACK =

__**Cocaine**__
====**Short-term effects of cocaine/crack include constricted peripheral blood vessels, dilated pupils, increased temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, insomnia, loss of appetite, feelings of restlessness, irritability, and anxiety. Duration of cocaine's immediate euphoric effects, which include energy, reduced fatigue, and mental clarity, depends on how it is used. The faster the absorption, the more intense the high. However, the faster the absorption, the shorter the high lasts.The high from snorting may last 15 to 30 minutes, while that from smoking crack cocaine may last 5 to 10 minutes. Cocaine's effects are short lived, and once the drug leaves the brain, the user experiences a "coke crash" that includes depression, irritability, and fatigue. (Partnership for Drug Free America. 2008 )**====

**__Crack__**
====**Some common side effects of crack use include: increased heart rate, blood pressure, blood sugar level, alertness, anxiety, sex drive and dehydration. Some users also report paranoia, feelings of sadness and depression, sweating, muscle twitching and hallucinations.**====

=STREET YOUTH AND COCAINE AND CRACK =

====**A youth involved in the Winnipeg study The Canadian Journal of Urban Research paper called Voices from the Margins: Understanding Street Youth in Winnipeg, (2005) quoted one youth as saying, "What I did is try to get a job...You save your money and you get an apartment, but it never worked for me because I was on crack.**====