Cocaine and it's Causes to the Human Body.

Cocaine is a drug that is extracted from the Erythroxylon Coca plant. The plant is from South America. The drug is made into two chemicals forms: cocaine hydrochloride and cocaine alkaloid. Cocaine hydrochloride is the powder that people would snort. It is a water-soluble liquid that is absorbed through the mucous membranes.

Cocaine alkaloid is made by dissolving cocaine hydrochloride in water, ammonia, and ether to make a free base or it can be dissolved in water and baking soda. An example of the second form would be crack. The two forms of Cocaine alkaloid can be smoked. When people use cocaine, they put themselves at a serious risk of strokes. One type of stroke that is obtained is the Ischemic Stroke. Out of all of the strokes associated with cocaine, ischemic strokes are 25-60%. Most people who get an ischemic stroke that are caused by cocaine are young. Cocaine can also induce vasospasms, which would lead to a sudden onset of hypertension and myocardial infarction with cardiac arrhythmias. Vasospasms are started when the cocaine prevents the uptake of sympathomimetic neurotransmitters by nerve terminals. This would lead to sensitization to epinephrine and norepinephrine. It will also accumulate serotonin. Vasospasms can last days after the last dosage of cocaine. Also, cocaine brings other health issues; such as, cerebral microischemia. Most of these strokes caused by cocaine occur within the first few hours of cocaine consumption, there could potentially be a several hour delay before the stroke with occur. According to a study performed by Bhattacharya, people who use cocaine have a higher rate of complications of 33.3% to 15.2%. The mortality rate is also higher, which is 11.1 to 3.8%.

Fonseca, Ann Catarina & Ferro, Jose M. (January 9, 2013). Drug Abuse and Stroke. Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports, http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11910-012-0325-0/fulltext.html