Cocaine FAQ

• Pure cocaine was first used in the 1880s as a local anesthetic in eye, nose and throat surgeries due to its ability to provide anesthesia as well as to constrict blood vessels and limit bleeding.  Many of its therapeutic applications have since been eliminated due to the development of safer drugs for these purposes.

• Approximately 100 years after cocaine entered into use, a new variation of the substance emerged.  This substance, known as crack, became extremely popular in the mid-1980s due to its immediate high and the fact that it is inexpensive to make/buy. 

• Crack cocaine is highly addictive.  Crack cocaine is a rock form of cocaine.  Crack comes in rock form and can be heated to inhale the vapors of the smoke.  The term “crack” comes from the sound the rock makes when it is heated.

   

• According to the 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), approximately 7.9 million Americans aged 12 or older reported trying crack at least once during their lifetimes.  This figure represents 3.3% of the population aged 12 or older.  Additional 2005 NSDUH data indicate that approximately 1.4 million (0.6%) reported crack and cocaine use and 682,000 (0.3%) reported crack use in the last month.

• Among students surveyed in 2005 as part of the Monitoring the Future study, 2.4% of 8th graders, 2.5% of 10th graders and 3.5% of 12th graders reported lifetime use of crack cocaine.  In 2004, these percentages were 2.4%, 2.6% and 3.9% respectively.  Ironically, approximately 69% of all 8th graders, 76.9% of 10th graders and 63.8% of 12th graders surveyed in 2005 reported that taking crack cocaine occasionally was a “great risk.”

• According to data from the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) Program, a median of 30.1% of adult male arrestees and 35.3% of adult female arrestees tested positive for cocaine (all varieties) at arrest in 2003.  The adult male samples were compiled from 39 U.S. cities and the adult female samples were compiled from 25 sites.  A median of 17.2% of adult male arrestees and 24.5% of adult female arrestees reported using crack cocaine at least once in the year prior to being arrested.

• Smoking crack delivers large quantities of the drug to the lungs, producing effects that can be comparable to intravenous injection.  These effects are felt almost immediately after smoking, are very intense and typically, do not last longer than 10-15 minutes.  Evidence suggests that users who smoke or inject cocaine may be at even greater risk of causing harm to themselves than those who snort the substance.  Cocaine smokers may suffer from acute respiratory problems including coughing, shortness of breath and severe chest pains with lung trauma and bleeding.

• Cocaine is powerfully addictive.  A tolerance to the high may be developed and many addicts report that they fail to achieve as much pleasure as they did from their first cocaine experience.

• Crack cocaine represented 72% of all primary cocaine admissions to treatment in 2004.  From 1994 to 2004, the number of admissions to treatment in which crack was the primary drug of abuse decreased from 220,614 in 1994 to 184,949 in 2004.  The crack admissions represented 13.2% of the total drug/alcohol admissions to treatment during 1994 and 9.9% of the treatment admissions in 2004.  The average use of those admitted to treatment for crack cocaine use in 2004 was 38 years of age.

• During 2003, cocaine was the primary drug involved in federal arrests.  There were 11,794 federal drug arrests for cocaine in 2003.  The DEA made 3,842 arrests for crack cocaine during 2003.

• Between October 1, 2004 and January 11, 2005 there were 1,205 federal offenders sentenced for crack cocaine related charges in the United States.  Approximately 95.2% of these cases involved crack cocaine trafficking.