Nose, cocaine snorted

Nasal (NS) Through the nose. Cocaine is snorted up the nose and then absorbed through blood capillaries in the thin nasal membrane. 

When snorted (inhaled through the nose), cocaine enters the bloodstream rather quickly, producing both an intensely pleasurable high and an enhancement of other sensations. (Many users also believe it enhances sexual pleasure.) Users tend to feel mentally sharp, clever, and active. 

Powder cocaine (cocaine hydrochloride) can be over 100 times more potent than coca leaves. By adding acids and purifying agents, 22 lbs (10 kg) of coca paste can be refined to 2.2 lbs (1 kg) of powder. This powder approaches 100% purity, but it is diluted with fillers before it is sold on the streets in the United States. Common fillers are cheaper drugs such as amphetamines or sugars such as lactose or inositol. Average street powder purity is 60%. The most common way to use powder is to snort it into the nose, but it can also be dissolved in water and injected into the veins. Powder cocaine cannot be smoked. Powder cocaine is addictive when snorted and highly addictive when injected. 

Snorting is the second most common way of taking PCP, although it is a distant second choice after smoking the drug. People who snort PCP inhale the powder into their nose through a straw or similar device in much the same way cocaine is snorted. 

Powder cocaine (cocaine hydrochloride) A psychoactive substance derived from coca leaves. Powder cocaine is either snorted into the nose or mixed with water and injected into the veins. It is addictive when snorted and more so if injected. 

Cocaine is a local anesthetic with a peripheral sympathomimetic action that results from inhibition of transmitter reuptake at noradrenergic synapses (see Chapter 6 Introduction to Autonomic Pharmacology). It readily enters the central nervous system and produces an amphetamine-like effect that is shorter lasting and more intense. The major action of cocaine in the central nervous system is to inhibit dopamine reuptake into neurons in the "pleasure centers" of the brain. These properties and the fact that it can be smoked, "snorted" into the nose, or injected for rapid onset of... 

Cocaine can be administered via a variety of different rontes. Popnlarly, the hydrochloride salt is insufflacated ( snorted ) from a line of white powder and the drng absorbed across the mncons membranes of the nose. Alternatively, it may be administered by injection. Crack cocaine, or Rocks may be administered by smoking. 

Today, cocaine appears in several forms coca leaf, liquid, powdered cocaine hydrochloride, purified free-base, and crack and can be chewed, insufflated, or snorted into the nose, injected (with or without opioids), or smoked. 

The form in which cocaine is administered is an important determinant of abuse liability (see Table 6.2). Street cocaine, which takes the form of a white powder, is produced by combining a paste made from coca leaves with a hydrochloric acid solution to form a salt—cocaine hydrochloride. Because it is a salt, street cocaine is water soluble and can be injected or taken intranasally (sniffed or snorted). Intranasal cocaine can produce intense effects, but because it causes constriction of blood vessels in the nose, absorption is slowed. By the way, it is this vasoconstriction that results in inflammation and tissue damage of the mucous membranes of the nose in chronic intranasal users. Overdo.se deaths, psychosis, and dependence are all possible consequences of intranasal cocaine but are less common than with injected cocaine. Because sniffing was the major method of administration on the street until the late 1980s, the hazards of cocaine abuse were underestimated. 

Cocaine is manufactured by heating a paste produced from the leaves of the coca bush with hydrochloric acid. The resulting white powder is often separated into fine lines and inhaled or snorted into the nose. 

Cocaine is one of the most popuiar drugs of abuse, it may be sniffed into the nose (snorted), smoked, or injected intravenousiy. Occasionaiiy it is combined with heroin and injected (speedbaii). Cocaine purchased on the street is usuaiiy of high purity, but it may occasionaiiy contain substitute drugs such as iidocaine (see p 74) or stimulants such as caffeine (p 142), methamphetamine (p 72), ephedrine (p 320), or phencyclidine (p 300). 

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