General information on Cocaine Addiction
Cocaine has proven extremely addictive in every type of laboratory animal, much more so than opiates (like heroine). For example, an addicted monkey pressed a button 12,800 times before it got a single dose of cocaine. In every single case, if the animal survives, it will return to the task of obtaining more cocaine.
Addiction Symptoms
The human response is very much alike the animal. The cocaine-dependent human seeks it over all other activities. The pursuit of cocaine begins to rule their lives; they press their economic ‘bar’ thousands and thousands of times in order to get a hit.
There have been stories of addicts selling their children into sex slavery for a relatively small amount of cocaine. Hooked, white collar professionals will go on binges often totaling $20,000 to $50,000. People lose jobs, family relationships, and their lives to cocaine addiction.
Scientists suspect that addiction is caused by the DAT-blocking effects of the drug. DAT is the abbreviation for ‘dopamine active transporter.’ The DAT is a membrane crossing protein that moves the ‘feel good’ hormone dopamine back into a nerve ending, out from the space between neurons where it makes the user feel good. By blocking this, cocaine causes dopamine to pool between neurons and prolong the ‘feel good’ effect. The effect itself is the biological equivalent of being rewarded for accomplishing a task such as finishing a ‘quest’ on a video game or winning an election except much, much more potent. Cocaine addiction is not only fueled by this ‘cocaine reward’ but also a series of cocaine-induced charges among neurons.
This charge is the disappearance and reappearance of certain receptors on the surface of neurons. These receptors control the flow of dopamine itself and, thus, an individual’s ability to feel good. Extended addiction results in a ‘cocaine dysphoria,’ a depression devoid of energy other than to get cocaine. Under the dysphoria, the addict/former addict can be pushed to suicide while not on cocaine and absolute mania while high. Eventually the dysphoria begins to dominate an addict’s life.
A lethargic and depressed form of existence falls on those who have developed a tolerance for cocaine’s high. They will often say that, when they try to get high, they ‘come up short’ or cannot reach the climaxed euphoria they felt before. This is also the time they will often recognize their addiction and seek cocaine treatment in Canada (either for depression or the addiction itself). The other common route addicts that are ‘over the hill’ follow is a move to a more efficient mode of induction.
If they were snorting, they’d move to smoking. If smoking, they move to injection. If injecting, they administer more injections until they die in the pursuit. In every case, they will move to more pure forms of cocaine to produce said euphoria. As the addicted process goes on, more and more cocaine users get treatment (both through intervention as well as voluntarily). As cocaine usage expands, our responsibility to assist in acknowledging addicts increases both in moral imperative and feasible possibility.
