Cocaine is a major drug abuse substance in the world. Many people prefer to use cocaine over other drugs because of its strong effects on the body. This paper discusses the use of cocaine, starting with its definition and history. The paper establishes the start and progression of cocaine abuse. Moreover, issues of place and population in which cocaine abuse is prevalent are discussed in this paper. The final part of this paper is suggestion of treatment actions for the cocaine addiction. As we discuss in class I will breakdown different concepts related to the abuse of cocaine.
Define the drug history
Cocaine is a stimulant that is strong and is used as a substance of abuse by drug addicts. In fact, cocaine is currently the substance of abuse, which is the favorite for many addicts. Cocaine is also considered to be one of the most powerfully addicting drug substances ( Wise & Koob, 2014) . Cocaine is also scientifically referred to as Erythroxylon coca . At discovery time, the people of South America used to chew the leaves of Erythroxylon coca. Notably, Erythroxylon coca has got quite important nutrients and many alkaloids that include cocaine ( Wise & Koob, 2014) . Today, some indigenous communities in South America still use these leaves, which are basically chewed.
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It is vital to observe the fact that the coca leaves remains have been found with the ancient Peruvian mummies. Historians have also analyzed pottery from the same time period and established the traces of human beings with bulged cheeks. Many historians have interpreted these observations to mean the presence of something being chewed. Another evidence got shows that these cultures were able to use coca leaves together with saliva as the anesthetic meant for doing trepanation.
The Spanish people who arrived in South America had first ignored the assertions by the aboriginal that the coca leaves were a source of energy as well as strength to them ( Wise & Koob, 2014) . In fact, the Spanish people declared the practice of chewing coca leaves as the work of the devil. However, they later realized that the claims were real and legalized it. Tax of 10% was put on the value of the crop ( Wise & Koob, 2014) . Coca was then regarded as a plant, which had the ability of protecting the human body from various health complications.
Although the use of coca plant for purposes of quenching hunger and as stimulant was just established many years ago, the isolation of cocaine alkaloid that is now the substance abused was only first achieved in the year 1855 ( Wise & Koob, 2014) . Earlier attempts by different Europeans to isolate the cocaine alkaloid from the coca leaves had always flopped. The reasons for this failure to isolate cocaine alkaloid included the fact that there was insufficient knowledge about the necessary chemistry for performing the process of isolation ( Wise & Koob, 2014) . The second reason was that the existent conditions of sea-shipping the leaves from South America could easily cause the degradation of the cocaine alkaloid substance in the leaves available to the chemists from Europe.
Importantly, the cocaine alkaloid was isolated by Friedrich Gaedcke in the year 1855 ( Wise & Koob, 2014) . This person was a German chemist. After discovering and isolating the alkaloid in coca leaves, Gaedcke called it erythroxyline and published in description in a journal ( Wise & Koob, 2014) . Since the time of its discovery and successful isolation from the coca leaves, the cocaine alkaloid has always been the favorite recreational substance for many people. It is highly abused and very addictive. Moreover, it is illegalized in most parts of the world and is a commodity of immense money.
How people start using the drug and its progression
Many studies report that many children as young as 12 years already use cocaine drug. Therefore, the abuse of cocaine usually starts at the very tender age during the teenage stage of life. However, it is vital to note that the users of cocaine always start by abusing some minor substances like marijuana, tobacco, inhalants and alcohol ( Wise & Koob, 2014) . During the adolescence stage of life, the abusers get strongly involved in the use of marijuana before advancing to other drugs. At the advanced stage during adulthood, the users start using strong drugs like cocaine.
It is vital to mention some of the conditions that lead people into starting to use cocaine. The most common case is that of peer-pressure ( Wise & Koob, 2014) . Mingling and spending much time with friends who use cocaine as well as other drugs often introduces people to the abuse of this substance. In most cases, one is faced with the pressure of doing what others do in order to fit in their company. Through testing small amounts of the drug, people gradually become regular users of it. Other cases that have been highlighted by researchers as causes of the start to abuse drugs include psychological stress and the belief that cocaine has the ability of giving a person some extra-ordinary energy to perform highly in various duties. Such perceptions normally lead individuals into using cocaine and becoming addicts. It is also vital to observe the fact that cocaine has great income to those who manage to evade the police and smuggle it around. Therefore, the attraction for money leads people into becoming abusers of cocaine.
The people who use cocaine normally pass various stages that include the starting phase, where controlling the urge for consuming this substance is controllable. There reaches a stage where the users of cocaine cannot manage to control its use anymore. This phase is where the user is high dependent on the consumption of it. Research has established that cocaine is among the most strongly addictive substances ( Wise & Koob, 2014) . When the abuse of cocaine progresses to the stage of addiction, it is quite difficult to get the user off it. This stage is quite dangerous and involves the user experiencing the health effects of its abuse. Some of these health effects include impairment of the brain functioning and cancer of the lungs. Moreover, there are those who become incapacitated in terms of performing their daily duties since excessive abuse of cocaine usually weakens the body as a result of the strong alkaloid in it.
Therefore, it is important to curb progression of cocaine use just at the initial stages of abuse by the user. When it is left to advance to the addictive stage then the user has to suffer the grave effects, which mostly lead to death or even people becoming psychotic.
Medicinal purpose
Cocaine has got significant medical purposes, which is its main significance. The vast medical applications of cocaine have added to the great research interest into this drug substance. Through empirical research, it has been established that cocaine has the ability of being used for the purpose of local numbing agent. As a local numbing agent, cocaine can be used for easing pain in painful medical procedures within the nose or the mouth ( Wise & Koob, 2014) . Therefore, cocaine has got significant pediatric applications.
It is also vital to observe that cocaine has been known for being historically important as a topical anesthetic for the human eye and nasal surgery. Medical application of cocaine is even prevalent in procedures that require vasoconstriction for the purpose of reducing bleeding. In this case, cocaine is normally combined with a vasoconstrictor like epinephrine ( Wise & Koob, 2014) . There are other medical specialists who also apply cocaine in performing procedures like nasal cauterization. Nasal cauterization entails soaking dissolved cocaine into a ball of cotton wool. This cotton wool is then placed within in the nostril for a period of between 10 and 15 minutes immediately before the procedure is carried out ( Wise & Koob, 2014) .
In the 1880s, cocaine was found to be a medical remedy for the morphine addiction. Morphine addiction is a condition suffered by a lot of the former Civil War soldiers ( Wise & Koob, 2014) . Sigmund Freud observed that he used cocaine to heal indigestion and depression daily. Discovery of the medical importance of cocaine led to it being produced increasingly ( Wise & Koob, 2014) .
However, cocaine has non-medical uses. The major non-medical use of cocaine is for the recreational purposes. This use of cocaine is normally based on its feature of being a powerful nervous system stimulant ( Wise & Koob, 2014) . As a stimulant, the effects of cocaine do stay on for 1 hour. The duration of its stimulation effect usually relies on the amount of it taken by the user as well as the mode of administration. Importantly, cocaine normally comes in various forms. These forms include the white powder form, which is normally bitter to the taste. This form of cocaine is either inhaled or injected ( Wise & Koob, 2014) . There is the crack cocaine that is smoked and is made in a process, which involves mixing cocaine with sodium bicarbonate and water. When used for recreational purposes, cocaine usually enhances alertness, energy, activity, sexuality and euphoria on the users.
It is vital to note that the abuse of this cocaine has overshadowed its positive uses such as in medical procedures. Many people sell and use cocaine as a stimulant, but not medical substance. Moreover, most of the users consume excessive content of cocaine. The end result of this habit is destroyed body health and other social as well as economic side-effects. This development has caused many countries to ban the sell and use of cocaine. It is now smuggled and used illegally and secretively.
Multicultural aspect of the drug
Multicultural aspects have significant influence on the decisions of people to abuse cocaine. It has been established that culture normally has a significant impact on the approach of people to trying out cocaine. The use of cocaine is highly acceptable in specific social groups. For instance, since it is an expensive drug, the rich people are the ones who use. Most of the rich users, thus, abuse cocaine as a way of identifying themselves with the ostentatious spending culture of the affluent social group.
Unlike marijuana, cocaine is not stigmatized but is instead celebrated as a sign of fashion and being trendy within the pop culture. Those who use and deal with cocaine are respected in the pop culture because of the huge money that is normally associated with it. For the drinking people, cocaine is important to them because it keeps them awake and able to take more drinks. The people who are womanizers usually take cocaine in order to gain the energy of remaining sexual for long periods. Cocaine is glorified in song videos, television movies and social media site photographs by celebrities.
The consideration of drugs as illicit varies across the various social groups. Many youths do not regard cocaine as an illicit drug. Youths who subscribe to the popular culture do regard cocaine as a lifestyle that only the successful people can achieve to enjoy. However, the conservative elderly people do regard cocaine as an illicit and bad drug. They feel it is destructive to the health and general life status of the users.
Culture influences the expectations regarding the possible problems that people may get when they use cocaine. In some social groups, it is their culture to use cocaine fort celebration purposes. Cocaine is used while celebrating various developments among social groups like the middle-income class people. Part of the reasons for such a culture may be because cocaine is quite expensive hence a middle-income social class individual cannot afford it frequently. It can only be afforded occasionally in celebrations. It has been established that many native communities in South America still use cocaine in marking various celebrations. The wealthy people, on the other hand, use cocaine quite often for recreational purposes. The fact that this social group has got the huge amounts of money makes it able to afford purchasing this drug quite often.
It is vital to note that the initiation into excessive cocaine abuse can take place at times of rapid social change. This development is quite often among the cultural groups that have had minimal exposure to a drug hence have not formed the protective normative behavior. Additionally, the loss of cultural identity can happen within the native populations, whose cultural beliefs and practices have been destroyed by the extensive popular culture.
Society views of the drug
The overriding view towards cocaine in the society is strongly negative. The society views cocaine as a very dangerous drug that needs to be banned by governments in order to curb wanton addiction among the youths. The society has greatly stigmatized cocaine because of its dangerous impact on the health of users as well as addictive nature. The society views cocaine as a frightening drug. When cocaine is mentioned in the society, it conjures up images of criminality and abnormality. Therefore, the people who use cocaine are viewed by the society as criminals and abnormal. They are regarded as the odd ones out amongst the members of the society.
Specifically, addiction to cocaine scares people in the society and no one ever dares to imagine that it could be them addicted to it one time in their lifetime. To many members of the society, addiction is something that is only heard of on other people. Nobody would wish to be associated with it. There is some sense of fear towards the cocaine drug.
Furthermore, the society holds the view that the use of cocaine is self-conscious decision, which is made by a person without any coercion or influence. Anyone who abuses cocaine is regarded as a person who a conscious choice to engage in the habit. Therefore, when such a person is caught by a problem this habit of abusing cocaine, the society views it as a self-inflicted challenge. Apparently, the society does not think of other possible causes of substance abuse like peer-pressure.
The views of the society on the users of cocaine are also quite interesting. The society views gangsters as the main cocaine drug users and smugglers. These cocaine abusers are viewed as gangsters who do kill anybody who stands in their way. Therefore, the perception of the society is that the cocaine users are people who have killed in the past for them to survive and continue with their activities. Additionally, the society has the perception that all cocaine drug abusers have guns and other ammunitions everywhere they go. They are considered by the society as ruthless and mean people.
The other notable perception about cocaine drug is its users are rich and wealthy members of the society. It is held that those who can afford to use this drug quite often must be rich since it is expensive. It is the reason cocaine features in many videos of musicians as a way of showing off perceived wealth. In fact, cocaine is quite rare within the society and no one just gets it without connections to powerful people. The society also perceives cocaine drug as a strong stimulant that leads to feelings of energy and euphoria.
Negative effects of the drug
Cocaine drug has quite huge negative effects to users and the sellers. The primary negative consequence of abusing cocaine drug is incarceration and fines because it is an illicit substance. Governments have introduced harsh punishment for the people who are caught associating themselves with cocaine. The drug lords and dealers caught in the past were subjected to very harsh penalties. Some have been jailed for the rest of their lives. Therefore, the legal ramifications of cocaine drug are harsh. One can find himself or herself spending long time in the jails.
The family is also adversely affected by the use of cocaine drug. The family is affected when it has to spend a lot of money to pay for the treatment of their loved ones once diseases start. In some cases, the illness is always strong that people end up being bed-ridden. The family is, therefore, left with losses to count as it meets the hospital bills.
Moreover, it is important to note that cocaine causes loss of social ability among the users. Family bonds are negatively affected when one member cannot mingle with them comfortably and often because of the addictive lifestyle.
It must be noted that cocaine has an effect on the brain of a person. Consumption of cocaine normally distorts the functioning of specific parts of the brain. It is vital to observe that drug abuse among the youths usually has adverse effects on the neuro-cognition of the users. The teens, who abuse cocaine drugs, impair the neuro-cognitive functioning of their brains. Scientific studies have established that the excessive smoking of cocaine among the teens usually destroys the effectiveness of their brain memory. Moreover, addicted youths usually have impaired attention and slow processing of information within their brains. In a research that compared cocaine-smoking persons and the healthy control ones, it was established that smokers remembered information at a level that was 10% less than that of the healthy non-smoking teens (Volkow, 2014).
It has been reported that drug and substance abuse also impairs the brain structure. Importantly, the advances made in neuro-imaging have made it possible to closely characterize the structure of the brain as well as function of the teens addicted to drugs (Volkow, 2014). It has been established through the use of magnetic resonance imaging that the structure of the hippocampus is destroyed by cocaine drug abuse. The hippocampus is the part of the brain, which is quite essential for intact functioning of the memory. The structure of this brain part becomes deformed. The use of drugs also deforms the prefrontal cortex volume. This part of the brain is quite significant in planning, integration of the novel stimuli and emotion regulation.
Counseling/treatment options
There are only behavioral interventions for treating cocaine. The medical treatment approaches are still being tested hence cannot be addressed with certainty and clarity. The behavioral treatments for the addiction to cocaine are effective in both the residential and outpatient programs. It is worthy to acknowledge that the behavioral therapies are the only ones available for curbing many drug abuse habits. This intervention works for even the stimulant addictions. Scientists have improved this practice by integrating it with the pharmacological treatments.
An example of behavioral therapy that has been established to be quite effective with cocaine abuse is the contingency management approach. This approach is based on rewarding the patients who manage to abstain from the use of cocaine. These patients are normally encouraged to lead a normal living that involves body exercises. This approach is quite helpful in helping the patients to achieve the initial abstinence from the use of cocaine. Furthermore, the abstinence gained through the use of this treatment method is a long-term one.
Another method is the cognitive-behavioral therapy, which is used for effective prevention of relapse. It gives the patients skills required for achieving long-term abstinence from the use of cocaine. It assists the patients with the skills of identifying situations, where they are likely to use cocaine hence avoiding them in advance.
Thirdly, there are the therapeutic communities, which serve as residences void of drugs, where people undergoing recovery mingle and help each other to gain strong and long-term abstinence from the use of cocaine. They are modeled on the rehabilitation centers. TCs usually demand a stay of up to 12 months for effective results. Mental health outcomes can also be improved through the TCs.
References
Volkow, M.D. (2014b, July 1). Treatment and Recovery. National Institute on Drug Abuse . Retrieved from https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugs-brains-behavior-science-addiction/treatment-recovery .
Wise, R. A., & Koob, G. F. (2014). The development and maintenance of drug addiction. Neuropsychopharmacology , 39 (2), 254-262.
