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The Infamous Cocaine

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Submitted By Yolanda13
Words 1569
Pages 7
Letia Childs
May 2, 2011
Topics in Psychology
Professor Hoplight

The infamous Cocaine

Growing up in a poverty stricken neighborhood in Washington, DC where crime and drugs were the source of corruption of many family and lives, including mine. Remembering, the nights when my mother use to sneak out of the house and walk to the nearest crack house that was only a couple of houses down from me, became memories that changed my life forever. Witnessing other families that suffered from family members on drugs, never did I imagine that it would soon become my mother. These occasional nights turned into days, then suddenly missing weeks. It wasn’t until my sisters and I were separated from each other and our parents, that this unimaginable habit became a harsh reality. The separation of our family grew this habit into a monster that tore our once happy family apart forever. Crack cocaine is a drug that has circulated many urban communities and lives for decades, in this essay I will present major research about this horrific drug and its extreme effects, physically, socially, emotionally, and mentally.
“Cocaine was first used in the 1880’s as an anesthetic in eye, nose, and throat surgery because of its ability to constrict the blood vessels and limit bleeding.”(Office of National Drug Control Policy 1) But considering the advances of technology and medicine we are now able to use more developed drugs. Cocaine is a very potent stimulant that can be smoked, injected, and snorted. When snorted, the cocaine powdered form is snorted through the nose and enters the bloodstream through the nasal tissues. Injection is used with a needle which is injected directly into the user’s blood stream. When smoked the user is inhaling cocaine vapors into the lungs and is then absorbed into the bloodstream just as fast as injection. Crack cocaine is a form of cocaine that

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