Cocaine Use Stats?
Question by Hunter: Cocaine Use Stats?
Is there any SCIENTIFIC information out there on the percentage of cocaine users who turn into cocaine abusers?
By “abusers” I mean using the drug in excess to where it interferes with daily functioning (job, family, etc.), because I know that there are some people who are able to do drugs on a daily basis and still maintain “normal” lives.
Thank you!
Best answer:
Answer by Indiana Frenchman
depends but most of them do “abuse”
When a patient comes in with unexplained personality changes including irritability, lack of concentration, compulsive behaviors, insomnia and weight loss, then cocaine abuse should be considered (Sadock, 2003). Like alcoholics who will only participate in situations where drinking is acceptable or where they can “sneak a drink” in, cocaine abusers frequently run to a private area once or twice an hour to get high.
In some ways, cocaine abuse may be easier to recognize than alcohol abuse because of physical symptoms apparent even when an individual is sober and not experiencing withdrawal symptoms. The most common form of cocaine ingestion, “snorting”, often causes extreme damage to nasal cavity, in which users will often try to self-medicate with nasal decongestants (Sadock, 2003).
As in alcohol abuse, cocaine abuse can also cause psychotic, mood, anxiety, and sleep disorders. Symptoms of withdrawal include fatigue, unpleasant dreams, insomnia, increased appetite, or psychomotor irregularities (Sadock, 2003). Withdrawal symptoms are apt to be much less severe than those seen in heavy alcohol abusers, and with mild or moderate abuse, regularly reside within 18 hours (2003).
Sadock, Benjamin & Sadock, Virginia. (2003). Kaplan & Sadock’s Synopsis of Psychiatry: Behavioral Sciences, Clinical Psychiatry (9th ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Answer by Evil J
I don’t have any science, but I have anecdotes:
I probably did coke one night in the parking lot of an after hours club… I’d been drinking, and I blacked out. I have vague memories of talking about cocaine there, and then I was speeding through stop lights and stop signs until the sun came up on Sunday morning… I was 30 miles outside of town and ran out of gas on a bridge. The one time by itself might make me a user, but doesn’t put me in the abuser category.
My brother smoked crack for a while. I asked him if he’d smoked a lot of it, and he asked me “like in a day?” So he was a fairly heavy user… He told me he stopped. I asked if it was difficult. He said, “No, I just stopped”. So he was a user, might have been an abuser for a little while, but then stopped using all together.
When I was in college, a surprising number of guys (and girls) that I knew casually used cocaine, but they only did it occasionally and always in relative moderation. Most eventually stopped. They were users, not abusers.
I used to work with a couple of guys that “partied on the weekend” They did a great job at work, they were never late, always had a good attitude – again, users, not abusers.
All these experiences fly in the face of DARE and other anti-drug programs that we all went through in school. Aside from my own high risk behavior, all of these cases present little or no personal risk (aside from health related side-effects). The real risk of drugs is in their criminalization. If any of us had been arrested, it would have been disasterous for us.
Introduction To Alcohol Abuse – A Public Service Announcement by Red Ant Films and Lamar Associates.