Huge addiction potential: The most important thing about the misery drug crack

Crack is powdered cocaine that is moistened with water and boiled with baking soda. This forms crystals that combine to form white stones. Consumers place them in aluminum foil or a glass pipe and heat them using a lighter. This causes the cocaine crystals to burn. The so-called free base created is inhaled. It makes a crackling sound when burned. Crackling means crack in English. The medicine got its name from here.

Crack works much stronger and faster than cocaine, with all its stimulating, self-confidence-increasing properties. The molecules reach the brain through the lungs and bloodstream within seconds. The high lasts 5 to 15 minutes and ends with a strong feeling of emptiness, sadness and fear. This means that consumers want to get the euphoria back as quickly as possible and consume it for as long as possible. “Usually ten stones or more in a row,” says addiction specialist Philip Bruggmann, chief physician of the Arud Center for Addiction Medicine in Zurich. The price of a cracked stone, enough to breathe, is 10 francs in Swiss cities. Dealers have large quantities of crystals in stock and the crystals are sold in packages whose contents can be consumed immediately.

The drug gained a dubious reputation in the 1980s and 1990s, when the so-called crack epidemic in the United States killed hundreds of thousands of people and plunged entire neighborhoods into misery. Why highly potent cocaine has suddenly become common again in European cities including Lausanne and Zurich is a difficult question to answer, according to addiction expert Bruggmann. What is certain is that selling a drug that acts as quickly and quickly becomes addictive as crack is worth it.

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Freebase is also chemically processed cocaine. It is created by boiling cocaine powder with ammonia. The process eliminates expanders; the end product is purer than crack. Since Freebase has a short shelf life, it is not sold on the streets, but is produced by consumers themselves. This creates explosive and toxic fumes. Despite the dangers associated with its production, the so-called “sole” has long been common among addicts in Zurich, says Bruggmann. The effect is almost the same as crack. “Many free agents have recently switched to crack because they can consume more in less time.”

The heat of the smoke and the substance itself damage the bronchi and lungs. Otherwise, the effects of crack use on the body are the same as snorting powder cocaine. But they occur faster and to a greater extent. The drug disrupts blood circulation and greatly increases the risk of stroke or heart attack. Fatal cardiac arrhythmias and overheating of the body are also immediate dangers.