A rough guide to drugs
Legal Status Class A: drug carrying penalties for possession of up to 7 years imprisonment and an unlimited fine. Supply/trafficking can carry penalties of up to life imprisonment and an unlimited fine. |
A ‘rock’ of crack is usually about the size of a raisin. It’s usually smoked in a pipe, glass tube, plastic bottle or in foil (most people use it this way and it’s known as freebasing). Crack is also often injected.
Sometimes users will inject a mixture of crack and heroin, known as a ‘speedball’. This is a particularly dangerous practice.
Effects & Risks
Crack has the same short-lived effects as cocaine but they’re much stronger. The effects are immediate, peak for about two minutes and can last for up to 30 minutes.
• Crack makes users feel alive, alert, energetic, physically strong, exhilarated, confident and wide awake. It kills all feelings of pain, tiredness and hunger.
• After the high comes a long, low crash which can be associated with massive cravings to take more.
• The high can come with hallucinations, huge mood swings and massive paranoia. It’s also a known cause of panic attacks.
• Some people get aggressive or violent.
• The crash makes people feel sick, tired and depressed.
• Regular users look excited but nervous. Heavy users have trouble sleeping and feel sick quite a lot.
• Heavy crack users may take heroin to try to dull the cravings, which can increase the risks.
• It can be bad news for anybody with high blood pressure or a heart condition.
• Too much smoking crack can cause breathing problems and pains in the chest.
• Using a lot can bring on a seizure or a fit.
• Because of the addictive nature of crack there is a strong link to crime as users seek to fund their habit.
• Large or frequent use of crack can reduce sexual desire.
• If there have been previous mental health problems crack could bring those problems to the surface again. If a close relative has had mental health problems there might also be an increased risk in some users.
• Injecting crack carries all the same health risks as injecting any substance: abscesses, swelling, blood clots, vein damage, ulcers and gangrene – also, sharing injecting equipment increases the risk of HIV and Hepatitis.
• Taking crack when you’re pregnant can harm your baby.
Overdose
Overdosing on crack can be fatal.
It’s easier to overdose when injected. High doses can raise the body’s temperature, cause convulsions and respiratory arrest.
Risk of overdosing increases if crack is mixed with heroin, barbiturates or alcohol.
Addiction
Some think that crack is instantly addictive, however, dependency is not inevitable. Certainly, crack appears to induce an intense craving in some users, which can rapidly develop into a ‘binge’ pattern of use.
