Yeah, I am not gonna lie, this is the reason most people of my generation in South America care about what sign we were/ are: I can't wait for February!
Well, cocaine works by halting the reuptake of dopamine, the brain's pleasure chemical. Unfortunately, this means that with regular cocaine use, dopamine receptors adapt to huge amounts of dopamine, in order to try to establish a new "baseline" of pleasure for the individual. This means that increased doses are necessary to achieve the same high. This cycle keeps going, and then certain secondary effects result in a loss of dopamine receptors, meaning that any pleasure you experience is deadened, which means that you take more coke, which in turn kills off even more dopamine receptors in the long run. Now, here's the fun part: dopamine receptors really don't coordinate the actually desire for pleasure in the human brain. So, the actual pleasure centers are left completely intact, but the user typically either starts taking borderline-fatal doses to compensate, or falls into near-suicidal depression because their body literally can no longer feel anything pleasurable even though they want to. Meth works similarly, just much, much faster.
In addition, cardiac effects result in increased blood pressure and heart rate. This is kind of like running a car on overinflated tires; the walls of your arteries all weaken, leaving you twice as vulnerable to stroke, aortic dissection, aneurysm, the usual. Increased heart rate helps wear out that essential organ, and greatly increases your chance of heart attack.
The good news is that most of the nasty neurological stuff can be recovered from after you quit using cocaine, but I'm not sure about whether or not the brain can regain 100% of a set of lost dopamine receptors. It will at the very least restore normal serotonin and dopamine levels. As for the cardiovascular stuff, that's forever.
Mean little drug. I've always been fascinated by how 43 atoms in a certain arrangement has the power to fuck up a such a complicated system so utterly. Neuroscience is the greatest.
I'm impressed. Addiction medicine being a hobby of mine I'm quite familiar with the depression and other mood disturbances that can result from long term drug use.
Of course like all data presented on the dangers of drug use, the purported risk is enormously hyperbolic.
Mean little drug. I've always been fascinated by how 43 atoms in a certain arrangement has the power to fuck up a such a complicated system so utterly. Neuroscience is the greatest.
If a molecule of cocaine is 43 atoms, how many molecules of cocaine does it take to do anything at all? It may be urban legend, but a popular factoid that is spread is that most cash money in the US has trace amounts of cocaine. Obviously if you sniff a wad of cash, it's not going to do anything, but what is the smallest dose of cocaine that does something? What if you drank one bottle of old coca-cola that had cocaine in it?
Also, that made me think. It is very popular lately to drink the old school soda that has real cane sugar instead of HFCS. Well, "real" throwback soda has cocaine, so hipsters better get on that shit.
A gram of cocaine is 1.985e21 molecules. Take from that what you will. I'm not a user, just a scientist.
Right, so how may grams will do something? If you snort half a gram, will that fuck you up? What about .25 grams? If you snort .01 grams, will it do nothing?
I just learned from Wikipedia that Coca-cola is the only US corporation authorized to import coca leaves. They apparently extract all the cocaine from the leaves, so they can use them for flavoring in the drink, and then send the cocaine to a medical facility. Considering how huge Coke is, they must be moving an insane amount of cocaine on a daily basis. Definitely makes you wonder.
I just learned from Wikipedia that Coca-cola is the only US corporation authorized to import coca leaves. They apparently extract all the cocaine from the leaves, so they can use them for flavoring in the drink, and then send the cocaine to a medical facility. Considering how huge Coke is, they must be moving an insane amount of cocaine on a daily basis. Definitely makes you wonder.
VERY interesting. Are you sure that absolutely 0 of that cocaine gets in the drink? How good is their extraction process?
How would you get .01 grams of anything into your mucosal tissue?
1 gram of water is a cubic centimeter. So .01 grams of water is a cubic micrometer of water. So maybe the size of a grain of sand. You could get it with a pointy tweezer.
Right, so how may grams will do something? If you snort half a gram, will that fuck you up? What about .25 grams? If you snort .01 grams, will it do nothing?
That's a function of bioavailability and body mass of the user. Theoretically, I could crunch those numbers, but I'd need a lot more info than what Wikipedia gives me. Intravenous injection of .01 grams dissolved in 20mL water is roughly a 5% solution (of Sherlock Holmes fame), and is a bit stronger than what they use for local anesthesia in hospitals (4%, largely replaced by benzocaine).
VERY interesting. Are you sure that absolutely 0 of that cocaine gets in the drink? How good is their extraction process?
Exactly. Although, I'm certain that they're under heavy supervision from the government, so if there was enough in there to actually hurt you, the FDA would be all over it.
VERY interesting. Are you sure that absolutely 0 of that cocaine gets in the drink? How good is their extraction process?
Exactly. Although, I'm certain that they're under heavy supervision from the government, so if there was enough in there to actually hurt you, the FDA would be all over it.
Actually, this might be a good question for Pete.
Add on to the list of reasons I can avoid drinking all soda.
This forum really lives up to its association with the Geeknights name; a conversation about cocaine devolved into chemistry talk.
Fun story: A practice exam I took last semester for my organic chemistry lab told the student how to, in step-by-step detail, extract Salvinorin A from a sufficient amount of salvia leaves.
Pretty sure I know what the professor who wrote that exam does in his free time.
Of course like all data presented on the dangers of drug use, the purported risk is enormously hyperbolic.
Could you expand on this please?
Exactly. Although, I'm certain that they're under heavy supervision from the government, so if there was enough in there to actually hurt you, the FDA would be all over it.
Actually, this might be a good question for Pete.
I have no idea, but I'm sure I could find out.
The allowed level is probably somewhere in the single digits ppm. Basically, nothing at all.
Comments
I can't wait for February!
But seriously, this is the option to take.
In addition, cardiac effects result in increased blood pressure and heart rate. This is kind of like running a car on overinflated tires; the walls of your arteries all weaken, leaving you twice as vulnerable to stroke, aortic dissection, aneurysm, the usual. Increased heart rate helps wear out that essential organ, and greatly increases your chance of heart attack.
The good news is that most of the nasty neurological stuff can be recovered from after you quit using cocaine, but I'm not sure about whether or not the brain can regain 100% of a set of lost dopamine receptors. It will at the very least restore normal serotonin and dopamine levels. As for the cardiovascular stuff, that's forever.
Mean little drug. I've always been fascinated by how 43 atoms in a certain arrangement has the power to fuck up a such a complicated system so utterly. Neuroscience is the greatest.
Of course like all data presented on the dangers of drug use, the purported risk is enormously hyperbolic.
Kudos to you though.
Also, that made me think. It is very popular lately to drink the old school soda that has real cane sugar instead of HFCS. Well, "real" throwback soda has cocaine, so hipsters better get on that shit.
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/americas/Bolivia-Urges-End-to-Ban-on-Coca-Leaf-Chewing-114822239.html
Actually, this might be a good question for Pete.
Pretty sure I know what the professor who wrote that exam does in his free time.
The allowed level is probably somewhere in the single digits ppm. Basically, nothing at all.
How do I quote someone's post on a previous page? <_