Cocaine

Also Known As: coke, snow, blow, nose candy, white, big C.

What You Should Know

Cocaine is a stimulant. It revs your central nervous system, giving you a fast, charged feeling of power and energy. Cocaine is snorted through the nose or injected.

What's the Problem?

Coke is heavily addictive. Even after one use it can create body and mind cravings that make it incredibly hard to quit.
Cocaine elevates your heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure and body temperature. First-time users of cocaine and crack can stop breathing or have fatal heart attacks. Using either of these drugs even one time can kill you.
Snorting can put a hole inside the lining of your nose.
Cocaine makes you paranoid, anxious, erratic and even violent.
Repeated use of cocaine can lead to tooth decay, kidney failure, heart problems or even a stroke.
Coke dealers often add in other substances that look like cocaine (e.g. household cleaners), making it more potent and possibly deadly.
Because coke can create euphoric feelings, coming down from a high can plunge you into depression.
If you shoot up cocaine, you run the risk of being exposed to HIV and Hepatitis.
If you use coke when you're pregnant, your baby could be born with a low birth weight, developmental and physical problems. Coke also causes miscarriages.