The Effects Of Cocaine

Cocaine is one of the oldest and the most dangerous drug that migrate through the United States. Studies have proven to show that coca leaves were used to get the heart racing and to speed up the breathing pattern. Coca was also used for religious purposes during ceremonies. There were also rumors saying coca was the cure for depression. In the eighteen hundreds coca was know as the “magical substance”. During these times there wasn’t many people to against a study. There were about five thousand cases of people dying from the effects of cocaine. Although cocaine was known as the rich man drug, by the nineteen hundreds cocaine was no longer a drug of choice for the wealthy. They looked at the drug as something that is far to dangerous. The …show more content…
An inmate who ingest a small amount of cocaine rather than a larger amount may not draw too much attention. The physiological short terms effects are “constricted blood vessels; dilated pupils; and increased body temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure” (http://drugabuse.com/library/the-effects-of-cocaine-use/). The person could also feel energetic, mentally alert, sensitive to sound, light and touch, and they may even be talkative. Majority of these behaviors are common to the average bored and rebellious inmate. High doses of cocaine can produce the risk of anxiety, mood swings and very violent behavior. The long term effects of cocaine include “the loss of sense of smell, nosebleeds, problems with swallowing, hoarseness, and an overall irritation of the nasal septum leading to a chronically inflamed, runny nose” (http://drugabuse.com). The long term effects also “include the risk of seizures and strokes” (http://drugabuse.com). An inmate with long term effects will draw the unwanted attention because they will most likely end up in medical. Once in medical they will determine what’s causing the issue with the inmate and link it back to the drug cocaine. Cocaine in the prison system could be given with all types of other things to intense the high. Inmates could experience an allergic reaction from the drug or the materials that’s within the drug and this can lead to death. Even if someone was clean before the got into prison, their chances of relapse have already increase two times as much. Cocaine usage “puts inmates at the risk twice as much for contracting diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C” (http://drugabuse.com). Cocaine usage bring many harmful factors forward because of the lack of supplies to get high with. There aren’t material given out with drug in prisons leaving cause for desperate measures. An inmate may get the idea to borrow someone else’s needle or pipe just to get