Street names: snow, powder lines, freebase, c, dust, crack, rock, coke, flake, blow

Cocaine comes from the leaves of the coca bush, which grows in the Andes Mountains in South America. Historically, the people in Peru and Bolivia chewed coca leaves for strength and energy when working without much food at high altitudes. Cocaine, after praise from Sigmund Freud, was widely and legally available in patent medicines and soft drinks, but is now an illegal substance.

How it works

Cocaine is a stimulant that triggers the reward system in the brain, which is why it's so addictive. Dopamine is responsible for pleasurable feelings (like after we eat for example). Cocaine traps dopamine (and to lesser degrees serotonin [increased confidence] and norepinephrine [energy]) creating a build-up which is what maintains that pleasurable high. After time, your brain becomes so accustomed to elevated levels of dopamine that it actually manufactures additional receptors for this chemical, in effect rewiring your brain. In experiments, monkeys will press a bar up to 12,000 times before they are rewarded with cocaine and immediately begin again after the reward.

How is it used?

Cocaine comes in a powder form (snorted or add water to inject), a freebase form (smoked) or in a crystalline form (rock/crack cocaine).

Canadian Statistics

• In 2005, about one Ontario student in 20 (4.4%) in grades 7 to 12 said he or she had used cocaine at least once in the past year. That is almost 43,000 students.
• About one Ontario student in 50 (2%) said he or she had used crack at least once in the past year. This is about 19,300 students.
• Toronto treatment centres report that cocaine is second only to alcohol as the most problematic substance requiring treatment.
• Toronto has roughly 1-2 cocaine deaths per 100,000 - Vancouver has almost 30.
• In Canada, cocaine is the most common drug of injection users, followed by heroin.

Canadian Headlines

How Crack Works

June 16, 2010 - Ottawa Citizen

Crack use seems to be rising

May 22, 2010

SAINT JOHN - The use of crack cocaine in the city appears to be on the rise in the city, says an AIDS Saint John official...

Troubling situation
It appears many people on methadone are doing cocaine, too

May 15, 2010

"...about 50 per cent of the people on methadone are using coke, too."

1,001 kg of coke seized in Vancouver Island bust

March 15, 2010

"RCMP in B.C. have seized 1,001 kilograms of cocaine and charged two men who sailed into a remote Vancouver Island port on a 50-foot Panamanian-registered sailboat."

Cocaine trade soars in oil-rich St. John's

March 3, 2010

"…But it is cocaine that has moved into the starring role of the St. John's drug business, with dealers moving multiple kilograms — known as keys — of the drug at a time, often directly from other provinces."