How Crack Destroys the Brain

Crack is a more addictive form of cocaine. While cocaine in powdered form acts quickly on the brain and body, crack takes effect even more quickly. Because it is more concentrated than powder cocaine, crack's effects are much more intense, which is part of the reason why it is so much more habit-forming than cocaine.

Crack Facts

• Nearly 10% of people who try crack become addicted to it within one year, compared with less than 4% of people who become addicted to cocaine in the same time frame.
• One gram of cocaine has an average price of about $80-100, whereas one rock of crack has an average price of $10-25.
• Crack is about five to six times more powerful than cocaine.
• Crack takes about ten seconds to affect the user, producing a nearly immediate high.

Neurotransmitters

Neurotransmitters are chemicals in the brain that govern a variety of physical and mental processes. Feelings like happiness, sadness, and hunger are all governed by neurotransmitters as are energy levels, pain, and physical pleasure. The levels of specific neurotransmitters in the brain tissues determine whether people feel these mental and physical feelings. Cocaine, the drug crack is derived from, prevents several neurotransmitters from being reabsorbed. The neurotransmitters it affects are all associated with pleasure, including dopamine and serotonin. When a person is high after using crack, they are feeling the effects of an excess of these neurotransmitters.

The Physical Effects of Crack

People usually feel a euphoric rush of pleasure and happiness when they smoke crack. The high from crack abuse usually only lasts a few minutes, so it is common for users to smoke more crack after they come down from the high, often in increasing doses. This kind of behavior is called a binge and is itself dangerous, since crack elevates the heart rate and blood pressure and causes a high risk of stroke or heart attack.

How People Become Addicted to Crack

There are two aspects of addiction: neurological, which involves physical changes in the brain, and psychological, which involves changes in the mind. Addiction to crack occurs because of its effects on the neurotransmitters in the brain. Smoking crack in binges causes neurotransmitters to remain in the brain for longer periods of time than they are meant to, since crack interrupts neurotransmitter reuptake. Eventually, the brain adjusts to the frequent elevated levels of neurotransmitters, which has two serious consequences:

1. The crack user must increase the amounts of the drug that they use to feel the same high they used to. When a person frequently increases the amount of crack that they use, they constantly put their health and life at risk. Once a person becomes addicted to crack, they significantly decrease their life expectancy to about five years after their addiction takes hold.
2. In the absence of the drug, normal levels of neurotransmitters are not as effective in governing emotions and other processes. This effect of addiction on the brain only serves to strengthen the user's psychological dependence on the drug. When a person first begins using crack, their mind associates the drug with feelings of pleasure. However, as the addiction begins to form and the brain makes structural changes to protect itself against the drug's effects, neurotransmitters stop functioning as normal. The person needs higher levels of neurotransmitters in their brain in order to feel normal, just like they need more and more crack to get high. One effect of crack addiction is anhedonia, the inability to feel happiness or pleasure. The only way to feel happy, as a crack addict, is to use crack. The mind eventually identifies crack as its only source of happiness, further strengthening the addiction.

Crack addiction causes a feedback loop in the mind and the brain. When the person first begins using crack, it only takes a small amount of the crack to get high, but as time goes on they must increase their use of the drug more and more. As this happens, their ability to feel happiness and pleasure without the drug diminishes until they are unable to experience any positive feelings without crack. Even a person who has been addicted to crack for a short time will have a difficult path to recovery because of this feedback loop.

Source

National Institute on Drug Abuse: Cocaine Meta: How crack destroys the brain is by preventing several neurotransmitters, which govern a variety of physical and mental processes, from being reabsorbed.