Why is cocaine so addictive?

Question

I'm not a crackhead or anything like that, but I have done my share of illegal drugs. The most addictive drug I have ever experienced was cocaine (snorting it).

What makes this drug so addictive?

BTW: I've never smoked crack or did heroin so I have have no idea how those drugs are. I tend to stay away from these.

Answer 1

Of all drugs, cocaine creates the greatest psychological dependence. It stimulates key pleasure centers within the brain and causes extremely heightened euphoria. However, an individual quickly develops a tolerance to the drug, requiring higher dosages and more frequent use in order to get the same effect. Cocaine cravings can be so strong that just the memory of the euphoria associated with use of the drug can trigger the desire to use it again, even after long periods of abstinence.

Answer 2

I've never done cocaine myself but from what I understand.. It's because of the intense "rush" people get from snorting it. Snorting the drug makes it enter your bloodstream directly, which affects the hormones produced in the brain by stimulating the central nervous system. It is usually snorted due to the fact that if it were swallowed, the effects would only gradually take place.. wihch results in no intense "rush".
When the central nervous system is stimulated.. the person feels euphoria and a general sense of well-being. This is the reason it is so addicting.. people remember the times they used the drug.. and felt its effects.. and want to feel those effects again.
It is also one of those drugs that only take one use to be addictive.

Answer 3

Without getting too technical, this is what we learned in The Psychology of Alcohol and Drug addiction. Cocaine targets a pleasure center in the brain causing euphoria (you feel like you can do anything). Unfortunately, it also replaces a neurotransmitter in the brain (substances that control activity). When you use cocaine, and it replaces this substance, the brain begins to produce less of it. Then when you're not using cocaine you get withdrawals from lack of the neurotransmitter, and you need more cocaine to make the brain function again. It's two fold. You like the high (euphoria) plus you have to use it to keep from getting withdrawals. Same goes for heroine, etc..

Answer 4

I cant answer that question because its different for every single human...however, if you want to know about cocaine specifically and everything contributing to this mysterious substance, I recommend a book by Dominic Stratifeild called Cocaine - An Unauthorized Biography. You will get the answers you are looking for right there.

Good luck.

Answer 5

" Dopamine makes it addictive."-(nate p)

Dopamine is a chemical naturally produced in the body. In the brain, dopamine functions as a neurotransmitter, activating dopamine receptors. Dopamine is also a neurohormone released by the hypothalamus. Its main function as a hormone is to inhibit the release of prolactin from the anterior lobe of the pituitary.

Dopamine can be supplied as a medication that acts on the sympathetic nervous system, producing effects such as increased heart rate and blood pressure. However, since dopamine cannot cross the blood-brain barrier, dopamine given as a drug does not directly affect the central nervous system. To increase the amount of dopamine in the brains of patients with diseases such as Parkinson's disease and Dopa-Responsive Dystonia, a synthetic precursor to dopamine such as L-DOPA can be given, since this will cross the blood-brain barrier.

Answer 6

Ask Jeeves.

Answer 7

the things in it make it addictive?

Answer 8

stick with coca leafs instead. make tea or just chew on them with mineral lime.

Answer 9

sure