Crark and Cocaine Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Crark and Cocaine - Essay Example The drug is commonly known as ; troop,cookies,candy,badrock,dice,hardball,devildrug,Frenchfries,tornado,sleet,rocks,paste,grit,raw,crumbs,hot cakes amongst other names in the streets. The major symptoms and signs that show that a person is actually consuming crack include intense feeling of craving for it, irritability, fatigue, agitation and strong feelings of anger (Abadinsky 19). There are two kinds of cocaine commonly referred to as hydrochloride salt and the freebase.The hydrochloride salt is a type of cocaine that is found in powder form that is dissolved in water and taken through methods such as the intravenously which passes the drug to the vein and the use of intranasal means that is passed through the nose of the users. The freebase is a type of compound that is not neutralized by any type of acid to make it a hydrochloride salt. The drug was first developed in 1970 during the cocaine boom and it continued to be experienced into the 1980s.The cultivation of cocoa leaves is believed to be the genesis of cocaine which was being grown in Peru, Columbia and Bolivia and as result it found its way into the American market. In the early 1908s, there was a lot of cocaine that was shipped and it later flooded into the United States Of America market. Much of these drugs went into Miami through Bahamas .Due to the large quantities of cocaine into the market, the drug traffickers and peddlers decided to convert the cocaine powder into crack so that it could be sold into smaller quantities. Thus, due to its cheapness, simplicity in production, readiness to use and the large economic profits that the peddlers got from crack, it became very popular in the market. The packaging of crack also attracted a very large number of users from the poor neighborhoods who could not afford to go out to the clubhouses or those who felt uncomfortable taking it in social places. People had the assumption that the drug was more pure as compared to other powders in the market thus attracting a very large number of users. For example, it is believed that on average, crack contains 55% purity on every $100 per gram of crack .As for the price, crack went for as low as $2.5 in the market for a single piece. People actually started freebasing the drug so that they could get a better feeling once they started smoking it.Freebasing involved smoking the rocks with either and a flame and this proved to be very fatal leading to the death of several users of cocaine. As a result of the many fatalities and the unsafe mode of sniffing the drug, the drug peddlers decided to come up with a more safe method of smoking cocaine known as crack (Brownstein 34). The crack business in the United States is mostly controlled by the Mexican criminal gangs whereby they have controlled the central, pacific, great lakes, southeast and the west central regions. The Dominican and Columbia groups tend to control the northeast and the Florida regions. How crack cocaine is made. Crack cocaine refers to a highly and addictive type of stimulant that is prepared using the cocaine powder. There are two forms of cocaine commonly are known as hydrochloride salt and freebase.The hydrochloride salt is a form of cocaine that is in powder form that is dissolved in water and later on taken through intravenously by the vein and intranasal through the nose.Freebase compound is not neutralized by