Coke

Coke
Street name for cocaine, the most potent stimulant of natural origin, a bitter addictive anesthetic (pain blocker) which is extracted from the leaves of the coca scrub (Erythroxylon coca) indigenous to the Andean highlands of South America. From the name of the plant came the name cocaine and its street name coke (and Coke as in Coca Cola, which once contained it). Once the American surgeon William S. Halstead (1852-1922) had injected cocaine into nerve trunks and showed it numbed feeling, cocaine came into use as an anesthetic agent. It was first employed as a spinal anesthetic in 1898 by the German surgeon August Bier. Soon thereafter the addictiveness of cocaine was discovered. Safer anesthetics were developed in the 20th century and cocaine fell into disuse in medicine as a pain blocker. Tragically, cocaine continues in use as a highly addictive and destructive street drug, an inadvertent contribution by medicine to the contemporary drug culture. Illicit cocaine is usually distributed as a white crystalline powder or as an off-white chunky material. Cocaine base is converted into the powder form, which is usually cocaine hydrochloride, by diluting it with other substances. The substances most commonly used in this process are sugars, such as lactose, inositol, and mannitol, and local anesthetics, such as lidocaine. The adulteration of cocaine increases its volume and thus multiplies profits. The major routes of administration of cocaine are snorting, injecting, and smoking (including freebase and crack cocaine). Snorting is inhaling cocaine powder through the nose where it is absorbed into the bloodstream through the nasal tissues. Injecting is using a needle to release the drug directly into the bloodstream. Smoking involves inhaling cocaine vapor or smoke into the lungs, where it is absorbed into the bloodstream as quickly as when it is injected. "Crack" is the street name given to cocaine that has been processed from cocaine hydrochloride to a ready-to-use free base for smoking. Rather than requiring the more volatile method of processing cocaine using ether, crack cocaine is processed with ammonia or sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and water and heated to remove the hydrochloride, thus producing a form of cocaine that can be smoked. The term "crack" refers to the crackling sound heard when the mixture is heated, presumably from the sodium bicarbonate. On the illicit market, crack, or "rock," is sold in small, inexpensive dosage units. Smoking this form of the drug delivers large quantities of cocaine to the lungs, producing effects comparable to intravenous injection. These effects are felt almost immediately after smoking, are very intense, and do not last long. There is great risk associated with cocaine use whether the drug is ingested by snorting, injecting, or smoking. Excessive doses of cocaine may lead to seizures and death from respiratory failure, stroke, cerebral hemorrhage (bleeding into the brain), or heart failure.

Medical dictionary. 2011.

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  • coke — coke …   Dictionnaire des rimes

  • Coke — may refer to: Coca Cola, a soft drink originally based on coca leaf extract The Coca Cola Company, makers of this drink Cola, any soft drink similar to Coca Cola Soft drink, any non alcoholic carbonated beverage Coca, a plant Cocaine, a drug… …   Wikipedia

  • Coke — bezeichnet: ein Getränk, siehe Coca Cola einen nordamerikanischen Indianerstamm, siehe Coco (Volk) im NATO Code das Flugzeug Antonow An 24 Coke ist der Familienname folgender Personen: Christopher „Dudus“ Coke (* 1969), mutmaßlicher… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • COKE (E.) — COKE sir EDWARD (1552 1634) L’un des plus célèbres juristes anglais du XVIIe siècle. Nombre des jugements de sir Edward Coke ont fait jurisprudence. Sa vie publique a été marquée par la difficile recherche d’une conciliation entre les exigences… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Coke® — [ko:k , engl.: koʊk ], das; [s], s u. die; , s <aber: 5 Coke> [engl.( amerik.) Coke®, nach dem Werbeslogan »Coca Cola ist Coke«, viell. unter Anlehnung an: coke = ↑ 2Koks]: kurz für ↑ Coca Cola …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Coke — Coke; coke; de·coke; nan·ti·coke; semi·coke; …   English syllables

  • Coke — Coke, n. [Perh. akin to cake, n.] Mineral coal charred, or depriver of its bitumen, sulphur, or other volatile matter by roasting in a kiln or oven, or by distillation, as in gas works. It is lagerly used where ? smokeless fire is required.… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Coke — Coke, v. t. To convert into coke. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • coke — [kəuk US kouk] n [Sense: 1; Date: 1900 2000; Origin: Coca (Cola)] [Sense: 2; Date: 1900 2000; Origin: cocaine] [Sense: 3; Date: 1600 1700; Origin: Origin unknown] 1.) Coke [U and C] trademark the drink Coca Cola, or a bottle, can, or glass of… …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • coke — [ kouk ] noun 1. ) Coke count or uncount TRADEMARK a type of sweet brown FIZZY drink (=with gas in it), or a glass of this drink 2. ) uncount INFORMAL the drug COCAINE 3. ) uncount a solid black substance similar to coal that people burn to… …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • coke — [1] ► NOUN 1) a solid fuel made by heating coal in the absence of air so that the volatile components are driven off. 2) carbon residue left after the incomplete combustion or distillation of petrol or other fuels. ► VERB (usu. coking) ▪ convert… …   English terms dictionary

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