Have you ever smoked crack? What was it like?

IceHouse@lemmy.zip to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 111 points –

I never really did a lot of drugs besides smoking pot but I tried crack once at a party in college and I felt pretty ashamed of myself immediately after despite high. I didn't try it again and am actually a "California" sober adult now, not because I had a drug problem but I just grew out of wanting to try them and never liked to drink alcohol.

I never met anyone else who would ever admit to trying it though or even cocaine despite statistically knowing many people have haha. Any crack smokers on lemmy?

57

I smoked crack in my teens. I think it’s an unfair stigma to judge crack worse than cocaine - even though I know you’re not proclaiming that or anything.

I think it’s an unfair stigma to judge crack worse than cocaine

Like so many stupid things that don't make sense, it originated in racism.

Basically, the Reagan administration realized that more black people used crack than powder cocaine and it was the other way around for white people, so they made the sentencing for crack harsher by a margin of 100:1 to make sure there were more black victims of the War On Drugs than white ones.

This, combined with the Reagan, Bush, and afair also Clinton administrations demonizing crack users as the ultimate example of "it's their own fault for the moral failing of doing street drugs" bullshit, and the for profit yellow media happily following their lead, is why even people without a bigoted bone in their bodies still think that crack is a hundred times worse than the pharmacologically identical powder cocaine.

Let's be real though, crack is significantly more addictive than regular cocaine. The high is higher, it lights up all the dopamine receptors in your brain. The high is much shorter, and the crash is much harder, which pushes users to use more to avoid intolerable withdrawal symptoms. Cocaine is "mellower" in pretty much every way. All the bad parts of cocaine use are only magnified in crack use. All this is completely independent of fucked up drug policy

Why? It's the same compound in the blood stream. Gonna need a source

This is pretty easy to search, but also intuitive when you consider crack is most often smoked vs cocaine being absorbed through your nasal mucosa. Here are a few highlights from this comprehensive review, which also covers the very real socioeconomic differences in use patterns:

By virtue of its hydrophilicity, cocaine hydrochloride is generally consumed by ‘snorting.' ‘Crack’ cocaine is generally the only form of cocaine that is smoked—this is due to the fact that cocaine hydrochloride has an elevated boiling point and does not vaporise at the temperatures of combustion.

(R)outes that involve the respiratory system...allow for the stimulant to reach the brain circulation in around 6 to 8 s; the inhalation route presents higher peak plasma concentrations that are reached faster when compared to intranasal administration. It should be noted that, for the intranasal route, the vasoconstrictive properties of cocaine slow down the drug’s own absorption, causing a 60-min delay of peak plasmatic concentrations. In terms of bioavailability, the inhalation route has the greatest bioavailability, which surpasses 90%, while the intranasal route has roughly 80%.

The abuse and dependence of cocaine is strongly related to the drug’s capacity to induce the release of dopamine within the mesocorticolimbic circuit (also known as the reward system). As the user continues to consume cocaine, desensitization occurs and so larger doses are necessary to induce stimuli of the same magnitude as before, as well as to minimize withdrawal symptoms.

Another difference of inhalation vs intranasal:

Smoking ‘crack’ leads to the formation of another biomarker of exposure, AEME, which is the main product of cocaine’s thermal degradation. In vitro and in vivo studies show that AEME appears to have effects on the cardiovascular system, by acting as a muscarinic agonist. Furthermore, neurotoxic effects were also reported for this metabolite.

Faster it hits you the more addictive it is. IV heroin is more addictive than smoking heroin too.

I would be interested to see how the numbers of black people addicted to crack in the 80s compares to the number of white people addicted to prescription opioids today.

Which is more bioavailable? That would be a more sensical basis to sort if judge them without speaking to the cutting agents

I was under the impression that they were the same thing. (It might surprise you that I have never done any illegal drugs.)

I mean they are but technically not. I believe once you cook up cocaine with baking soda and water to make crack(at least that’s how we used to do it) that the actual chemical composition changes and that makes it different.

Someone feel free to fact check me on that cuz I’m just going off the dome.

I double checked and wrote up the explanation in a different post but at least according to Wikipedia, you are correct.

The simple explanation is that the classy drug known as "Cocaine" is technically Cocaine Hydrochloride. The previously mentioned reaction removes the Hydrogen and Chlorine ions leaving you with Cocaine without the "Hydrochloride" aka Freebase Cocaine aka Crack.

Well... Good to know, I suppose. Thanks for the information!

If you want to read more about experiences, Erowid had a great library of information, including write ups of people who have used different drugs before.

This is the link for crack/cocaine.

https://www.erowid.org/experiences/subs/exp_Cocaine.shtml

Omg, I used to read the shit out of the experiences vault. Glad to see the site is still up.

I know, back in the day when you had to find websites and the web felt vast and hidden and mysterious. Search engines sucked and a lot of word of mouth. Loved that shit, before the money and the idiots arrived.

I’m not curious enough to try. The stigma and negative consequences just don’t seem worth it.

I have an addictive personality with little impulse control (e.g. caffeine, sugar, TV, games).

I don't do things in moderation. I know that smoking would kill me if I started, and as a dopamine chaser, I know that any drug that immediately makes me feel good will be a crutch that I will use for the rest of my life.

No thank you sir.

This is why the one time I was around meth I asked the other party (someone I was sleeping with casually) to not let me have any if I asked to try it. I'd be on the street for sure. I didn't ask, so I don't know if she'd have kept her end. Either way, I'm glad I didn't get tempted.

However, I'll do a mountain of coke so long as I don't have a phone number to ask for more.

I have tremendous respect for people who are aware of their own weaknesses, able to admit them, and maintain boundaries for themselves. Congratulations!

maintain boundaries

This is admittedly the hard part, but thanks!

Same deal here. I went to a college party with an acquaintance and he did a line for the first time while we were there. He made SUCH a fool of himself the whole night. I've been deterred ever since. I never want to lose complete control like that ever.

Crack is one of the drugs I would never try due to the so many bad outcomes. Meth, heroin, fentanyl, and other opiates are also on my NO list.

Is it any similar to cocaine? I did try that and ... it's ok. But I didn't get that wow feeling that coke fans swear on.

Recommended reading about drugs in general
http://erowid.org/ https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/Main_Page

I have pretty crippling ADHD and I always wanted to try cocaine because of all the stories of ADHD folks trying it and feeling calm and normal.

Just curious to see if I have the same experience.

Because of that? It'd be a lot cheaper and much much safer to get a prescription for ADHD medication. You're not missing anything.

Oh, no, I have a prescription for ADHD medication. I've just always been curious about whether I'd have that experience.

I haven't done it by now and I'm pushing 40. Don't you worry about me.

I'm over 40, have ADD, have extensive experience, and am grieving two close friends who died of fent in their coke in the last few weeks. You'll likely conclude the same thing I did, that it's way overpriced and you need a whole lot more to get the dopamine dump that makes it worthwhile.

You asked, I answered. Knock yourself out (but please, test your shit. Fent strips are cheap and often free. Check with dancesafe.org or others for best practices on testing. I'm not worrying about you, but I'm sure you have people in your lives that love you dearly, and I hope they never go through what I'm going through right now.)

I have adhd and have tried it, didnt feel very much at all except the world looked... brighter? but ive also have heard similar experiences from folks who are also adhd and have tried it.

It's crack, it gets you really high.

Yeah. I've smoked tons of crack. I was on heroin for years before I tried it the first time. Within a month of smoking crack regularly my life was down the fucking tubes. It's bad shit. Like really really bad shit. I would strongly recommend anyone reading this NEVER EVER try it.

Only thing I've done that fucked my life worse than crack was meth, and only by margins that could easily be a rounding error.....

Oh yeah. I could imagine. AFAIK, I only did meth once and it went poorly. Myself and a friend did a ton of MDMA the night before, the next day my buddy's dealer texts him about having blue molly (there's no such thing as blue molly). So we're like lets-fucking-go, and we laid the whole gram out and started sniffing it up. We thought because we did so much the night before we would have huge tolerances. We did not, because it wasn't MDMA. So we each did like half a gram of really shitty meth and blue food coloring. I was absolutely sure I was going to die for like an entire 24 hours.

Yeah, it's a motherfucker like that. Least it didn't turn into a habit. That's basically what happened to me, but then I wasn't able to kick it for 2 years. Went From 280lbs to 160 in like 7 months. The thing that pulled me out was getting busted for committing a crime. And by that point I wanted out, but had no idea how to.

So glad to hear your off it and hopefully doing better! Care-Comrade

Clean for basically spitting distance of 20 years. Happily living my best life.
Thanks comrade, hope you're doing as well as you can.

Yeah smoked it a couple of times. Wasn't as good as expected. We were all quite in to party drugs, ie ecstasy, speed, coke, acid etc. The buzz on crack wasn't a patch on a good trip!

It's like doing a really good whip-it, then immediately wanting to do another.

I don't know why people get into meth and crack in the first place. They've heard all the stories and likely know people messed up badly from it already. "Hmmm, this is the drug for me!"

nope. Especially now after having lived for a few years in a booming rehab community, seeing secondhand where addiction gets people.

I did coke a few times, it was okay. The high doesn't last long enough to justify the cost, and I was already jonesing for more the last time

What's the difference between pot and crack

One is one thing and the other is another thing.

Oh thanks that clears everything.

I think pot is weed crack is a salt