Thread: GRAPHIC: Mexico’s Acapulco Rocked by Cartel Beheadings and Shootings

Originally Posted by pkskyali

We should also note that it is also possible to overdose on cocaine. MW neglected to list "death" as one of the possible complications from using cocaine. It is a dangerous drug.

And as far as the human body is concerned, there is no difference between the cocaine that is snorted as a powder and the cocaine that is smoked as crack. The only reason that crack became such a plague in impoverished communities is because it didn't need a fussy environment for its consumption.

Typically, powdered cocaine is consumed by snorting up lines laid out on a surface somewhere. Crack can be smoked anywhere on the fly, in the back of a car, standing in an alleyway, in a bathroom stall. It is also easier to package and distribute in smaller doses, making it cheaper.

The difference between getting it into the bloodstream by exposing the powder to the nasal septum and exposing its vapor to the lungs is subtle but not as important in its risks.

The difference between the way the two are prosecuted is strictly political, some would say racist. That's one of the things that should change right away in shutting down the Drug War.

One danger with cocaine was it's addictive nature. To many it went from a recreation drug to a have to have drug. Cocaine users did not just snort lines. It was very common in public for a person to pass around a small vial (usually had a small spoon in it) with cocaine in it. Very easy to use on the fly and in bathroom stalls.

I believe besides the fear of addiction, people started seeing some of the side effects from cocaine use. The destruction of their sinus cavities and heart attacks. I believe the common fear of all these drugs were what the dealers were using to cut the drugs. I know it was all over the news.

Originally Posted by MontereySherry

... Cocaine users did not just snort lines. It was very common in public for a person to pass around a small vial (usually had a small spoon in it) with cocaine in it. Very easy to use on the fly and in bathroom stalls.

...

These small vials and spoons were usually expensive adornments not really comparable to the simplicity of a crack pipe which could be nothing more that a glass or metal tube with a little steel wool of some kind in the end. The more elaborate the paraphernalia, the more incriminating evidence you have on you in case of arrest, another liability in the use of powder over crystal.

One of the things that generate drug use subcultures is the associated paraphernalia. Pipe tobacco is rife with this kind of preoccupation. But marijuana is even worse. Have a look at the magazine High Times, dedicated to the marijuana subculture, replete with endless advertisements for all kinds of smoking apparatus and associated gear. The emerging vaping subculture got its start in vaping marijuana. Growing your own marijuana is another part of the cannabis subculture completely corrupted by gizmos and apparatus. Even now the agricultural outcome of commercial legalization is completely obscured by the obsessive preoccupation with indoor grow operations that are really no longer necessary.