Cocaine - coke, Charlie, C, snow, blow, toot, Bolivian/Peruvian/Columbian marching powder

Effects:

• Fast hit of exhilaration and being alert, full of energy, confidence, sociable, talkative, and physically strong.
• Stops you feeling hungry, tired or in pain.
• Lasts up to half an hour.
• Raised body temperature, blood pressure and heartbeat.
• Can cause chest pain and irregular heartbeat in healthy people.
• Greatly increased risk of heart attack and link to strokes and seizures.
• Come down/"crash": feeling down, rough, agitated, tired, craving for more.
• Sudden death with large doses, or with smaller doses if someone has a sensitivity to the drug.
• Tolerance builds up and it's more addictive than most drugs, particularly crack.
• Damage to how your brain works.
• Financial ruin.
• Panic attacks, hallucinations, depression, paranoia and psychosis.
• Destroys the lining of the nose and septum (skin separating nostrils) when snorting.

Cocaine with other drugs:

• Alcohol: makes the bad effects of both worse. Can make you think you're sober when you're drunk. The drugs combine to make a toxin which damages your brain, liver and heart. This increases the risk of sudden death when taking both together.
• Speed, crystal, E, Viagra: Puts even more strain on your heart and circulation so there's a greater risk of stroke and heart attack.
• Anti-depressants: can cause 'serotonin syndrome' - feeling agitated, fast heart beat, sweating, muscle spasms, being unable to sleep. Urgent medical help is needed. Check with a doctor before mixing these drugs.
• HIV drugs: no known dangerous interactions.

Sex on Cocaine:

• Make you feel physically strong, horny, more sexually aggressive or confident, with more stamina for longer sessions.
• Possibility of heightened sense of touch and longer, stronger orgasms.
• Lower inhibitions making unsafe sex more likely.
• Pain killing effect can lead to rougher sex and sores or bleeding from you arse or cock, which you may not notice. This makes it more likely that HIV, hepatitis C or other infections will be passed on.
• Difficulty getting hard-ons, difficulty, lower sex drive, especially with a bigger dose or when taken for a long time.
• Rubbing coke into your arse will numb it and irritate the skin, making it easier for infections to be passed on.

Staying safe:

• Get urgent medical help in case of someone with 'serotonin syndrome'.
• Do not share equipment for snorting or smoking, as this can spread viruses like Hepatitis C through tiny amounts of blood.
• During sex, keep checking the condom and change after 30 minutes.
• Avoid cocaine if you have high blood pressure or a heart condition.
• Avoid cocaine if you have a history of mental health problems.