Have You Talked To Your Kids About Crack?
By: Arlene Fischer
From: Redbook, November 1986
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1.
At 16, Janie had big plans. She intended to study art and become a commercial
illustrator one day. Her grades were important to her. So were her many friends in
high school in suburban Chicago. When they began smoking pot after school and at
parties, she felt she had to go along with the crowd. But she made herself a promise to
use the drug only occasionally. Then one night her boyfriend convinced her to try a
few pulls of something new called crack. She knew it was a form of cocaine, but she
thought it wasn’t any more dangerous than pot, because it’s smoked, not snorted.
2.
“I felt wonderful. All of a sudden I wasn’t thinking about my bad grade in math
that day or any of my other problems. But the good feeling lasted for only a few
minutes. Then I felt depressed, so I kept smoking crack the whole evening. I had loads
of energy and talked a lot when I was up.”
3.
The next day, though, Janie was exhausted. “All I wanted to do was sleep.
When I woke up, I got high again. For weeks after that, my boyfriend kept getting the
stuff and we’d go on three- or four-day binges.” Six weeks later all Janie could think
about was crack. “Nothing else mattered – my grades, my parents, my friends.”
4.
Then one night she was smoking crack in her room and her heart began beating
rapidly. “I was sure I was having a heart attack,” she recalls. Her mother rushed her to
the hospital. The cardiologist there determined that her increased heart rate was due to
cocaine and referred her to a drug treatment program. “My mother was shocked,” says
Janie. She thought I’d been looking tired lately because I was studying hard. I really
managed to hide my habit from her.”
5.
Janie has been in therapy for several months now. She misses crack, and still
dreams about it. “One part of me still craves the drug, but the other part of me wants
to stay with the rehab program until I’m cured. Then maybe I can get on with my
life.”
6.
Most parents are convinced this can’t happen to their child, that cocaine is a
drug of the rich and famous, so costly that few kids can afford it. Not any longer. In
the last year or so, dealers have found a cheap way to market the drug. They convert it
to crack (also called rock) – a small hard pellet of concentrated cocaine that it smoked
in a glass pipe or crushed and used with marijuana. Its use has spread rapidly, crossing
all age, social and economic boundaries. Although crack is by no means only a
teenage problem, more and more middle-class adolescents like Janie are being snared
in its dangerous net.
7.
“We’re flooded with calls, roughly eighteen hundred a day from crack users
between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five,” says Lisa Bensen, administrator of the
National Cocaine Hotline (800-COCAINE). There also have been reports of children
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as young as 12 using the drug.
8.
“A year-and-a-half ago we didn’t know what crack was,” says Lieutenant
Joseph Lisi of the special projects unit assigned to control drug abuse in New York
City schools. But this year Lt. Lisi and his counterparts in big cities like Chicago and
Los Angeles are discovering crack’s impact: “W made two hundred and forty-two
crack-related arrests during April and May,” says Lt. Lisi, “and seven out of ten were
within two blocks of schools.” The pushers, he adds, are going heavily after the teen
market.
9.
Affluent suburban neighborhoods are not exempt either, he says. “Crack is sold
in business districts, it’s sold in fancy shopping malls. This isn’t just an urban
problem.”
10. Lisa Bensen echoes his findings: “The trouble started in the cities, but our
counselors are hearing from kids all over the country now, and the numbers keep
growing.”
11. What makes crack attractive to teenagers? “It’s cheap to buy and readily
available and brings on the ultimate high,” says Arnold M. Washton, Ph.D., research
director of the National Cocaine Hotline, and director of psychiatric substance abuse
services at the Regent Hospital in Manhattan and at Stony Lodge Hospital in Briarcliff
Manor, New York.
12. A single pellet or “rock” (worth four or five inhalations) costs only about $5 or
$10 because dealers can squeeze about 150 pellets out of a single gram of cocaine and
still make a big profit. And it is easy to prepare. In the past, the volatile process of
freebasing cocaine (converting it to a smokable base) involved the use of ether to
wash away impurities. Nowadays, dealers mix the cocaine powder with baking soda
and water, then heat the solution. The resulting paste, more concentrated than regular
cocaine, hardens, and is broken into small pieces – how crack, or “rock” gets its name
– that dealers sell in plastic vials.
13. “Kids tend to think crack is safe,” says Lt. Lisi. “When a friend hands a kid a
pipe or cigarette laced with crack, he may think there’s no great harm. Actually what
he’s inhaling may be ninety-five percent cocaine.”
14. And the payoff is quick. Crack reaches the brain in less than ten seconds
because it’s rapidly absorbed through the lungs, and the high lasts anywhere from 5 to
10 minutes. The classic “snort” of cocaine penetrates the mucous membranes of the
nose more slowly, reaching the brain in about eight minutes and lasting about 20 to 30
minutes.
15. “With crack the euphoria is more intense than with regular cocaine and so is the
craving,” says Dr. Washton. The euphoria brings heightened feelings of excitement,
sexual prowess and talkativeness. But soon users plunge into an intense depression
and desperately crave to be “up” again. Addiction develops swiftly. According to the
National Institute on Drug Abuse in Washington, D.C., it can take three or four years
to get hooked snorting cocaine. But crack can become addictive in six to eight weeks.
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16. Crack can have severe effects on the body. “Within seconds it begins to increase
the heart rate and blood pressure and stimulate the brain,” says specialist Ronald K.
Siegel, Ph.D., a psychopharmacologist at the UCLA School of Medicine. “With heavy
use, the physical problems are exaggerated.” The intense stimulation puts users at risk
for irregular heartbeats and sudden death from heart attacks and strokes. Crack can
also trigger convulsions and respiratory changes and can contribute to respiratory
failure. Among the more common problems are appetite loss, a chronic cough often
accompanied by black phlegm, chest congestion and lung damage. “We’re concerned
that contaminants remaining in crack add to pulmonary hazards,” says Dr. Siegel.
17. “There’s also a disturbing range of psychological side effects that may be tied to
chemical changes in the brain,” according to Herbert Roehrich, M.D., clinical director
of 800-COCAINE and associate director of substance abuse services at Fair Oaks
Hospital in Summit, New Jersey.
18. Cocaine has a powerful effect on the brain’s neurotransmitters – chemicals that
help the nerve cells of the brain to communicate with one another. There is evidence
to show that when the brain is stimulated by crack, it releases the “feel good” brain
chemicals all at the same time. But crack prevents the brain from storing and reusing
these substances. “We believe that over time this creates a neurochemical deficiency
that leads to depression and sets up a craving for more crack,” says Dr. Roehrich.
With continued use, the addiction grows progressively worse and feelings of
irritability, insomnia and paranoia are common. Eventually the chemical imbalance
can result in hallucinations and nightmares. And ever greater cravings.
19. What can parents do? Says Dr. Siegel: “Parents should be concerned about
educating their children as to the realities of the drug. It’s highly seductive. It can
have devastating effects on the body. It can destroy relationships and lives, and it’s
also illegal.”
20. If you suspect your child is using crack, “first ask questions,” says Ellen
Morehouse, M.S.W., the executive director of Student Assistance Services, an alcohol
and drug abuse prevention program in the schools at Westchester County, New York.
“If your suspicions are correct, tell your child help is available. Then call the 800COCAINE hotline or your state substance abuse agency and get the name of the
nearest treatment program where you can have your child’s habit assessed.” A word
of reassurance: “There is absolutely no police involvement when a child is referred by
a doctor or otherwise enters a program voluntarily,” says the specialist.
21. Treatment will vary. “In extreme cases of addiction, it may require a month or
two of residential hospital treatment prior to outpatient therapy,” says Dr. Roehrich.
“The desire to use crack is so overwhelming that some kids need to be completely
removed from the drug immediately. They also need to be protected against their
possible suicidal tendencies.” On the other hand, says Morehouse, “many kids can be
treated successfully as outpatients from the start.”
22. Rehabilitation programs utilize standard techniques to help users cope without
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drugs – from self-help groups such as Cocaine Anonymous to one-on-one discussions
with psychiatrists and drug counselors. “Kids have to learn what circumstances trigger
their craving. They may have to choose new friends, new hangouts, different leisure
time activities,” says Morehouse, “And they have to learn how to become physically
healthy again.” Parents also need to get involved, to learn about drug dependency, to
work on communicating with their kids and to support their child’s recovery efforts,
she says.
23. Most of the physical effects of crack appear to dissipate soon after the drug is
stopped, but experts in the field believe that it may take longer for the psychological
results to emerge. “Crack hasn’t been around long enough for us to know if there are
any long-term physical or psychological effects that don’t resolve themselves,” notes
Dr. Roehrich. The rehabilitation program could last six months to a year.
24. A final word of caution: “Once parents know their child uses cocaine, they
should not assume this is a problem they can work out alone,” says Dr. Roehrich. “A
team effort involving drug rehabilitation experts, parents and the children themselves
is the only remedy for this insidious addiction.
Crack Cocaine / 5
Answer the questions below.
1.
Paragraphs 1-2 suggest that crack may have almost instantaneously opposite
effects upon those ingesting it; describe those effects.
Answer: _________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
2.
How long did it take, paragraphs 1-3, for Janie to become completely addicted
to crack?
Answer: _________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
Complete the statements below.
3.
Janie was rushed to hospital, paragraph 4, because ______________________
_______________________________________________________________.
4.
Paragraph 5 suggests that the process of weaning one from his or her addiction
_______________________________________________________________.
Answer the following question.
5.
It is suggested in paragraph 6 that most parents believe that addiction to crack is
not likely to affect their own children; why?
Answer: _________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
Complete the sentence below.
6.
Paragraphs 6, 7, 8 would suggest that crack cases are predominantly
_______________________________________________________________
Choose the best answer.
7.
Paragraphs 9-10 point to the fact that the use of crack
a. is probably a flash in the pan.
b. is not likely to become widespread.
c. is still limited to narrow circles.
d. cuts across sociological boundaries.
Answer the question below.
8.
What makes crack, paragraph 11, so popular with young people?
Answer: _________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
Complete the sentence below.
9.
The chemical substance dealt with in this article is called crack because _____
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
Crack Cocaine / 6
Choose the best answer.
10. How does the effect of crack, paragraph 14, compare to that of cocaine?
Answer: Although speedier and considerably (1) _______________________,
its effect is (2) ___________________________________________________.
(1)
(2)
a. milder
a. not quite so intense.
b. less pleasant
b. not so long lasting.
c. less harmful
c. not to be foreseen.
d. more intense
d. not immediately apparent.
Answer the questions below.
11. How long does it take one to become addicted to cocaine?
Answer: _________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
12. Describe the physiological effects of crack.
Answer: _________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
13. Paragraph 18 suggests that very soon after the ingestion of one or another dose
of crack a fresh craving for crack sets in; why?
Answer: _________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
Choose the best answer.
14. Paragraph 20 suggests that in the case of minors voluntarily submitting to
medical treatment there is no fear of
a. addiction.
b. cure.
c. legal prosecution.
d. parent involvement.
15. Cure being the professed purpose of treatment, we must make sure that the
stronger the drug dependency is, paragraph 21, the greater the need to
a. provide the patient with it.
b. make the drug unavailable.
c. provide substitute substances.
d. cure the patient.
16. Describe some of the methods used to cure drug addiction.
a. _____________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
b. _____________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________