Today's theme is mainly about drugs. Well one drug - cocaine and three events that have merged, as it were, into a common theme.
Yesterday I stopped off at a Little Chef, on my way back from Oxford. I had a cup of coffee, well I think it was coffee, it arrived in a cafetière anyway.
You see I just couldn't take any more Woman's Hour and in any case they'd used the word 'impact' at least five times - my usual signal to switch off.
When I went to pay, I noticed that there was a display area selling the now famed ‘I Love Charlie’ T-shirts.
Whether by stupidity or by design, somebody in the Little Chef empire caught on to a winner there. The T-shirts, sold very cheaply, have become student cool wear. They are selling in their thousands.
The little statement on the front has the same street-credibility or kudos as the leaf logo in the seventies. The latter was often assumed by the unknowing to denote a passion for gardening and in any case made a pleasant change from Che Guevara or Led Zeppelin.
It turns out that Charlie, as well as being a common slang term for cocaine is also the name of the fat little mascot favoured by the Little Chef chain. Presumably it symbolizes their loveable in-house cooks, but without the tattoos or acne of course.
Then on getting back in the car, the news was on. It's always good to know that the UK is a world leader. We often do lead, but sadly it’s often for the wrong reasons. For example, the UK has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the whole of Europe.
Now, it seems, the UK is a world leader in another area too. We now have the highest rate of illegal cocaine use in the world.
More precisely, we have the highest usage in the 15-35 year old age group, as this was the study population. It turns out that 10% of that cohort has used cocaine at least once in the past year. So we're now ahead of Spain, with its cultural links with South America. We're ahead of the USA, Australia and Canada too.
Of course, if we were to interview a politician on this, the answer might be some sort of reassurance, that the figures speak for themselves and 90% of that group don't do cocaine. Result.
Here’s few cocaine facts
Cocaine is the most used major stimulant in the USA and the UK. It is now the drug most frequently involved in accident and emergency department episodes. Whilst not a new drug it has managed to maintain a cachet of sophistication about it, supported by its use by celebrities on both sides of the Atlantic.
Street names for cocaine in addition to the word coke are related to its appearance or its method of use.
blow
crack
flake
freebase - a reference to its preparation
lady flake
liquid lady -a mixture of cocaine and alcohol
nose candy
rock)
snow
speedball -cocaine and heroin
toot
It is wrongly assumed that cocaine is non-addictive because it is not associated with the physical withdrawal symptoms seen with alcohol or heroin. Cocaine has strong psychological addictive properties. Whilst used on its own, there is an increasing trend for polypharmacy with alcohol or benzodiazepines like Valium.
The cocaine sold by dealers is usually prepared in South American factories. The cocaine is isolated and then converted to the salt, cocaine hydrochloride.
The problem with the supply of illegal drugs in the UK, is that by the time the drug reaches the end user it has been diluted with an inert substance or sometimes by other illegal substances. Unlike German beer purity laws, the consumer doesn't know what he or she is consuming.
This salt has a high level of purity when it arrives, smuggled into another country. It can be as pure as 95%. But as it passes through many people in its journey from smuggler to end used it gets diluted ("cut") at each stage, to increase profit. By the time it gets to the user it may be as little as 1% pure. Common cutting additives include
corn starch
glucose
lactose
local anesthetics like lignocaine or procaine
quinine
sweeteners
talc
More concerning is that other drugs may be added, for example
heroin
codeine
amphetamine
LSD
THC – active ingredient of cannabis
Cocaine as the hydrochloride salt may be
injected
ingested
applied to any blood rich membrane. This includes the nose, mouth, rectum and vagina.
Most commonly it is sniffed into the nasal passages.
A line of cocaine, as finely divided powder, usually 0.25 cm x 2.5 cm is placed on a smooth surface. Then it is snorted into a nostril through straw or a rolled £20 note.
Cocaine is generally not taken by mouth. Severe toxic reactions, including death, have occurred in people who swallow the drug to avoid police detection.
Freebasing involves the conversion of cocaine hydrochloride into cocaine sulphate that is "free" of the additives and nearly 100% pure. It is not water soluble and has a low melting point, so it can be smoked.
Crack cocaine is extracted from cocaine hydrochloride by using baking soda and heat. The waxy base becomes rocks of cocaine, ready to be sold in vials. This rock cocaine is also easy to smoke.
The toxic dose, the amount of cocaine that will cause death or some significant medical consequence is variable. The average lethal dose by the IV route or by inhalation is about 750-800 mg. But deaths have occurred after the snorting of a single line in recreational use where the average dose of 1 line is 20 mg.
In a study in Southern Spain, cocaine abuse was linked to 3% of sudden deaths, a clear reminder that the drug can have devastating effects. In the study, 21 out of 668 sudden deaths were related to cocaine use and all of these occurred in men aged between 21 and 45. Most involved problems with the heart and the majority of the men were also smokers and had been drinking alcohol at the same time as taking cocaine.
Then in the evening I listened to Front Row, again on Radio 4. This cocaine world leader announcement is quite timely, as the Wellcome Foundation in Euston Road, London has just opened an exhibition about drug misuse through the ages. The exhibition, called High Society, is open until 27 February 2011.
http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions/high-society.aspx
While the UN estimates the illegal drug trade worldwide grosses £200bn a year, the exhibition reminds the visitor that the use of psychoactive drugs is nothing new, and that our most familiar ones - alcohol, coffee, tobacco have all been illegal in the past.
From ancient Egyptian poppy tinctures to Victorian cocaine eye drops, Native American peyote rites to the salons of the French Romantics, mind-altering drugs have a rich history.
Cocaine is naturally occurring. It is an alkaloid that is extracted from the leaves of the coca plant. This was first grown in the Andes Mountains of Peru and Bolivia. Now that the cocaine industry has taken off it is grown in
Argentina
Brazil
Colombia
Ecuador
Mexico
The West Indies
Centuries ago, Peruvian natives would chew coca leaves were mixed with lime as a stimulant and to ward off hunger and tiredness at high altitude. The active ingredient cocaine was isolated after the plant was introduced to Europe. Initially it was used to treat alcoholism, depression and morphine addiction. It has good local anaesthetic properties, but superior drugs have taken over this role nowadays.
As some well known celebrities have discovered to their cost. Cocaine destroys more than lives. It destroys noses too.
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