Colorado Drug Rehab: Cocaine
Cocaine is a significant drug threat to Colorado. Powdered cocaine is readily available throughout Colorado, and crack cocaine is available in urban population centers, especially Denver. Cocaine is the drug most often associated with violent crime in Colorado, principally because cocaine distributors frequently resort to violence to protect their distribution operations and to collect debts. Mexican DTOs and criminal groups transport wholesale quantities of powdered cocaine into Colorado in private or rental vehicles and distribute the drug at the wholesale level. Hispanic and African American street gangs distribute powdered and crack cocaine; some gangs distribute powdered or crack cocaine at the wholesale and retail levels, while others distribute crack at the retail level only. Local independent dealers also distribute powdered and crack cocaine at the retail level. Retail distributors in Colorado typically convert powdered cocaine into crack on an as-needed basis and sell the drug at open-air markets or from crack houses. All of this is to say, if someone in Colorado wants cocaine, it is available and this holds true for Denver as well as rural Colorado. Drug Rehab in Colorado does not meet the need for the level of cocaine addiction seen in the state.
As mentioned on the home page, Colorado is the only state that is consistently in the highest percentage ranking on 21 of the of the 23 categories that describe the severity of substance abuse, addiction, drug dependency and other similar markers, by states. Colorado Drug Rehab has years of data related to the drug rehab field in Colorado and, over the past twenty years, the use of drugs has increased and the availability to drug treatment has declined. This paradox illustrates the denial of the funding sectors, like the Colorado Single State Agency, but more importantly, the politicians who do not rank drug rehab as a priority in the funding schemes.
Cocaine is frequently abused in Colorado. The percentage of Colorado residents who report having abused cocaine in the past year is higher than the percentage nationwide. According to the 1999 and 2000 NHSDA, 2.5 percent of Colorado residents age 12 and over reported having abused cocaine in the year prior to the survey compared with 1.6 percent nationwide. The number of calls coming to Colorado Drug Rehab about cocaine problems is a firm indicator of this statistic. Most calls from Colorado are requesting state-funded residential drug rehab, but in following up with these calls, it is found that there is usually a two to three week waiting list to get into a cocaine drug rehab in Colorado that is state-funded. There are private beds in Colorado that are available for immediate care. The Colorado Single State Agency, ADAD, reports: despite the fact that cocaine is readily available and frequently abused, cocaine-related treatment admissions to publicly funded facilities in Colorado are declining. This information confirms the problem of a two to three week waiting list.
Colorado Violence Related to Cocaine:
Cocaine is the drug most often associated with violent crime in Colorado. Law enforcement officials in Colorado report that there has been an increase in the number of gang-related violent crimes such as assault, carjacking, drive-by shooting, and homicide as street gangs distributing cocaine protect their drug operations and attempt to collect drug debts. Cocaine abusers also are prone to violence but to a lesser extent than methamphetamine abusers.*
Cocaine enforcement activities reflect a steady supply of cocaine coming into and through Colorado. Cocaine trafficking organizations with sources of supply in Mexico or along the Southwest Border often deal in multi-kilogram amounts. Crack is available in the larger metropolitan areas of Colorado, generally in street level amounts. Cocaine is trafficked by Mexican poly-drug organizations typically capable of distributing other drugs as well.
Properties of Cocaine:
Cocaine is a powerfully addictive drug of abuse. Once having tried cocaine, an individual cannot predict or control the extent to which he or she will continue to use the drug. Cocaine is often thought of as being a drug of the 80's and has been replaced by crack, but Colorado Drug Rehab receives many calls from people throughout Colorado that are snorting cocaine and report that they don't do crack because of its addiction potential. We have found that there is an abundance of misinformation about addiction by most users and even though crack does lead very quickly to a strong and highly compulsive addiction, cocaine is not much less addicting if used on a frequent basis.
The major routes of administration of cocaine are sniffing or snorting, injecting, and smoking (including free-base and crack cocaine). Snorting is the process of inhaling cocaine powder through the nose where it is absorbed into the bloodstream through the nasal tissues. Injecting is the act of using a needle to release the drug directly into the bloodstream. Smoking involves inhaling cocaine vapor or smoke into the lungs where absorption into the bloodstream is as rapid as by injection.
There is great risk whether cocaine is ingested by inhalation (snorting), injection, or smoking. It appears that compulsive cocaine use may develop even more rapidly if the substance is smoked rather than snorted. Smoking allows extremely high doses of cocaine to reach the brain very quickly and brings an intense and immediate high. The injecting drug user is at risk for transmitting or acquiring HIV infection/AIDS if needles or other injection equipment are shared.
Cocaine is a strong central nervous system stimulant that interferes with the reabsorption process of dopamine, a chemical messenger associated with pleasure and movement. Dopamine is released as part of the brain's reward system and is involved in the high that characterizes cocaine consumption.
Characteristics of Cocaine Consumption:
Physical effects of cocaine use include constricted peripheral blood vessels, dilated pupils, and increased temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure. The duration of cocaine's immediate euphoric effects, which include hyper-stimulation, reduced fatigue, and mental clarity, depends on the route of administration. The faster the absorption, the more intense the high. On the other hand, the faster the absorption, the shorter the duration of action. The high from snorting may last 15 to 30 minutes, while that from smoking may last 5 to 10 minutes. Increased use can reduce the period of stimulation.
Users of cocaine report feelings of restlessness, irritability, and anxiety. An appreciable tolerance to the high may be developed, and many addicts report that they seek but fail to achieve as much pleasure as they did from their first exposure. Scientific evidence suggests that the powerful neuropsychologic reinforcing property of cocaine is responsible for an individual's continued use, despite harmful physical and social consequences. In rare instances, sudden death can occur on the first use of cocaine or unexpectedly thereafter. However, there is no way to determine who is prone to sudden death.
High doses of cocaine and/or prolonged use can trigger paranoia. Smoking crack cocaine can produce a particularly aggressive paranoid behavior in users. When addicted individuals stop using cocaine, they often become depressed. This also may lead to further cocaine use to alleviate depression. Prolonged cocaine snorting can result in ulceration of the mucous membrane of the nose and can damage the nasal septum enough to cause it to collapse. Cocaine-related deaths are often a result of cardiac arrest or seizures followed by respiratory arrest.
Added Danger: Mixing with Alcohol
When people mix cocaine and alcohol consumption, they are compounding the danger each drug poses and unknowingly forming a complex chemical experiment within their bodies. NIDA-funded researchers have found that the human liver combines cocaine and alcohol and manufactures a third substance, cocaethylene, that intensifies cocaine's euphoric effects, while possibly increasing the risk of sudden death.
Cocaine Drug Rehab in Colorado: Call 877-444-1137
1. Biophysical Drug Rehab
Biophysical treatment methods get the residue of the drugs out of the body. Through research, it has been found that the human body will store a residue, called a metabolite of the drug, in the dromat fat tissue for 5 – 7 years after drug use/abuse. When a person stops using drugs, this residue of the fat-soluable drugs begins to be released back into the blood stream which causes cravings, anxiety, and depression in the addict who may be trying desparately to curtail his use.
This can go on for literally years and is the major reason why many programs claim that addiction is a life-long disease. As these toxins are released back into the blood stream, it causes the struggling drug affected person to experience some of the original drug effect and causes depression and mental health problems that lead many to see advice from psychiatrist who will then perscribe a psychiatric medication, which leads to more toxins in the body to add to the emotional rollercoaster that most recovering people experience daily.
Drugs like heroin, oxycontin, cocaine, and meth are more powerful than the natural chemicals the brain produces to be happy, so these "flash-back" type experiences overpower ones natural chemistry. It takes at least a year for this natural chemical balance to be restored and most "recoverying" addicts cannot take the anxiety and depression they are causing for any length of time without relapsing back to otheir drug of choice or drug of availability.
The Biophysical method uses a purification technology in conjunction with vitamins and minerals to release these toxic residues stored in fat tissue, back into the blood stream where they are then forced out of the body, leaving the person free of this contamination and free of the cravings, anxiety or depression caused by the side effects of these drugs. This enables a return to a natural chemical balance, which is wjy these types of programs don't subscribe to the addige, "Once and Addict, Always and Addict". This type of drug rehabilitation center uses a social educational model to restore ethics and build life-skills to ensure their graduates are drug free and productive members of society. Drug Rehab Programs with this method are having a success rate of over 78%. This is why Biophysical drug treatment centers are the most highly recommended and fastest growning form of treatment.
2. Drug Rehab using behavioral modification
Behavioral Modification gained popularity in the 1970's and is based on the Pavlovian idea that man is an animal and changes actions based on stimulus and response. It was popular during these early years for teachers to have bags of M&M's to reward children for proper responses. In drug treatment, the Therapeutic Community model was developed, which uses reiducule and shamming tatics rather than M&M's in an attempt to change thinking and behavior. These program are popular with criminal justice populations and have demonstrated less than a 10% long-term success rate. As long as the person is in the original group and has gained some privledges for being a "perfect client", the compliance is high, but for those that need support to make changes, it can be devistating and leads to many clients exiting the programs early to maintain some personal power and dignity.
3. Drug rehab using a 12-step approach
This method of recovery is employed by Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous,Cocaine Anonymous and many other Anonymous groups.
The originators of Alcoholics Anonymousof (A.A.) looked long and hard for something, anything, that would work to save alcoholics from self-destruction, anything to break the cycle of addiction. In the 1930's alcoholics were thought of as the retrobates of society and were usually institutionalized in psychiatric centers as being insane and given horendous treatment, which, of course, didn't solve the addiction. So, the original work of the two founders of the 12-step approach are to be commended for reclassifing the problem, but, unfortunately, in the process, they removed all of the personal responsibility by making addiction a disease.
There are many positive aspects of the 12-step approach in that it gets addicts into communication about their lives and their addiction and that is far better than the isolation that they were experiencing. However, it falls short of the truth about addiction and actually relables the problem to fit their philosophy and doesn't actually treat the addiction, but supports addicts with the idea that there is no cure, but by belonging to a like-minded group, one can stay off of alcohol and other drugs and survive at a higher level.
This recovery method was never intended to be institutionalized into a treatment modality, but when insurance programs in the 1970's began to pay for up to 30 days of addiction treatment, many progams oped througout the US and huge profits were actualized for their owners. Soon the insurance companies looked at the lack of ongoing success and have since drastically reduce their support of any form of addiction treatment. These 30-day, 12-step programs do not pretend to graduate their patients free of relapse, but contend that addiction is a disease of relapse and that will continue throughout ones life. They believe that addiction is a chronic and progressive disease, meaning that is last forever and gets worse even when one isn't drinking or using. Less than 10% of their graduates stay clean long enough to rebuild their lives.
4. Christian or Religious based treatment
Many families soon become frustrated with behavior modification and 12-step treatment approaches, and for good reason, and turn to religious programs for an answer. These program usually don't profess to doing treatment, but are structured to bring fundimental religious beliefs into the void of spiritual feelings seen in all addicts. To develop the moral/ethics and spiriual support in anyone suffering from addiction is an important component of any program, but in itself, it has proven to be insufficient in graduating a higher than 5-10% success.
As you my have noticed, other than the Biophysical approach, all other modalities of treatment are only successful at a miminal level of 10% or less. This correlates with the fact that about 10% of the addict population will recover from their problems without any clinical interventions whatsoever, so in looking at these forms of treatment, you might find that it satisfies some part of your common sense that addicts may need some of these measures, like religion, but effective treatment of this problem is either comprehensive and successful or it depends totally on the strengths of the individual to be a success.
All program, other than biophysical programs, depend on their graduates to live within the newly acquired philosophy and to limit their contacts and associations to others that follow those ideals and ideas. This is not very realistic and, therefore you can see that very few remove themselves from addiction at a level that one should expect of a center that is treating a problem of any magnitude.
*Information on cocaine obtained from the National Drug Intelligence Center. http://www.usdoj.gov/ndic/pubs4/4300/cocaine.htm
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