Crack Cocaine's Long-term Side Effects

Crack cocaine is a drug that belongs to a class of narcotics called stimulates, and it is a derivative of cocaine. Crack cocaine works by preventing the breakdown of serotonin within the brain. Serotonin is a chemical by which normal brain cells signal to each other and is involved in mood regulation. Crack cocaine increases the levels of serotonin available to signal within the brain, and the increased serotonin creates the high and the feeling of euphoria involved with crack cocaine use. Long-term use of crack cocaine is incredibly harmful to the mind and body and has a number of detrimental long-term effects.

Addiction

Regular use of crack cocaine can lead to addiction, especially in individuals with a family history of addiction or alcoholism. According to Dr. Pinsky, an addiction medicine expert, addiction involves the rewriting of pleasure and survival mechanisms in the brain to respond to taking a drug. Under normal conditions, survival mechanisms in the brain become active in life-threatening situations, activating survival behaviors like the fight-or-flight response. In crack cocaine addicts, the survival response is activated in the absence of the drug, so the brain of the addict will act like it is dying if the person does not take crack cocaine. This leads to profound changes in the addict's behavior because they are desperate to take more of the drug.
Addiction is a serious disease that is treated in rehabilitation programs, or rehab. Treating addiction requires detoxing the body of the drug and eventual rewiring of the brain back to its normal state, a process that can take years.

Lung Cancer

Unlike cocaine, which can be injected intravenously, smoked or inhaled, crack cocaine is generally always smoked. Long-term smoking of crack cocaine can contribute to the development of lung cancer.
In a 1998 study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Dr. S. Barsky studied the genetic changes in the lungs of habitual crack cocaine smokers, compared to those who smoked tobacco and non-smokers. Dr. Barsky found that cocaine smokers had a much higher incidence of genetic mutations involved in the development of lung cancer, with a similar lung cancer risk to those who habitually smoked tobacco. Cocaine smokers also had a much higher incidence of genetic mutations compared to non-smokers.

Depression

Long-term use of crack cocaine can also lead to psychological disorders such as depression. Crack cocaine use significantly increases serotonin levels, which are responsible for good mood, so continual use of crack cocaine leads to sustained high serotonin levels. Over time, the brain begins to become less responsive to serotonin, causing the drug user to require higher doses to get high. Eventually, the brain can become so unresponsive to serotonin that the crack cocaine user may suffer from depression.
According to the George Washington University, a crack cocaine user will often experience depression after the high from the drug wears off, called the crash. Additionally, long-term crack cocaine users will often suffer from depression upon withdrawal, since the brain is unresponsive to normal levels of serotonin. Serotonin insensitivity can eventually resolve itself, but it can be a long process. Depression may persist long after an individual has stopped using the drug.