Tips for Safer Use: Crack and Cocaine

Tips for Safer Use: Crack and Cocaine

What cocaine does: Cocaine speeds up the body’s nervous and cardiovascular systems, meaning it causes a sudden increase in heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature.

DO:

• Stay hydrated.

• Take breaks. The use of cocaine, crack, and any stimulant can lead to insomnia and sleep deprivation.

• Test your drugs. Remember, the drug supply is often unreliable and potency can change from batch to batch, seller to seller, and city to city. The same dose can feel different.

• Different ways of using cocaine are associated with different risks. Generally, snorting has less risks than smoking or injecting, and injecting has the most risks

Reducing Risk of Cverdose

• Avoid mixing cocaine or crack with other drugs or alcohol. If you do, use less of each drug.

• Start with a small amount and go slowly.

• Avoid using when alone. See the back of this pamphlet for resources.

• Carry naloxone, a medication that can reverse an overdose if an opioid, like fentanyl, is mixed in

• Talk with your doctor about how to prevent serious health problems associated with overdose, such as heart attack, stroke, abnormal heart rhythm, very high blood pressure and death.

Reducing Risk When Smoking

• Add a mouthpiece to your pipe to reduce risks of burns to the lips, mouth, and throat.

• Use a wire screen, Chore boy, or brillo as a filter and let the pipe cool down between hits to prevent inhaling hot particles. See a doctor if you feel any pain when breathing after using.

• Keep lips hydrated with lip balm to reduce risk of cuts.

• Avoid using homemade crack pipes. Homemade crack pipes may get too hot, give off toxic fumes, or break while in use, which can lead to burns, cuts, or infections.

• Avoid sharing your pipe to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, including HIV and hepatitis C. If you do need to share, use different mouthpieces.

• If smoking with foil (chasing), use real tinfoil and not foil from packaged foods like candy bars. This type of foil can be contaminated.

Reducing Risk When Snorting

• Grind cocaine to remove clumps and hard pieces that can be painful while snorting and increase risk of injury to the nasal cavity.

• Use your own sterile straw and scooping spoon and avoid sharing to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, including HIV and hepatitis C.

• Alternate snorting sessions between both nostrils. This can help reduce risk of tissue damage in the nose.

• Use a water or saline nasal spray or sniff up water immediately after snorting to dissolve the remaining coke. This will significantly reduce the potential damage to your nose.

Reduce Risks When Injecting

• Clean your injection site with an alcohol pad before injecting.

• Use a sharp, sterile syringe each time you inject.

• Use sterile water when preparing your solution.

• Pull up the solution by inserting the syringe into a filter (such as a cotton ball - avoid cigarette filters).

• Rotate where you inject and make sure you’re in a vein before you inject.

• Do not inject over a skin ulceration or wound.

• Do not share equipment (such as syringes and cookers) to avoid the spread of infectious diseases, including HIV and hepatitis C.

• Dispose of your syringes in a safe place after using.

Responding to a non-emergency situation: Anxiety and mental discomfort can happen. These suggestions can help manage these uncomfortable feelings

• Cool down – take a shower if possible

• Hydrate and eat

• Rest

• Change environment – go somewhere you’re more comfortable

• Breathing exercises – breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth

When to call 911:

• Strokes – numbness, inability to move one part of the body, facial droop, inability to speak

• Heart attack – crushing chest pain or pressure, worse pain with movement, intense sweating, nausea

• Overheating – body temperature over 104 degrees Fahrenheit

• Seizures

• Psychosis