Question: My 20 year old daughter uses cocaine every weekend to help her party till dawn, and I can’t stop her. How dangerous is this?
Cocaine is also known as crack or coke. In medicine, derivatives of cocaine are used as local anesthetics, but it is also a stimulant and a psychoactive drug that causes euphoria (artificial happiness), and it is for these purposes that your daughter is using the drug.
Cocaine is used in many forms and may be smoked, injected or sniffed. Its effects may be much more serious if the person suffers from a psychiatric condition, and it may affect a person’s ability to drive a car, operate machinery, swim or undertake any activity that requires concentration. Obviously it should never be used in pregnancy due to an increased risk of organ malformation and heart disease in the baby. The common side effects of cocaine are damage to nostrils from repeated snorting, fever, headache, irregular heart rate, dilation of pupils, loss of libido (sex drive), infertility, impotence, breast enlargement and tenderness in both sexes, menstrual period irregularities, psychiatric disturbances and abnormal breast milk production, and it may lead to a desire for more frequent use or stronger drugs of addiction.
Uncommonly it may cause high blood pressure, perforation of the nasal septum, difficulty in breathing, convulsions, stroke, dementia, heart attack, and rarely death. Cocaine also interacts with other drugs including other stimulants, antidepressants and medications acting on the brain. It also reacts with alcohol, heroin and marijuana. These reactions are all likely to make any side effects more serious. An overdose may lead to convulsions, difficulty in breathing, irregular heart rate, coma and death. If you think someone has taken an overdose of cocaine, seek urgent medical assistance.
The more refined version of cocaine known as ‘crack’ is the only form that can be smoked, and is ten times more potent than cocaine base, and is therefore more dangerous and is highly addictive. When smoked, sniffed or injected, cocaine works within seconds to cause euphoria (artificial happiness) and stimulates the brain to increase all sensations. After use, many people feel worse than before; hence they want to repeat the artificial high. The more frequently it is used, the higher the dose necessary to achieve the same sensations, and the greater the risk of serious side effects.
At 20, you cannot stop your daughter from doing anything, only advise her and counsel her to the best of your ability to be aware of the risks she is taking.

Question: What is the difference between the drugs people are arrested for and those prescribed by a doctor?
The word ‘drugs’ makes most people thinks of the illegal drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and heroin. But drugs are also the legal medications that are prescribed by your doctor or purchased over the counter from chemists. Everything from aspirin to antibiotics, and fluid tablets to vitamin C (ascorbic acid) are drugs. Any substance that has an effect on the function of the body is a drug.
It is always important to take drugs in the correct way in order to maximize their effect. Some interact with food to reduce their effectiveness; alcohol may exacerbate the side effects of others; different drugs may interact to give more potent or less effective results. Even over-the-counter preparations may interact with each other and with prescribed drugs. Check with your pharmacist or doctor.

Question: What are the anabolic steroids that athletes take? Are they really dangerous?
Anabolic steroids are drugs that build up body tissue. Oxymetholone and nandrolone (Deca-Durabolin) are examples. They are used clinically to treat severe blood diseases (eg. aplastic anaemia), some types of cancer, osteoporosis and kidney failure.
They are used illegally by athletes and body-builders in both tablet and injection form to increase muscle mass. There are many serious side effects and problems associated with their long-term use, including liver disease and damage, the development of male characteristics and cessation of periods in women, stunting of growth and early onset of puberty in children, swelling of tissue, water retention, infertility, personality disorders and voice changes. Their use must be actively discouraged, because the short-term benefits gained by athletes are often followed by long-term medical problems.