Questions About Cocaine Overdose?
Question by Hannah: Questions about cocaine overdose?
Can you die from a cocaine overdose? And can you overdose by snorting it? Also, what happens when you overdose? Like what reactions do you have? And how long would you need to stay in the hospital if you OD and almost die?
Best answer:
Answer by Little Dove
Sniffing cocaine can result in an overdose. It is called an overdose when the effects of the cocaine turn out badly or when the used dose is lethal. Both are possible when sniffing cocaine. When the effects of the cocaine turn out badly, the user feels restless, anxious and suspicious. Sometimes the user feels so suspicious that it can turn into paranoid delusions. For example, users may be afraid that they are being followed.
However, an overdose can be worse and lead to heart and respiratory problems resulting in death, especially with intravenous use and smoking or basing cocaine. When cocaine is injected, death can follow very fast, even after only a few minutes. Smoking or basing can also have the same effects. Fortunately, a lethal overdose is fairly uncommon.
The causes of a fatal overdose are:
Disturbance of the heart and blood vessel system. An overdose can lead to a strong irregular functioning of the heart, and eventually failure of the heart. It can cause high blood pressure, and as a result, bleeding in the brain leading to a greater possibility of death by brain hemorrhage.
Repeated convulsions , which can happen in such quick succession that consciousness cannot be restored.
Respiratory problems resulting in respiratory failure.
There are a lot of differences in toxic or deadly doses. Some users stay alive after using a few grams while others who are allergic to cocaine can die of a small dose. The exact amount of cocaine that causes an overdose varies from person to person and depends on a variety of factors including physical condition and possible diseases. Obviously, heart problems or a blood vessel disorder in the brain increase the risk of an overdose. The combination of cocaine with other narcotics or alcohol can increase the risks as well. Therefore, it is difficult to determine a standard for a too high dosage, also because cocaine is often cut up.
Answer by Tim
You most certainly can OD from cocaine. You absolutely can OD from snorting it (most deaths from non-rock cocaine occur from snorting it, since that is the most common usage route for powder). Ok, this one about what will happen when you OD on it will take a bit more time to answer. Cocaine is quite a toxic drug, but it doesn’t have the same direct OD effects of something like heroin (which kills you from the drug itself suppressing your breathing and making your lungs fill with fluid). Instead, the OD from cocaine would likely do the most damage from the secondary effects rather than primary toxic effects. For cocaine, this usually means heart-attack, stroke, and other heart-related effects (seizures are also very possible). However, I do know someone years ago who smoked crack for many, many hours straight, and while he never had any heart-related effects, he did actually suffer some kind of acute cocaine toxicity where his neck and back muscles stiffened up and he could not unclinch his jaw or move his head naturally. He went to the hospital and they said it was cocaine toxicity. This is not that common, though, and most major medical emergencies related to cocaine over-dose are heart-related or seizure-related.
I am not sure how long someone would be the hospital, though. It depends on the extent of the damage. If it was mostly a scare with little real physical damage, you would likely be discharged in under 24 hours. If there was physical harm, you would be discharged after they performed whatever procedures and care were needed and possibly after a time of observation.