Opinions - should swim turn some of his cocaine into crack ?

[Creeping Death]

SWIM and his homeboys are planning to buy 25 grams of good kola. swim gave SWIM the nice idea that maybe SWIM should take 2-3 grams of this kola, and cook it into crack.

Crack doesn't exist in sweden. But swim has read about how it's done and seen videos of the process (all you need is some baking soda!). swim thought it would be fun to try it out, maybe others would be interested later on.

Now, swim has always been interested in smoking crack. But SWIM does not have much experience with these super strong drugs. The most powerful drug swim has done is something that he was given once at a hospital. It had a very intense rush, and swim was really fucked up. swim just felt really good, had an awsome headrush, and couldn't stop laughing. swim didn't remember much of the experience after. I only recived this once, and swim doesn't touch the "heavy" drugs. Except benzos, wich are really not so heavy.

swim has heard that crack is so strong that even people that can handle heroin get hooked on it.

Is it a good idea to hit the crack? swim knows that SWIM and the rest of the homeboys will smoke it. Anybody been in a similar situation?

[old hippie 56]

Old swim learned his lesson on crack, never again. He done the same thing, got a good deal on a oz. Turn a 8-ball into rock. That shit whipped his ass good.

[jdrug]

Originally Posted by Creeping Death

Is it a good idea to hit the crack? swim knows that SWIM and the rest of the homeboys will smoke it. Anybody been in a similar situation?

Many have been there and most will explain that once they've hit that crack, there is no going back. You can't "un-try" it. SWIM was once at that crossroads and often wishes he could go back there and face that decision again, but of course that's not possible...

Originally Posted by Creeping Death

swim has heard that crack is so strong that even people that can handle heroin get hooked on it.

Heroin and crack are two completely different beasts and both are generally considered to be highly addictive. Experience with one does not indicate the response to the other, nor can experience with one be used to predict one's susceptibility to becoming "hooked" on the other.

Read through the posts on this site and Erowid (http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/cocaine/) to get more information and ideas regarding the experiences of others and ask more questions as they come up...

[Nicaine]

In SWIM's opinion, crack is (A) Highly fiendish while one's using it, i.e. can't get enough, (B) The more recently one's smoked it, the stronger the pull... wait a few weeks or a month and it's easy to just forget about, (C) Has no physical addiction whatsoever.

Overall, SWIM believes the addictiveness of crack is both exaggerated and overrated. Take out the social phenomena aspects and it becomes very easy to quit if one can stay away completely for a few weeks or a month. In fact, it's a great relief to be rid of it at some point, because it becomes way, WAY more trouble than it's worth. One becomes an abject slave to it, and then it's not that hard to quit (at least that was the case for SWIM).

That said, SWIM doesn't recommend trying it. Blow is more enjoyable anyway, smoking is more like a "have to" rather than a "want to."

[Creeping Death]

Originally Posted by old hippie 56

Old swim learned his lesson on crack, never again. He done the same thing, got a good deal on a oz. Turn a 8-ball into rock. That shit whipped his ass good.

Does Swim think that it was worth the lesson?

[Alicia]

Sweetie dont play with crack just stay with cola if your gonna do it. ever seen some seizure on crack.. not pretty...

[Forthesevenlakes]

Originally Posted by Creeping Death

Does Swim think that it was worth the lesson?

SWIM thinks that his lesson with crack was worth it, in the sense that it was worth trying once to see what it was like, and to dispel some of the mystery about it. SWIM does not particularly care for stimulants too much, but he enjoys cocaine once in a while. He found crack to feel almost identical to cocaine, but the onset was slightly faster and the rush larger. SWIM largely tried it to see what the hype was about, and then did not understand what the big deal was afterwards (granted, SWIM felt the same way about trying cocaine and speed for the first times too).

So, if this is the kind of the thing that has been keeping SWIY awake late at night, wondering what the feeling of crack is like, perhaps SWIY should set some strict limits on how much he'll use ahead of time, and then go do it. But prevent SWIY from making any more afterwards, just in case he likes it too much. However the highs are so similar that SWIY might be confused as to why crack and cocaine are treated so differently by people...which can be dangerous since physically, crack IS stronger, more addictive, and creates more compulsive drug-use behavior. So, like other drugs of abuse, much of the danger lies in its insidiousness; a habit can develop without one realizing it. Hence the suggestion of setting limits ahead of time, and throwing one's baking soda (or coke) away if SWIY finds himself or his boys fiending for more and compulsively making another batch, and another, and another...

[old hippie 56]

Originally Posted by Creeping Death

Does Swim think that it was worth the lesson?

Yes, it was well worth the lesson, that was over 10 yrs. ago, he hasn't touch it since.

[WrtngCocaineTutorial]

from Henningfields and Benowitzm study of Abstinences and drugs:

When it only says one thing on a line, that means they agree, if it says two things than Henningfiels is the one on the left, and Benowitzm is on the right:


1=worst 6=mildest

Abstinences:
1) Alcohol
2) Herion
3) Nicotine | Cocaine & Nicotine (benowitzm find them equal)
4) Cocaine | Caffine
5) Caffine | Marihuna
6) Marihuna | -

[radiometer]

Nicotine #3? I'd love to see the criteria.

[jdrug]

Originally Posted by WrtngCocaineTutorial

1=worst 6=mildest

Abstinences:
1) Alcohol
2) Herion
3) Nicotine | Cocaine & Nicotine (benowitzm find them equal)
4) Cocaine | Caffine
5) Caffine | Marihuna
6) Marihuna | -

So, Alcohol is the worst thing to abstain from (so one shouldn't abstain from alcohol)? What is the background of the study and who was studied? People who were determined to have a problem with these substances? Does it indicate that it is harded to quit Alcohol than caffiene?

Can you elaborate on this list/ranking?

[WrtngCocaineTutorial]

Abstinences = what happens when you're addicted and then gets "cold turkey"

You probably don't understand tha language, but scroll down ca. mid way and there there table is:

http://radikal.net/filosofi/narkotika/

[WrtngCocaineTutorial]

hmm I found what I believe is the origial and it don't compare ...

http://b.rox.com/gizmos/henningfield-benowitz/

EDIT they don't comapre, and the norwegian translator had translated "withdraw" -> abstineces, which really means withdraws symptoms in norwegain "layman language". and the study is misquoted in the first site I found, comparing them you can see that they are different yet it's the same study they reffer to

[jdrug]

Originally Posted by WrtngCocaineTutorial

Abstinences = what happens when you're addicted and then gets "cold turkey"

Abstinence means "to refrain" and does not indicate addiction is or was present. One can abstain from something even though they're not addicted. Anyway, let's assume your definition for the purposes of the ranking, I'm still confused as to what "worst" and "mildest" indicate. Does worst mean the hardest to abstain from after being addicted? Are you talking about withdrawal or just quitting or something else?

The first link doesn't appear to work. Are you referring to the "dependence" category on the second link? If so, both sources agree that the hardest to quit or highest relapse rate after quitting (using their definition of dependence) for these substances is (1 = hardest to quit, highest relapse rate):

1) Nicotine
2) Heroin
3) Cocaine
4) Alcohol
5) Caffiene
6) Marijuana

I don't know how credible or accurate this study might be, but I'm not sure I see the relevance to this thread or what it says about the decision to try crack. Perhaps you can explain further?

[INodHardOhYeah]

EDIT: never mind, I thought that SWIY was talking about starting to sell melt, unleashing the devil itself on the streets of Sweden (potentially, not an exageration).

[Akewstick]

Nicotine #3? I'd love to see the criteria.

Maybe it's as easy to get hooked on nicotine, but if they factored in how bad the withdrawals are, and how much damage it will do to the use, SWIM would have guessed alcohol and H would have been higher than nicotine.

[jdrug]

Originally Posted by Akewstick

Maybe it's as easy to get hooked on nicotine, but if they factored in how bad the withdrawals are, and how much damage it will do to the use, SWIM would have guessed alcohol and H would have been higher than nicotine.

...and that's my whole point; the list is completely worthless without some explanation regarding its meaning and the methodology used to compile it... We don't know what factors were considered.

[radiometer]

I say let's get back on topic or start a new thread, please. I contributed to this and apologize.