Slang for freebase or alkaloidal cocaine. The name derives from the cracking sound cocaine makes when heated. Also known as “rock” because of its crystallized appearance, alkaloidal cocaine is ingested by inhalation of vapors produced from heating. The drug induces a sense of exhilaration in the user, primarily by blocking the reuptake of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the midbrain.
Freebase or alkaloidal cocaine.
Street name for a form of cocaine prepared from an aqueous solution of cocaine hydrochloride to which ammonia (with or without baking soda) has been added. This causes the alkaloidal form of cocaine to be precipitated. Because crack is not destroyed by heating, it may be smoked. The neuropsychiatric effects of crack are very brief compared with those of ingested or injected cocaine, but more intense. Adverse physiological effects of the drug include changes in behavior, compulsive use (addiction), cardiac dysrhythmias, coronary ischemia, stroke, and damage to the fetus during pregnancy, among others.
Crack is crystallized freebase cocaine sold in the form of ready-to-smoke “rocks.” The rocks are nicknamed crack because of the crackling sound they make as they are smoked. The drug is an illegal CNS stimulant. Because crack is such a pure drug (about 90 percent pure cocaine) and is approximately five times more potent than cocaine, smoking crack gives the user a far more intense and rapid euphoria than does snorting cocaine.