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Stimulants speed up signals passing through the central nervous system, that is, the brain
and the spinal column. The two major stimulants are amphetamine (and its sister drug,
methamphetamine) and cocaine, along with crack cocaine. Of all drug types, the stimulants
possess the greatest immediate sensual appeal: In comparison with other drugs or drug
types, persons administered them for the first time enjoy their effects most and are most
likely to say they want to take them again, In small doses, stimulants increase concentration, mental acuity, and physical performance. In moderate to high doses, however, mental
processes go haywire and physical activity becomes counterproductive and compulsive.
Amphetamines and their sister drug, methamphetamine, are called "speed," "ups,"
"pep pills," "crystal," "glass," and, most recently, "ice." The amphetamines stimulate
arousal, enhance alertness, cause a diminution of fatigue, and inhibit sleep. They have been
used for a variety of medical and psychatric ills; overprescribed in the 1960s, today, the
pharmaceutical use of the amphetamines is approved for only an extremely narrow range
of ailments. Although amphetamine use among the young outstrips that of cocaine, it remains vastly below marijuana with respect to the number who use and its total volume of
use. Its peak years were in the early 1980s.
There are several somewhat different street or illicit amphetamine "scenes." One is the
illegal instrumental use of speed-for instance, staying up all night to study for an exam.
Another is recreational multiple drug use-that is, using amphetamine along with other
drugs, such as alcohol, the club drugs (including Ecstasy), LSD, and marijuana. And the
third is the hgh-dose use of methamphetamine. In the 1960s, "rneth" was injected; from the
late 1980s into the 2000s, it tends to be smoked. Today, the use of methamphetamine remains regionalized; evidence suggests that it is extremely rare in most large cities of the
eastern United States. It is not a major drug of use among schoolchildren, including h g h
school seniors. Although its use represents a serious drug problem in much of the West and
Midwest, the predicted nationwide epidemic of "ice" abuse has not yet come to pass. The
heavy, compulsive use of the amphetamines and methamphetamine leads to paranoia, psychosis, behavioral fixations, and behavioral dependence, in addition to the medical hann
that results from the lifestyle in which speed freaks indulge.
The amphetamines and cocaine have similar effects; cocaine is a much faster-acting
drug, however, and its effects are more transient. Cocaine in its natural form has been used
for thousands of years; the Inca worshpped it as a god. Cocaine was extracted from the coca
leaf in the 1860s. For a time, the drug's effects were thought to be entirely beneficial; cocaine
in one form or another could be found in a variety of tonics, concoctions, and pseudomedicines. It is believed that public sentiment favoring the earliest laws against cocaine,
passed in the United States in the early twentieth century, resulted from the fear among many
whltes that African-Americans became violent under the influence and committed crimes
against whites, especially white women. These fears were completely groundless, of course,
but they were instrumental in the passage of anticocaine laws nearly a century ago.
Cocaine is either sniffed or snorted, in its powdered form, or smoked, in its crystalline
form. (Some users also inject cocaine IV.) Smoking is an extremely efficient and effective
form of using cocaine, and produces a rapid, intense "rush" that is highly reinforcing and
often leads to behavioral dependence.
The use of cocaine rose sharply between the 1960s and the late 1970s, declined in the
1980s, and may have increased slightly into the 1990s and the 2000s. However, the figures
supplied by DAWN indicate that emergency department episodes and medical examiner reports involving cocaine have increased sharply since records were kept. (These figures have
not, however, increased into the 2000s.) This may indicate a stable or possibly increasing
population of heavy users (as opposed to more typical, less compulsive recreational users),
purer and therefore more dangerous cocaine on the streets over time, andlor the fact that cocaine users are aging, and hence becoming more vulnerable to the ravages of the drug.
Although cocaine does not produce the "classic" picture of addiction, and hence withdrawal, the abstinence syndrome associated with cocaine use indicates a dependency
nonetheless. In any case, the drug clearly generates behavioral dependence, that is, the desire to take it over and over again regardless of personal and financial cost. However, most
users do not become behaviorally dependent; who an individual is determines dependence
far more than does the nature of the drug he or she is takmg. Patterns of use among a broad
spectrum of users indicate there is no single or stereotypical cocaine user and no inevitable
result of using the drug.
In the 1970s, expert judgments about cocaine's effects tended to underplay its harmful
potential; today, almost without exception, experts see it as far more harmful.
Crack is a crystalline and impure form of cocaine that is smoked. The difference between powder cocaine and crack is not so much the composition of these two substances
but the route of administration. Crack became extremely popular in mid- 1985. Hysteria was
generated about the use of thls drug in extremely short order. Crack never became widely
used on a national basis, and its dangers were greatly exaggerated. By about 1990, the crack
"epidemic" had begun to abate. Although the drug is less dangerous than the public believes, it is a far from safe drug; its use left harm in its wake that will continue to be felt well
into the twenty-first century.
For decades, an urban legend circulated to the effect that the government and/or big
business had "planted," "sold," or "distributed", harmful, addicting drugs-variously,
heroin, cocaine, or crack-in the Black community to commit genocide against AfricanAmericans. No evidence has been found to support this claim. In 1996, Gary Webb wrote
a series of articles for the Sun Jose Mercury News that later became a book, Dark Alliance,
which presumably documented the assertion that the CIA, through two Nicaraguan Contra
leaders, supplied cocaine to a Los Angeles drug dealer, igniting the crack epidemic. Though
Webb's story received an enormous measure of attention, it was based largely on interviews
with a drug dealer who faced a life sentence for dealing; no documentary evidence backs
up the claims. Nine months after Webb's articles appeared, his newspaper published a warning that they were "flawed," "not supported by the facts." Several newspapers, including
The New York Times and The Washington Post,could not verify Webb's assertions.