Deadly Drug Combos: Cocaine and Alcohol

As an addict and alcoholic I rarely did one drug at a time. Much like everything in my addiction, it was total chaos, balls to the wall, go hard or go home, do it all or don’t do it all, kind of living. The same applied to the way I used drugs. There are many times that I encountered lethal combinations. You know the combo of drugs I am talking about if you used the way I did; the combinations like Vodka and Xanax, Cocaine and Heroin (speedballs), Methadone and Valium etc. etc. etc. The list of deadly drug combos could go on and on.

The deadly drug combo I am going to be talking about today is cocaine and alcohol. As a drug addict I had the belief that actually the two worked well together; get drunk with alcohol and sober up some to keep the party going with cocaine. I knew very little about the “lethal party” I had invited into my body especially when mixing cocaine and alcohol. You see, when you invite cocaine and alcohol to mingle inside of you they invite a third person over without really asking you; cocaethylene.

This is the series deadly drug combos: Cocaine and Alcohol

When you mix cocaine and alcohol, something unique happens that is only known to happen when mixing these two substances. What happens exactly? Cocaine and alcohol literally form a third drug in your body known as cocaethylene. This third chemical, builds up in the liver over a number of years among those who mix the two drugs and can cause major health consequences. Few people outside the world of pharmacology have heard of the chemical, fewer still are aware of its life-threatening properties. Now, however, its side-effects, discovered in 1979, are threatening to become tragically familiar as they take their toll on users in their 30s and 40s. For not only is cocaethylene toxic in the liver, it is also blamed for heart attacks in the under-40s and a surge in social problems. But because so little is known about the drug, few experts can agree on the nature of the threat to users, and indeed society as a whole.

Cocaethylene isn’t the only deadly danger of mixing cocaine and alcohol though.

Many people find themselves able to drink for a longer period of time when they add cocaine to their night of drinking. In fact some studies have been done on it. The respected magazine Druglink reported that a 2006 analysis of 102 alcohol and cocaine users, carried out by the UK National Addiction Centre, found strong links between snorting cocaine and long, heavy drinking sessions. Almost half of regular powder cocaine users questioned for the analysis said that their last heavy drinking episode had lasted more than 12 hours.

The ability of cocaine users to consume vast amounts of alcohol is being blamed for an increase in sexually risky behavior among the young and rising levels of violence. Small studies in Manchester and Merseyside suggest that around half of all young people arrested for violent behavior were on drugs, and of these the majority were on cocaine. Many had been drinking prior to their arrest.

So not only can cocaine and alcohol create a more deadly “third wheel” it also can allow already heavy drinkers to drink even heavier. Heavier drinking can lead to many health and deadly problems all by itself aka alcohol poisoning. Ingesting large amounts of cocaine isn’t so great for the heart or the nasal lining either. Alcohol and cocaine by themselves can be lethal; mixing the two together is playing with fire.

Whatever way you look at it when it comes to deadly drug combos, cocaine and alcohol make a pretty great team. Cocaine and alcohol are definitely a potentially lethal combo.

If you or your loved one is in need of treatment for alcohol or cocaine addiction please give us a call at 800-951-6135.

Source:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/nov/08/cocaine-alcohol-mixture-health-risks