Cocaine Drug Driving Limit = 10 µg/L
Cocaine has a small number of legitimate medical applications. It was historically useful as a topical anesthetic in eye and nasal surgery, although it is now predominantly used for nasal and lacrimal duct surgery. In 2005, researchers from Kyoto University Hospital proposed the use of cocaine in conjunction with phenylephrine administered in the form of an eye drop as a diagnostic test for Parkinson’s disease.
It is a powerful nervous system stimulant. Its effects can last from fifteen to thirty minutes, to an hour. That is all depending on the amount of the intake dosage and the route of administration. Cocaine can be in the form of fine white powder, bitter to the taste. When inhaled or injected, it causes a numbing effect. Crack cocaine is a smokeable form of cocaine made into small “rocks” by processing cocaine with sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and water.
Topical cocaine can be used as a local numbing agent to help with painful procedures in the mouth or nose.
Cocaine increases alertness, feelings of well-being and euphoria, energy and motor activity, feelings of competence and sexuality. Cocaine’s effects are very similar to that of amphetamine, however cocaine’s effects tend to be much shorter lasting, but more prominent. Cocaine, due to its effects of increased alertness and feelings of well-being, is under consideration and trials along with MDMA, for the treatment of post traumatic stress syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Anxiety, paranoia and restlessness can also occur, especially during the comedown. With excessive dosage, tremors, convulsions and increased body temperature are observed. Severe cardiac adverse events, particularly sudden cardiac death, become a serious risk at high doses due to cocaine’s blocking effect on cardiac sodium channels.
