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Article: A Neural Short Circuit; Cocaine Jolts User Into Craving More
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- July 31, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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They come into the emergency room with speeding hearts and
soaring blood pressure. They are frantic, hyperactive, can't be
calmed down. They can't sleep. Sometimes they fight and shout.
Sometimes they don't know what they took. Just cocaine? Mixed with
liquor, or some other pills, or maybe heroin, too?
Often, they don't know how much they took. Neither do the
doctors. Nor, in a sense, does it really matter.
How much cocaine is taken may have little to do with the body's
reaction. Neither doctors nor users can figure out how much is too
much, how much is deadly. There are too many variables, too many
unknowns.
There is almost always a cocaine case on the wall chart of
patients at the ...