I haven't tried cocain specifically, though my college roomate told me that he had the best blowjob of his life by having the girl put some cocain in her mouth prior to the act.
What's so god-awful?
1)by taking the substance in via snorting, the impact on the brain is nearly instantanious - huge mucus membrane area, close proximity to the brain
2)The fast impact nature of the drug and the delivery system causes a high level of physical dependance
3)acidic nature of the substance when in contact with mucus membranes. I knew a woman who had no division between her two nostrils-heavy concain use had largely dissovled all the tissue of her septum, and it eventually had to be removed.
4)the effective dose is dangerously high in comperison to the leathal dose. If too much it taken by accident, death is a likely danger.
Eveything in the world can be a tool. The method that the thing is used determines if it is a tool or a destructive influence. While Drugs can be used to discover new things about the self and the external world, they can also be easily abused. While I have no problem with drugs, I have found that their possibility for abuse far outweighs their ability to be tools in an unregulated culture. where there is an attempt to outlaw and rid ourselves of drugs completely, we create a sub-culture which defies any control. By outlawing drugs in the US, we remove our ability to set up a culture where drugs and their power can be respected. In as such, we loose the ability to teach others responisble use. In such cultures, use almost always = abuse.
Take, for example, the Native American Church. They use Peyote, a cactus which naturally contains mescaline, a Schedule II substance (IIRC), in a few ceremonies. Abuse of peyote is nearly non-exsistant. It is respected for it's ability to effect the human body, it Power, and it is treated with respect accordingly. The most important aspect of this is the passing of knowledge from one generation to the next. When one is a member of the NAC, you learn how much Peyote to take, what the effects will be, who you can count on to support you while you are going through your high (or journey or trip, or whatever you want to call it).
An important fact about the use of peyote in NAC ceremonies is the fact that the active ingredient is take unrefined. Mescaline in its refined state is significantly more powerful, but the dangerous side effects are also significantly increased. By removing the chemical from it's natural setting, and all its surrounding chemicals, you remove on of the safe guards which peyote has - if you eat too much peyote, you will throw up long before you OD on mescaline. When Mescaline is taken in it;s pure form, that reaction to throw up is also removed, and taking a leathal dose is a much more likely.
In fact, the same can be said of cocain. cocoa leaves are chewed in their natural form by South American natives as a way to stay awake - a sort of coffee. There is no "high" in this form, there is no addition, there is no worry of overdosing, etc. It's not until the chemical is purified that most of the dangers come forth.
Drugs can be used for productive means, as tools. Our culture, however doesn't lend itself towards putting drugs to that use. There are certain people who do use drugs as tools, however, they need to be *VERY* careful that they don't fall into the habit of addiction. Without a social net to help direct their drug use as a tool, it's very easy to abuse it.
For me, I have found that the difficultly in keeping drug use as use and not abuse was very difficult. Being in a drug-taking environment almost requires that you are in a drug-abusing environment. Being different in such an environment is nearly impossible.
And meditation can, over much time and effort (it is not for the weak-minded), bring about as much in the way of realization and even visual and auditory halucination as any of the drugs I've tried. And the Leathal Dose for it is unknown.
lastly, as a side note, there are a few drugs, which, based on their effective dose/leathal dose comperison, as well as their side effects both during the effective time and afterwards (as the chemical is cleaned up by the body and eliminated, are not that bad. GHB, Marajuana, and others all have a great amount of effect without a great amount of physical harm. Their leathal doses are astromonical, and within limited use, the long-term physical effects are minor.
Those drugs I have little problem with (and, honestly, those drugs are classified for political and social reasons, not scientific ones), however, they are the minority. Cocain, is amongst the more dangerous drugs - given it's effects, it's dangers put it on my "not worth it" list.
edit: specific response to the question of how cocain works on the brain - you are exactly right. It triggers the brain to release all the seratonin it has stored up at once. so instead of a little at a time, making you feel ok, generally happy, you get 24 hours worth of it at once. it's like having a 30 minute sustains super orgasm. Which is exactly why you then have withdrawl. Headaches, severe depression, etc. it takes a while for you brain to create those molecules; if you use up all of it at once, you suffer until your brain has replaced them.
An addition problem is that you damage the parts of your brain that are effected by these chemicals by flooding them like that too often. by using the chemical once, you have the knowledge of this feeling like nothing else - pure bliss , as defined by how you brain senses happyness - chemicals in the brain. you then have created a desire for something you can never again have. Every time you do cocain from then on, your body releases less seratonin while also building up chemicals to sponge up any cocain it comes across - you now have a physical and mental need for this chemical just to stay in balance. You are addicted. It can happen the first time, it may never happen. It depends on your individual chemcial makeup.
Most people become addicted to cocain around the 3rd time they use it - the effect on their body is pretty significant at that point, and they most likely have begun increasing dosage in an attempt to re-expirience the initial high.
