Cocaine hydrochloride is a powder that can be snorted or injected. Crack-cocaine can be smoked or injected. Cocaine works by stimulating pleasure-giving neurotransmitters. Heroin come in several forms from brown or black tar coloured alkaloid to white hydrochloride salt. Its appearance varies considerably depending on the amount of refining and the manufacturing process, which tends to be illegal. Back to all training on drugs »
Speedballing traditionally involved the simultaneous injection of cocaine and heroin. The combined use of cocaine and heroin is not new and dates back to the 1930s. Previous to this cocaine was combined with morphine. Sigmund Freud's friend Fleischl-Marxow was speedballing in 1884. The cocaine and heroin combination was also used in medical circles in the 1950's and went by the name of the Brompton Cocktail. Speedballing first attracted widespread attention in the USA when the comedian John Belushi died from speedballing in 1982.
In 1973, scientists discovered that the brain had receptors for opiates and that the equivalent of opiates was produced naturally in the brain. These receptors were located in parts of the brain important for breathing, pain and emotions. The discovery of opiate receptors in the brain raised the question as to why neurons would have such receptors. A couple more years down the line scientists further discovered the brain manufactured its own opiates known as "endorphins". Endorphins are always present within the brain, but release is increased when people and animals are in pain or under stress.
Crack and heroin users may only rank as less than one percent of the total population. However, money spent on illicit drugs is an estimated £6.6 billion annually, a large percentage of it being spent on crack and heroin.
