Large amounts
If you take a large amount of cocaine you might:

• get headaches
• feel dizzy
• feel restless
• become violent or aggressive
• find it hard to concentrate
• lose interest in sex
• not feel like doing anything
• have chest pain
• have a heart attack
• have convulsions (fits)
• overdose (see below)
• have psychosis – a serious psychological problem when you hear voices, imagine things, get frightened that others want to hurt you.

Long-term effects
If you use cocaine often and for a long time you may:

• become dependent
• become aggressive, violent or have more arguments than usual
• have relationship, work, money, legal or housing problems
.• Injecting cocaine over a long time can result in:
– blocked blood vessels (caused by the things sometimes mixed with cocaine) leading to serious damage to the body’s organs such as the liver, heart etc.
– inflamed blood vessels and abscesses
– a person picking at their own skin, sometimes resulting in serious damage that needs skin grafts (operations) to heal.
• Smoking freebase cocaine (crack) can cause breathing difficulties, a long-term cough, chest pain and lung damage.

Overdose
Overdose of cocaine can happen to anyone.
Even small amounts may cause overdose with some people who have an especially strong reaction to it.
When a person overdoses, it may cause:

• faster, irregular or weak heartbeat
• breathing problems
• heart failure
• bleeding blood vessels in the brain
• death.

Mixing cocaine with other drugs
People who use cocaine sometimes take other drugs at the same time to cope with some of the things cocaine does to the body. Some people take drugs such as minor tranquillisers, alcohol, marijuana or heroin to help them sleep.

This can make you dependent on several drugs at once. For example, some people need cocaine each day to get them going and minor tranquillisers each night to get to sleep.
This type of dependence can lead to many serious physical and psychological problems.

Mixing different drugs can also make you more likely to overdose.