If coca leaves made your entire mouth go numb then you'd end up biting your tongue and inner cheeks all the time and get wounds that way. It locally anaesthecizes a bit, but doesn't make your whole mouth or even face go into lala land like the dentist does when he applies Lidocaine, Articaine or Mepivacaine. It simply does not happen. Cocaine is used in some areas/countries for use by ENT surgeons to topicalise the inside of the nose. If it would numb your entire face, then these surgeons would not bother with ordering an expensive medication and just go with lidocaine that is much easier available and has less legal hurdles.
Sorry to necro this thread but it's only a few months old.
I wanted to start out first by saying that I DO generally agree with you Hexenstahl. However, I think a lot of y'all's disagreement related to issues with language or translation. It's clear that Antiprosynthesis does not speak English as their first language. I think the whole bit about alkaloid content and amounts of leaves, etc... is more just a result of their broken English. IMO it seemed like y'all actually agreed on more than you might've initially realized.
I personally went to Wingate School of Pharmacy and specifically specialized in "psychopharmacology" and the study of "drug of abuse". Though I also have a surprising amount of personal familiarity with both. After years of NA, plus a diversion program, I now stick primarily to only my few RX'd psychoactive meds (and functional alcoholism), but I used to get WILD. Like snorting H daily, trying every RC and common drug around, filling out a checklist of trying EVERY drug EVER, stealing RX drugs, getting arrested for diverting large amounts of Ketamine and then losing my clinical license levels of wild.
I don't know a crap-tonne about the exact statistics and realities of cocaine production. What I DO know however is exactly WHY it's still used in some ENT surgery practices, most plastic surgery practices, and almost every trauma center or operating theatre in the US, to this very day.
Yes, it IS a pretty effective topical anesthetic, and most other X-cain drugs are cocaine derivatives. However, Cocaine has one big side-effect which the other topical sodium channel blockers don't (unless compounded with Epi and even then it's not as effective). Cocaine is a topical anesthetic that ALSO reduces/stops bleeding. It's powerful vasoconstrictive effects aren't really carried over into the other X-cain drugs. Also, medicinal cocaine is actually fairly cheap. It's produced as a by product of de-cocanization by Stepan co. in St.Louis. The majority of their decocanated coca leaves are used by Coca-cola to make their coca based flavoring extract. Stepan co. then sells the coca extract to Mallinckrodt (a pharm company) who uses it to produce a liquid/gel solution of 4% cocaine and thicker for surgical use. That gel is most commonly used in opthamalic surgeries, septoplasty, endoscopic sinus surgery, many rhinoplasty procedures, and some more rare neurosurgery procedures (basically some eye, many and various nose, and rarely brain operations).
As for my own opinion on recreational cocaine, like the OP asked. Eh, it's alright. I've definitely spent a good plenty of evenings snorting various quality stuff. Smoked crack a few times one evening, super fun for about 2-5 minutes each, then the comedown experience was ultra-paranoid and anxious, it reminded me of a Mark Twain quote "If I ever accidentally wandered into THIS particular stageshow again, I'd gladly pay double to be let out immediately".
Generally I'd say powder cocaine definitely worth it if anyone else is footing the bill. But rarely worth it if you actually have to pay. It usually feels like climbing a snowy mountain where you can SEE the top, the peak, the true high point, but every time you try to get that last little bit of the way up there, you wind up sliding back down before reaching it.
Meth is a lot more IN YOUR FACE and noticable, but also a really jittery, anxious, gotta do shit, get hyper focused and stuck on simple tasks, kind of high. Plus it last too long to be fun unless you enjoy insomnia and malnutrition. But, you definitely FEEL it more, like a lightswitch. (I've probably done meth between 20-50 time/days in my history, so quite a bit less than powdered coke but way more than crack)
Coke is honestly more subtle, and systemic, like alcohol or opiates/opioids (my DOC). It's not overtly pushy like amphetamines, psyches, or strong dissociatives. Coke is like a car YOU'RE driving instead of being like a bullet-train where you're just along for the ride, hold on tight. Those drugs basically take you over on THEIR particular experience. Coke by itself is also not particularly dangerous in infrequent amounts. Not unless you're a long-term habitual user, like weekly or daily. It is a bit taxing on the heart, but unless you have underlying heart problems, or a familial history of heart problems, occasional nights of coke use aren't anything that will hurt you or that you can't quickly heal from.
Now remember when I said by itself it's fairly safe? Well, that's also were it's most boring. The real beauty of coke is how it pairs with a lot of OTHER drugs, as mentioned previously. Especially alcohol, if you like to drink more than you ought to, then coke takes on a better form. Cocaethylene is more euphoric and last longer than the traditional methyl-ester version (that being traditional Cocaine). Literally you just drink while doing coke (or more commonly vice-versa). Plus, cocaethylene sort-of counter-acts the traditional depressant and sloppy effects of just liquor alone. However, it also puts significantly more stress on the heart. It raises you blood pressure a lot more and increases heart rate too. This also puts more back pressure on the heart, which isn't great to do too often, and can lead to aortic aneurysms in extremely rare instances. The safe way to try cocaethylene would be to have a beer or 2 while doing like 5-10 good lines. Buuut well, the fun is really in cutting loose with both at a party (at least IME).
Lastly, your bit about taking Adderall. So I'm diagnosed ADHD and have been on various stimulant drugs on and off since high-school (in the mid-2000s). Regular Adderall use DOES have some cross tolerances with Cocaine, mainly due to homeostatis and down-regulation at related Dopamine and Norepinephrine receptor sites. Though that's another drug coke generally pairs REALLY well with. Adderall is a monoamine releasing agent, especially for Norepinephrine and some dopamine, while cocaine is a tri-reuptake inhibitor, meaning they potentiate the hell out of each other. This is questionably safe, and if anyone else were to try it, I'd advise taking much smaller amounts of each than usual. But yeah!
However, I noticed coke was a lot less enjoyable or exciting when my body was used to regular amp usuage. Coke was the best during my couple of years (mostly) totally sober. Even then, it isn't usually worth actually paying for, unless you can find the stuff all the local coke heads praise. Even then it's only maybe worth buying a couple Gs for new years. Definitely do it whenever it's free though, and have a beer if you're feeling experimental or "wild".
