Crack cocaine is heated and smoked; it is so named because it makes a cracking or popping sound when heated. The most potent form in which cocaine appears, "crack" is also the riskiest. It is between 75 and 100% pure, far stronger and more potent than regular cocaine.

It comes in solid blocks or crystals, varying in color from yellow to pale rose or white. Smoking any substance allows it to reach the brain more quickly than other routes. Smoking crack thus brings an intense and immediate high that lasts about 15 minutes. And because addiction will develop even more rapidly if the substance is smoked rather than snorted, an abuser can become addicted after the first time trying crack.

Crack causes a short-lived intense "high" that is immediately followed by the opposite, intense depression, edginess and a craving for more of the drug. People who use it often don't eat or sleep properly. They can experience greatly increased heart rates, muscle spasms and convulsions. The drug can make people feel paranoid, angry, hostile and anxious, even when they aren't high. Smoking crack can also cause severe chest pains, lung trauma and bleeding.

Regardless of how much the drug is used or how frequently, crack increases the likelihood that the user will experience a heart attack, stroke, seizures or respiratory failure, any of which can result in sudden death. As tolerance to the drug increases, it becomes necessary to take greater and greater quantities to get the same high. Prolonged daily use causes sleep deprivation and loss of appetite. A person can become psychotic and begin to experience hallucinations.

Coming down from the drug causes severe depression, which becomes deeper and deeper after each use. This can get so severe that a person will do almost anything, to get the drug. And if the abuser can't get the drug, the depression can get so intense it can drive the addict to suicide.