Although not all long-term cocaine users experience cocaine psychosis, those who do are unable to function in society. Thus, cocaine psychosis is likely to affect those personally and professionally connected to the user as well as the user himself.

Those suffering from cocaine psychosis display a variety of antisocial behaviors, such as deception, violence, and isolation.

This deception often begins with lying to friends and family about the cost and frequency of cocaine use; experts in addictive behavior note that self-deception in the form of blaming others for the user’s addiction is also common. If this pattern continues unchecked, many regular cocaine users escalate their deception to nonviolent forms of criminal behavior such as shoplifting, burglary, and forgery to pay for their cocaine habits.

Coke Bugs

One of the most common manifestations of cocaine psychosis is a sensory hallucination experienced by many long-term users who feel bugs crawling all over their bodies and in their mouths. This hallucination is so common that it has become known as “coke bugs.” Eugene Richards, in his book Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue, interviews a cocaine addict who tells this story about coke bugs:

I knew this guy, every time he got high, he thought he felt these little bugs, and he would pick at his skin and bleed. He had holes all over, he’d swear he’d see them moving, try to get them with clippers and scissors and razors. Try to dig them out. Finally, he just got a thing of Black Flag, the roach spray, and sprayed his whole body, and wound up dying. But cocaine is not supposed to do that. It does that when you do too much.

If nonviolent criminal behavior fails to generate enough money to meet the addict’s cocaine needs, violence is often the next step. Violent behavior can range from verbal assaults to the extremes of physical assault, murder, and suicide. Such antisocial behavior often results from inability to resolve their distress through conflict resolution techniques such as negotiation and compromise. The association between prolonged use of cocaine and violent behavior is well documented. One criminologist, James Lardner, held conversations with inmates in New York’s Bikers Island prison and reported that

interviews with criminals, accused criminals, former criminals, and street-savvy kids in Phoenix, New York City, and Newark, N.J., highlighted another important development: a new awareness of the harm done by hard drugs, and especially by cocaine and crack cocaine, associated with some of the worst violence of the past decade.

Often, however, it is the addict who is the victim of the violence. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), for example, reports:

Dr. Kenneth Tardiff of Cornell University Medical College in New York City headed a team of researchers that studied the 4,298 homicides that occurred in New York City during 1990 and 1991. Cocaine was found in the bodies of 31 percent of the victims. Homicide victims may have provoked violence through irritability, paranoid thinking, or verbal or physical aggression, which are known to be pharmacological effects of cocaine.

The deceptions and antisocial behavior that the cocaine abuser inevitably relies on to support his or her habit frequently alienate both friends and family. The resulting isolation tends to reinforce the user’s paranoia and depression, creating a vicious cycle that is destructive not just for the addict but for all those who deal with him or her.

Cocaine and Crime

Many cocaine and crack addicts support their habits through criminal activities. Eugene Richards, author of Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue, interviews Sally, a teenage cocaine addict with an already long history of crime:

I got shot selling drugs… The guy pulled up a .22 from the side of the car. That was years ago because I’m sixteen this year. I just got out [of jail] in January, armed theft and robbery. But I had no gun. I had some money and a lady’s pocket book and then I got caught in a stolen car. Now I live with my parents, though my favorite thing is still going downtown with other girls. I hop on the trolley downtown to see if I can steal something. Easiest stuff is pants, silk shirt, socks. I go in there and try on the pants and put my jeans on top of it, then walk out the door. Sometimes I take leather pants and get thirty, forty dollars back up here.

My mom’s around here somewhere. I don’t really do tricks [prostitution], but sometimes I sell drugs, making four hundred to five hundred dollars a week. If you add it all up, though, I blow a lot of it smoking turbos [crack mixed with marijuana] and drinking beer.

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