His sentence was exceptionally harsh because he was accused of dealing crack cocaine, which under federal law carries a much more severe minimum sentence than powder cocaine. When Terrance Stanton was 26 years old, he was arrested for intending to sell roughly 10 ounces of drugs and was given life in prison. If you or a loved one are living with addiction, WebMD Connect to Care Advisors are standing by to help.Steven Scarborough writes this week on the bipartisan EQUAL Act: According to Cleveland Clinic, other signs include depression, loss of interests, weight loss, runny nose, paranoia, anxiety, and financial issues. The main sign is that you are unable to stop using your drug of choice. There are multiple signs that you may need help curving cocaine or crack addiction. People who smoke cocaine are also more likely to crave more,” Palamar says. Smoking and injecting lead to quicker onset of effects as compared to sniffing or using orally. “Crack reaches the brain quicker and in a more intense matter because it is smoked.

This means that because of the rapid high from crack, crack users are more likely to abuse the drug than powder cocaine users.īut, how addictive is crack? The quick and short high of the drug makes the likeliness of crack addiction higher than that of cocaine. However, the intoxication from crack comes on more quickly than cocaine and lasts for a shorter period of time, according to Cleveland Clinic. Since cocaine and crack are identical in terms of their pharmacology, neither is more addictive than the other. Third, society tends to stigmatize crack more than powder cocaine.” Is One More Addictive Than The Other? Second, being caught with crack places you at a higher risk for being sentenced because the law treats crack possession more severely than powder cocaine possession. 'First, crack is smoked which increases the risk for addiction, in part, because of the quicker onset of effects. Palamar, PhD, MPH, associate professor at the Department of Population Health at the New York University Langone Medical Center tells WebMD Connect To Care. “Crack can be riskier than powder cocaine in three ways,'Joseph J. The Drug Policy Alliance states that because of the many options for taking cocaine, the drug tends to be more expensive than crack. Cocaine has many options that include snorting, injecting, and swallowing. But the key difference between the two drugs is how they are taken. The Main Difference Between Cocaine and CrackĬocaine is a powder and crack is a rock. You may wonder how these drugs differ and if one is more dangerous to use than the other.

Cocaine and crack look different to the naked eye but these drugs have no pharmacological differences, according to Drug Policy Alliance.

Crack vs cocaine sentencing