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A few months ago, at a party, one of my buddies told me he had already tried crack at an afterparty in Brussels. Let’s not lie, when we think of crack, we are more likely to picture lost souls hanging out in the train station than twenty-somethings who have only just taken their first steps on the job market.
A few weeks later I’m in London talking to a chill ket. At one point he tells me how he recently wandered the streets of Soho, stoned, with a homeless person after taking coke – or so he thought.
To improve my knowledge of this drug, I spoke to Dr. Félix Hever, a toxicologist at Brugmann University Hospital in Brussels, so that he could clarify a few things for me. “The effects of crack on a person are very varied,” he says. “Dopamine is released, but also noradrenaline and serotonin.” In fact, your sympathetic nervous system is activated as well as all the physical symptoms that result from it such as palpitations, sweating, extreme alertness, etc. “Basically, your body is getting ready for some serious physical exertion,” he says. “Physically you feel excitement and stimulation that comes with a feeling of euphoria, confidence and disinhibition.” Dr. Hever adds that people who are generally drug addicts and need rehabilitation at the hospital where he works are usually people who use crack.
During my search I discovered that a lot of people around me had already tried it – either accidentally or consciously. This drug, which is quite stigmatized in popular culture as extremely harmful. Crack is always seen as something dirty and for the ‘poor’. “But, on the other hand, crack – despite its reputation – is increasingly being used by people of considerable financial means, who are discovering its intense effect,” Dr. Hever continues. “The danger of addiction is considerable and the mental and physical consequences can be devastating.” To name a few: lung disease, heart attacks, strokes, psychosis, depression, hepatitis C from cold sores and shared pipes, etc. “That might not stop anyone right away,” Hever says, “but I think there are drugs that are far more dangerous and devastating. than others, and crack is definitely one of them.”
With my professional information in mind, I talked to four people of my generation – two friends and two acquaintances – about their experiences, to show that it happens more often than you might think.
James* (25), London
“I had no preconceptions about crack when I tried it five years ago, other than the saying ‘You do crack, you don’t get back’. At that time I was quite miserable and had just come from a long day of work. I went to Soho with the idea of buying some coke so I could be stoned and worry about nothing for a while. Almost instinctively, I approached a homeless person and asked if he knew anyone who could sell me some sos. That ket turned out to be super excited and convinced me to give him some money so he could get it for me. I really felt like an idiot for thinking he ripped me. But five minutes later he came back with a small bag. I took out my bank card but he stopped me and told me there was a better way to use it. I just had to run it in a saf. At that point, I should have clicked in my head and realized I was about to smoke crack, but my naivety and the need to get high took over. I’m a banker and coke is more our thing, so I can tell you I had never seen crack before.
As I picked up a taffeta, I saw the guy pull out a can and poke a hole in it. Only then did I realize that what I was smoking was not coke at all. I had just taken a big puff and so I started to feel the effects right away. I don’t know if you remember those Mentos commercials from the early 2000s where everything freezes the moment the person ate a piece of gum? That’s exactly how it felt. Everything around me slowed down, was cool and pleasant. I have to admit that it was the best trip of my life, although it was short lived because after 15 minutes I started to feel normal again. Then I simply went back home.
Thinking about it more, I know I’m never going to use it again. That’s kind of strange because I consider myself someone who can get addicted quickly, it’s a small luck that I don’t have the need to do it again.”
Alexander* (23), London
“At the time, I had just moved to Berlin. I was only 20 years old and started hanging out with a guy I had a pretty intense bond with. I followed him on social media and we became friends. He got my first tattoos and little by little he told me about different parties. This man was exactly like an initiation for me, I tried a lot of drugs for the first time with him.
But trying crack, I always said no to that, because I always linked it with the crack heads on the street. But then, one night, I went to his apartment. He lived with his girlfriend who was also a real partygoer. We went out together and soon we were snorting lines together. That guy told me he was going to a club to sell drugs, so I started talking to his girlfriend. The evening went on quite normally, until suddenly I saw something strange happening right in front of my eyes.
“It was proof to me that I didn’t need it at all.”
Just before the guy left, he took a plastic bottle and made a hole in it so that it was some kind of pipe. I asked them what they were doing and they told me they were trying to “remember their old life.” We kept talking and talking and got really high and all of a sudden I had that bottle in my hands. I don’t ask too many questions about it and just start smoking. Soon I experienced a hissing, numbing sensation coming over me and I realize that what I had just inhaled was very strong. And then I got a severe headache.
The problem was that when I spent the evening with this couple, my use was abnormal, disturbing even. That night I was so high I couldn’t even go home. That’s an experience I’ll remember for the rest of my life, but I don’t remember much about it except I’ll never do it again. It was proof to me that I didn’t need it at all. I think crack is really destructive. It destroys you, your head, your body, everything. Anyway, I’m way too pragmatic to use it again.”
Kevin* (27), London/Bangkok
“When I first tried crack I was 20. I was partying in London and looking for an excuse to party all night. Finally, I met a group of people who had invited me to an after-party at their roommate’s house. The evening went on, but a few people in the group were suddenly smoking something in aluminum foil. I was naturally interested and immediately started asking them questions, because yes, I had never seen anything like it. They told me straight out that it was crack and they offered it to me. I didn’t think too much about it and took it. Honestly, I just wanted to be stoned. The problem was that a few minutes later I had an allergic reaction, my lips were all swollen. I also suddenly got burns on my forehead. It was terrible, it hurt so much that I suffered from it for a whole week. My breath smelled really bad the next day. I actually didn’t know anything about crack until I smoked it that night.
After that night, I stayed away from crack for a very long time, until three months ago. This year I decided to move to Bangkok, and also to try crack again. This time I was completely sober and it was blissful, I was happy and confident at the same time. I didn’t sleep at all except maybe a 10 minute nap. I didn’t want to eat or drink any water. After about 12 hours of smoking, I could say with certainty that my brain was absolutely dead. I couldn’t do anything anymore, not even have a normal conversation with my best mate, I just wanted to be alone.
A month later I started again and had the exact same experience again. At first you feel absolutely great, but after that you just feel useless. You can’t sleep, you can’t talk, you can’t even think about food… I was exactly a plant. The down afterwards is just really bad, I was so depressed and confused about my life. The passion I had for my job was gone. A lot of people smoke crack in Thailand, so I decided to stop hanging out with the locals who, although they look fit and clean, smoke almost every day and try to drag me into their addiction.”
Nathan* (25), Brussels/London
“Looking back, it’s quite a funny story. Last summer I sat at the Kiosk in Brussels with a friend. We had just met a group of extravagant-looking people – whose names I won’t reveal – and we thought they looked like they could party well. The sun was just rising and we went with them for an after party at their house. I was already going well in my tipsy state, the birds were chirping, it was so nice and the people were so nice. When we arrived I was chatting a bit with everyone and saw some of them busy in the kitchen. I am a curious person and always eager to experiment. So when one of the guests gave me some sort of DIY pipe – made from a Perrier bottle – I smoked without hesitation. As I mentioned before, I was quite fond of the booze and this just kept me awake for hours longer. I wasn’t sure what I had smoked. It could have been anything.
About eight hours later I was on the subway with my buddy, we were talking about the evening and suddenly we realized that we had smoked crack. I thought it was so funny, I had always associated crack with some form of debauchery. Would I do it again? It’s not that anyone in my immediate area – except my neighbors in London, but that’s a story for another time – is really using it, so I don’t think it will be any time soon.”
*The real names are known to the editors.
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