Cocaine is a drug extracted from the leaves of the coca plant.
It is a potent natural brain stimulant and one of the most powerfully addictive drugs of abuse. Of that number, an estimated one-half million were current crack users. As in the past, the rate of current cocaine use was highest among young adults in 1994-approximately 60 percent of current cocaine users were ages 18 through 34. Major routes of administering cocaine are snorting, injecting, and smoking. When snorted, cocaine powder is inhaled through the nostrils and absorbed into the bloodstream.