AFP, published on Tuesday 02 June 2020 at 08h06
Destruction of a nasal septum, cardiac or neurological problems, sexual impotence, necrosis … Cocaine generates unknown and shamefully concealed diseases and side effects. Ex-drug addicts and drug addicts met in Colombia, the first producer of this narcotic, testify.
Leaving containment, imposed to stop the spread of the new coronavirus, risks translating into an increase in overdoses with a resumption of consumption after months of withdrawal, experts fear.
“People who have reduced their consumption during their quarantine cannot take what they used to take because it could cause an overdose,” warns Julian Quintero, director of the Institute for Social Technical Action (ATS) in Bogota, the Colombian capital confined since March 20.
Some 500,000 drug addicts die each year worldwide and 35 million of them suffer from “disorders” following their addiction, according to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) published in May.
“People find it difficult to go to the doctor for a cocaine addiction and they don’t think it causes other ailments,” said Efren Martinez, scientific director of the detoxification center of the Colectivo Aqui y Ahora foundation, stressing the difficulty. to treat these side effects, which patients are reluctant to talk about.
Here are three testimonies, collected by AFP, on the ordeal of these narco-diseases born from the inhalation of cocaine.
– Perforated nasal septum –
The bleeding did not prevent Nicolas Merizalde from snorting “perico”, a popular name for cocaine in Colombia.
“With a handkerchief, with anything, I cleaned the blood, I waited for it to dry a little, then I recovered from it again and again until bleeding,” said this 47-year-old man.
No visible trace of surgery, although its nasal septum was replaced by platinum.
Damage to the septum of the nose is generated by unrestrained consumption for a long time – in his case since his 14 years.
“The acids in cocaine have the power to devour the bone, literally,” says Martinez. And “the most serious are micro cerebral infarctions” when the nasal septum being perforated, the powder goes up to the brain.
Alcohol and marijuana, Nicolas Merizalde quickly went into “snow” and “more obsessively” than his friends: “They sniffed a line, me two”.
His life has gone into a spin. He stole, hit his girlfriend, went on drugs in Peru, was fiddled with by a dealer in exchange for his dose.
At the end of the roll, he locked himself in a motel to finish an overdose. But he failed and ended up hospitalized. Since 1995, he has been “clean” and has been running a rehabilitation center for ten years.
– Sexual impotence –
Alberto * attributes the breakup with his wife to his erectile dysfunction. “Loving” cocaine, he never imagined it would betray him in bed.
“This is the worst thing that can happen … it is what triggered our separation because my body, my life, everything depended on drugs,” said the forty-something in a hallway of the San José University Hospital. in Bogota. He was operated on for cerebral ischemia caused by white powder.
His erection difficulties started over twenty years ago. He had 22, including eight who used drugs daily.
He married, had two children, without giving up “coke”. His wife tolerated it, until he drew on the family budget.
And their intimate relationship has wilted. “When you (…) are addicted to drugs, it often negates sexual pleasure,” he says.
Cocaine forms fat clots in blood vessels, disrupting penile irrigation and therefore erection, explains toxicologist Miguel Tolosa, who followed Alberto.
But impotence was a minor problem in the face of other disorders: cerebral infarction, hepatic, coronary and renal problems.
“Drugs were the worst decision of my life, they ruined everything,” admitted Alberto, before stopping to go for medical checks and the hospital lost track of him.
– Shameful necrosis –
Jorge Rodriguez * shows his chest, back, arms. Her skin bears witness to the “hell” of cutaneous necrosis due to adulterated cocaine: it is strewn with scars the size of lenses.
“The itching did not let me do anything, read, write, or love (…) It poisons life,” recalls this 50-year-old man, at home in central Bogota.
“The bloodstained bed, the shirts … It’s a shameful disease”.
At the end of the 2010s, her body was covered with pimples, transformed into lesions.
“To go to a meeting, I had to do without painkillers on the skin,” he explains. “I had to stop having a public professional life (as a researcher and consultant) and work as a recluse”.
A cocaine user for a quarter of a century, he began to suffer after changing dealers. Five friends then presented the same symptoms.
Doctors have brought up scabies or mites. The treatments only relieved them for a few days, until the Institute for Social Technical Action (ATS) analyzed the cocaine. For more profit, the narcos had mixed it with Levamisol, a veterinary anti-parasite.
This product can cause skin necrosis in chronic consumption, according to the director of the ATS Julian Quintero, citing scientific studies.
In 2014, Jorge changed dealer, the disease disappeared. He also reduced his dose and sniffed white without additives.
But Quintero warns that pure cocaine generates more dependence and risks of overdose.
* Names changed at the request of the sources
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