Ooh, ooh, I can answer that!

Have you ever heard something really really funny and laughed so hard that it ends with a euphoric rush and a slight adrenaline burst that makes you feel more awake? That is similar to the first few moments of using cocaine. Compared to weed, I would say it is slightly more euphoric and it makes you awake in about a proportional amount to how weed makes you sleepy.

Cocaine has a clear chemical taste, but it is not entirely unpleasant, especially after you’ve done it enough to have the Pavlovian association with its effects. It is a topical anesthetic, so your nose goes numb, and then post nasal drip will eventually numb your sinuses and throat.

The rush lasts for about 10 minutes, and then there is a pleasant state of high dopamine awakeness for one to two hours. Even though you are still in a high dopamine state, the comedown from the rush about 10 minutes in will give you a moderately strong urge to use more cocaine. This cycle repeats, and if you don’t stop, the euphoria gets shorter because you are running out of happy chemicals in your brain to keep the effect going. If you don’t pay attention, it is easy to get stuck in the cycle and run through all the cocaine you have in one sitting.

The buildup of cocaine in your sinuses combined with post nasal drip will cause you to start getting little bursts of euphoria without using more coke because it is dissolving in your sinus cavity and being absorbed by the body as it shifts around in there. Sometimes, far into a night of use, it will start to make you a little tired because you are running out of calories to sustain the energetic feeling.

The comedown is rougher than weed, but not horrendous. The worst part is that the desire to use more grows bigger and bigger with every line, so once you run out, you are awake, depleted of dopamine, and have to wait out the urge to find more. People who are unable to do that are most likely to become addicts.

Crack cocaine condenses and exaggerates the aforementioned process for a huge burst of euphoria over 10 seconds combined with 30 minutes to an hour of high dopamine awakeness. The comedown effects are highly exaggerated too, and the desire to use more is intense and almost impossible to ignore. Where you are likely to use as much powder cocaine in a sitting as you had purchased, you are equally likely to use as much crack as money you have in your bank account at the moment—it is very hard to stop once you start.

Unpopular opinion, I think powder cocaine should be legal, and there should be a greater cultural awareness that consuming it in little bumps makes it exponentially more manageable than taking fat lines.