- Use of cocaine over time typically leads to a physiological tolerance to the drug's potent effects, meaning the same "high" induced from the use of coke can only be achieved by increasingly larger doses.
- Chronic use of coke diminishes a person's appetite, which can result in serious malnourishment over time. For those users who snort the drug, effects also include chronic sinus problems (drainage and bleeding), loss of smell, and difficulty swallowing.
- Long-term use of coke can produce a number of serious physiological effects on the body's central nervous system, including irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia), high blood pressure, convulsions, and respiratory complications.
- One of the most detrimental long-term effects of coke is its ability to plunge the psyche into full-blown paranoid psychosis, manifested by a fundamental detachment from reality coupled with auditory, and, at times, visual hallucinations.
- The most common long-term effect of coke is addiction whereby the use of the drug grows to a persistent need, and the obtaining and use of the substance seriously interferes with normal lifestyle routine and activities.
- Long-term coke users typically suffer from withdrawal symptoms whenever their use is abruptly halted or discontinued altogether---crashing sensations of depression and fatigue, severe anxiety, irritability, sleep difficulties, and persistent cravings for the substance.
