Posted by undopaminergic on July 6, 2008, at 8:59:28
In reply to Re: Alcohol and Anti-depressants., posted by fayeroe on July 6, 2008, at 7:24:30
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> The Awareness Campaign says when cocaine is taken with alcohol it combines in the system to form another drug, cocaethylene, which is more toxic than either drug alone.
>There is some evidence that cocaethylene is a better stimulant than cocaine itself - it may be more potent as a dopamine reuptake inhibitor. It's probably a reason for some of the popularity of the cocaine-alcohol combination. Indeed, when cocaine enjoyed its first era of popularity in the West, it was most often marketed as an additive to alcoholic beverages. A particularly famous product was Vin Mariani, which was endorsed by the Pope, amongst many other celebrities.
Of course, anything coming from a "National Drugs Awareness Campaign" should be taken with a major grain of salt, as any claims of danger or toxicity are guaranteed to be greatly exaggerated. Notably, this article manages to transform the major benefit to combining alcohol and cocaine - cocaethylene - into the major drawback. However, despite all the bias and exaggeration, it may still be a good idea to keep in mind that excessive use of these and many - or most - other drugs may have adverse consequences.
poster:undopaminergic
thread:838143
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080706/msgs/838346.html