Individuals may use cocaine for the exhilarating high, increased energy, and improved confidence. They may also seek the approval of their peers, stress reduction, or rebellion against authority. Information that they are missing is that cocaine use can disrupt the chemical balance in the brain, depleting the "feel good" chemicals the brain needs to function normally after the "high" wears off. That's why users experience fatigue and depression or "crash" after the intoxicating effects subsides.

Benzoylecognine, a metabolite unique to cocaine, can be detected in the urine 2-4 days. The disruption to brain chemistry can remain for much longer. Individuals who have become dependent on cocaine will feel intense cravings for cocaine long after use has ceased making recovery difficult.

Many are unaware that their first exposure to cocaine could leave them vulnerable to addiction. This information could have saved them lots of heartache and money if they had known. Using mice for testing, scientists found that just one single use of cocaine could trigger a long-lasting surge of activity in the part of the brain linked to the development of addiction. And they said this could also be the reason why former drug users fall back into addiction after just one relapse. Drug groups are now hoping to dispel the widely held misconception that cocaine is a safer, less addictive, drug than others.