Cocaine is a type of drug that tends to stimulate the nervous system, cocaine can be snorted in powder form, smoked when in the form of rocks or injected when made into liquid.
According to survey of MTF, there have been important changes in the levels of overall cocaine use over the life of MTF. The percentage of the 12th grade who are abusing cocaine is just 2.9% in 2010. Use of the cocaine among 8th and 10th graders increased after 1992 before reaching peak levels in 1998 and 1999. Over the last decade, its use declined in all three grades, most recently in 12th grade.
Perceived risk levels also increased in 12th graders, since 1975 to 1986 there is a decrease in the perceived risk of the cocaine. Perceived risk of the cocaine is in its peak level during 1990’s and from there it is constant. In 2010 the percentage of the perceived risk of the cocaine is 56.
Disapproval of cocaine use by 12th graders followed a cross time pattern similar to that for perceived risk. Percentage of disapproving of using cocaine once or twice is nearly 90 in the year of 2010.
The proportion of 12th graders saying that it would be very easy for them to get cocaine was 33 percent in 1977, it increased with the time and reached its peak stage in 1989 and the percentage in this year reached to 59. After 2007, it dropped significantly and stands at 36% in 2010. The advent of crack cocaine in the early 1980s, which is a cheaper form of cocaine resulted in the increase of use and the availability of the cocaine.