Why does cocaine damage cartilage in the nose?
Is it the cocaine itself,or the junk its usually cut with?
And why isn’t soft tissue affected?
If I recall properly, cocaine is usually made in the form of a hydrochloride salt and excessive use slowly damages the cartliage. Why soft tissue isn’t affected I don’t know.
Anecdotal evidence here-
I used to snort A LOT of cocaine, and it ate a hole in my septum. A big one. Some day I may have to break down and get it fixed, but I’m scared to. So instead, I just put up with having a runny nose almost all the time.
This site tells us:
which maybe isn’t as much why as you are looking for.
Maybe it does damage the soft tissue, but that grows back. Perhaps the cartilage cannot heal, so the damage builds up.
Cocaine is a vasoconstrictor. Repeated use causes hypoxia in the mucosal and underlying tissue of the nose from blood vessels squeezing down and failing to deliver promised nutrients, which causes it to die. Cartilage is not real good about growing back.
That’s my educated WAG.
QtM, MD