Both Mr. Steinberg and Ms. Nussbaum were in a severe state of cocaine psychosis.

But he said after experiencing two days of "cocaine psychosis" following a disastrous evening at a celebrity-filled party in Miami, he finally got the message.

"We thought it might be cocaine psychosis."

He was suffering from cocaine psychosis.

Recognition of the dangers posed by cocaine psychosis has led the Police Department to modify its procedures.

Fleischl-Marxow developed an acute case of "cocaine psychosis", and soon returned to using morphine, dying a few years later after more suffering from intolerable pain.

High cocaine use can induce "cocaine psychosis" and is often mistaken for paranoid schizophrenia with similar symptoms.

With powdered cocaine taken through the nose, cocaine psychosis can take years to develop, and most users have never experienced the condition.

Long-term use leads to cocaine psychosis, a bizarre state of being in which body and mind are rapidly destroyed.

"It is a difficult problem to distinguish between actions people take to escape and some of the manifestations of cocaine psychosis," said Chief Kelly.