acetylcholine—Neurotransmitter that relaxes the body.
alkaloids—Any of a host of organic compounds derived from plants; many are useful as medicines.
autocatalytic cycle—A cycle that fuels itself.
autonomic nervous system—The part of the nervous system responsible for unconscious actions, like heart rate. It is divided into two subparts: the sympathetic, responsible for activities that excite the body such as increasingrespiration, and the parasympathetic, responsible for activities that relax the body such as lowering blood pressure.
central nervous system (CNS)—The brain and spinal cord; sensory nerve signals are sent to the CNS and it is responsible for many bodily activities, including movement and the release of chemical signals.
codeine—An alkaloid in opium used primarily as a cough suppressant.
detection period—The amount of time for which a drug test can detect the use of a drug (this differs depending on the type of sample—urine, blood, or other).
dihydrocodeine—A rather weak analgesic related to codeine, it is usually combined with other drugs and used as a headache suppressant.
dopamine—Neurotransmitter that causes euphoric feelings.
drug sensitivity—The amount of drug needed in a drug test sample to consider it a positive result.
epinephrine—Neurotransmitter that stimulates striated muscle, which is under conscious control.
fentanyl—A semi-synthetic opioid that is a much more powerful version of morphine. It is used during surgery as an anesthetic and is extremely dangerous when taken in a nonmedical context.
gas chromatography—A method for detecting the presence of illicit drugs in blood or urine. The sample is first inserted into the machine and vaporized (turned into a gas). As it vaporizes, different metabolites within the sample vaporize at different times, called retention times. The time differences are recorded and analyzed by the machine, which is pre-programmed to recognize the retention times of prohibited drugs.
heroin—A powerful, highly addictive narcotic made by boiling morphine; also known as diacetylmorphine.
hydrocodone—A widely prescribed, and abused, pharmaceutical designed as a pain-reliever.
hydromorphone—A pharmaceutical product used to combat severe pain.
immunoassays—Amethod for detecting the presence of illicit drugs in urine. Immunoassays involve the use of antibodies, proteins that can recognize and bind to a specific substance. To test for illegal opiate drugs, scientists find antibodies for the metabolite traces left by drugs in the urine. The urine and a solvent containing the antibodies are mixed together and scientists are then able to deduce if a drug is present by the reaction between the two substances.
laudanum—A mixture of opium and liquor once commonplace in English households.
mass spectrometry—A method for detecting the presence of illicit drugs in blood or urine. It uses an electron beam to separate the vaporized sample into its different ions according to their mass. The machine is able to separate all of the ions into groups and measure their concentrations. The metabolites for many enhancement drugs leave their
own unique signature.
meperidine—Also known as pethidine, it is a synthetic opioid that is often used in place of morphine to treat pain.
methadone—A synthetic opioid that is commonly used today to treat heroin addicts.
morphine—Opium’s most abundant alkaloid and active ingredient; used as a narcotic agent.
mules—The colloquial term for someone who smuggles illegal drugs on their person.
neurons—Nervous system cells with the specific job of transmitting signals to each other to coordinate a host of bodily functions.
neurotransmitters—Chemicals released by neurons to communicate with each other.
norepinephrine—Neurotransmitter that stimulates smooth muscles such as the heart and keeps blood pressure from lowering too much.
noscapine—A benzylisoquinoline alkaloid from opium that has only minimal medicinal and narcotic capabilities.
nostrums—Untested medications, produced by patent medicine makers, combining all kinds of natural products and drugs.
opioid receptors—A chemical lock-and-key mechanism located on cell surfaces that works because it allows only certain chemicals—in this case, opiates—to fit and thus communicate with the cell. There are three classifications of opioid receptors, mu, delta, and kappa.
opium—The narcotic drug obtained from the opium poppy; it is the oldest drug ever cultivated and actively pursued by the human species.
opium clippers—Ships developed in the mid-1800s specifically for the transport and sale of opium.
opium den—An environ in which to smoke opium.
oxycodone—Derived from the alkaloid thebaine, it is a highly effective painreliever and prescribed to postsurgical patients, cancer patients, and others with severe pain.
papaverine—An alkaloid in opium with no narcotic properties used medicinally as a muscle relaxant.
Papaver somniferum—The opium poppy plant; it is one of only two species that produce morphine (the active ingredient in opium) and the only one actively cultivated to produce the drug.
parasympathetic system—The part of the autonomic nervous system responsible for activities that relax the body such as lowering blood pressure.
patent medicine makers—Unregulated small-time drug manufacturers prevalent in the nineteenth century.
poppy—The plant containing opium; a tall, thin plant of about 90–150 centimeters, its four sprouting leaves can be a variety of colors—white, pink, blue, crimson, or any combination of these—which surround the plant’s inner pod.
propoxyphene—A synthetic opioid that is similar to methadone but much less potent.
serotonin—Neurotransmitter that inhibits bodily activities and acts as a counter to norepinephrine.
sympathetic system—The part of the autonomic nervous system responsible for activities that excite the body, such as increasing respiration.
synaptic cleft—The space between neurons.
thebaine—An alkaloid in opium that is actually a poison, causing convulsive effects when taken in high quantities.
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Showing posts with label Narkoba. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Narkoba. Show all posts
Cannabis Effects of use
The effects of using cannabis, and the duration of those effects, vary greatly from person to person and according to the strength used and the expectations and mental state of the user. An inexperienced or irregular user can expect the effects of one cannabis cigarette of medium strength to produce effects that will last for between two and four hours, with the effects tapering off after that.
Most users will experience a feeling of bodily warmth, which is a purely physical reaction to the drug. The small blood vessels close to the surface of the skin dilate and suffuse with blood. This gives the skin a flushed appearance and makes it warm to the touch. It also leads to the characteristic cannabis user’s bloodshot eyes known as ‘cannabis red eye’.
Users often report a feeling of relaxation, happiness and congeniality, with them taking a great deal of pleasure from the company of other people around them. If these other people are also using cannabis, then there is the potential for very pleasurable experiences. Many cannabis users make use of the drug in order to give themselves confidence in social situations and find that it helps them to mix with others and to make friends. Cannabis users often become very talkative and report that the drug has opened their minds and given them such insights that they are able to have the most wonderful conversations with other cannabis users about all sorts of subjects, including the big questions of life, love, religion and death. The truth of this is very different: we have listened many times to these conversations as sober observers and have found them to be utter drivel and to make no sense at all. A common feature of these conversations is the ‘unfinished sentence effect’, otherwise known as the ‘ums’, in which the user will forget the subject of their conversation halfway through and the sentence will tail off in an extended ‘um …’.
Some users claim that cannabis in low doses temporarily increases their powers of concentration, and many young people use it as an aid to studying and revision. They feel that the drug enables them to study for longer periods without fatigue. Most users will lose their inhibitions and do things that theywould never dream of doing when sober. In some users, cannabis raises sexual awareness; this, together with the loss of inhibitions, may lead them to have unprotected sex, sometimes resulting in unplanned pregnancy or the transmission of various diseases.
Most users will experience a feeling of bodily warmth, which is a purely physical reaction to the drug. The small blood vessels close to the surface of the skin dilate and suffuse with blood. This gives the skin a flushed appearance and makes it warm to the touch. It also leads to the characteristic cannabis user’s bloodshot eyes known as ‘cannabis red eye’.
Users often report a feeling of relaxation, happiness and congeniality, with them taking a great deal of pleasure from the company of other people around them. If these other people are also using cannabis, then there is the potential for very pleasurable experiences. Many cannabis users make use of the drug in order to give themselves confidence in social situations and find that it helps them to mix with others and to make friends. Cannabis users often become very talkative and report that the drug has opened their minds and given them such insights that they are able to have the most wonderful conversations with other cannabis users about all sorts of subjects, including the big questions of life, love, religion and death. The truth of this is very different: we have listened many times to these conversations as sober observers and have found them to be utter drivel and to make no sense at all. A common feature of these conversations is the ‘unfinished sentence effect’, otherwise known as the ‘ums’, in which the user will forget the subject of their conversation halfway through and the sentence will tail off in an extended ‘um …’.
Some users claim that cannabis in low doses temporarily increases their powers of concentration, and many young people use it as an aid to studying and revision. They feel that the drug enables them to study for longer periods without fatigue. Most users will lose their inhibitions and do things that theywould never dream of doing when sober. In some users, cannabis raises sexual awareness; this, together with the loss of inhibitions, may lead them to have unprotected sex, sometimes resulting in unplanned pregnancy or the transmission of various diseases.
Anorectic Class
Many persons in the United States consider themselves overweight. That self-perception may be more prevalent than obesity itself, but even so, by medical standards a good 33% to 50% of Americans are overweight.8 That condition can aggravate or even cause serious physical afflictions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease. Persons seeking slimness and who are dissatisfied with results from changes in diet and exercise may seek pharmacological help.
The first diet drug to receive scientific endorsement was thyroid hormone. Its use for this purpose began in the 1890s on the theory that it would boost a person’s metabolism and thereby promote faster use of calories. The same theory made dinitrophenol a standard diet drug before World War II. Although it boosted metabolic rate, it also boosted rates of cataracts and of harm to the peripheral nervous system (which involves the functioning of various organs and muscles). For those reasons the drug was abandoned. In the 1930s amphetamines became available and quickly became a popular diet aid despite their potential for abuse.
Many stimulants suppress appetite, and some are used as medicines to help people lose weight. Those medicines are called “anorectics.” Their stimulant effects may be lower than drugs in other classes but can still have potential for abuse and addiction. For that reason, many anorectics are scheduled substances.
Such drugs are casually described as appetite suppressants, but not all promote weight loss in that way. For instance, some may affect the way food is absorbed in the body; some increase a person’s rate of metabolism so the person burns more calories; some make a person more physically energetic. Question has even been raised about whether a stimulant’s anorectic action simply comes from elevating the mood of depressed people and thereby reducing their need to gain comfort from eating. Mechanisms by which anorectics work are poorly understood.
Indeed, whether they work at all is uncertain. Compared to placebos, most studies show additional weight loss among persons taking anorectics to be measurable but barely noticeable; some studies show anorectics to be no more effective than placebos. In experiments where anorectics work well, skeptics wonder if results come from factors other than the drug, such as rapport between physician and patient, belief that the substance would work, or even from basics such as controls on food intake during the experiment. Scientists directing one study of anorectics concluded that sensations of appetite suppression were so subtle that a user could miss them unless the person was trying to be aware of them.
The effectiveness of an anorectic declines as weeks go by, through development of tolerance. A telling exception to development of tolerance is methylcellulose, an unscheduled substance used to increase bulk of consumed food and thereby increase the physical feeling of fullness. The substance has no psychological effect, and no tolerance develops. Methylcellulose is also among the least effective dieting aids.
Abusers of stimulant anorectics exhibit symptoms similar to those found among abusers of amphetamines, from skin rash to psychosis. Some persons using anorectics properly under medical supervision experience muscle pain and cramps, weariness, peevishness, depression, difficulty in thinking. That group of symptoms is the same as those undergone by persons trying to cope with lack of food regardless of drug use, a coincidence raising question about whether some undesired effects attributed to anorectics are simply undesired effects of being hungry.
A harsh fact about anorectics is that weight lost while using them tends to return if a person stops taking the drugs (and generally they are intended for short-term use only). Behavioral therapy teaches people how to change their eating and exercise habits. A comparison study not only found behavioral therapy superior to anorectic therapy in preventing regain of lost pounds but also found behavioral therapy to be more effective alone than when using anorectics along with it—a troubling result for advocates of anorectics. Skeptics ask whether drugs that produce only mild temporary improvement in a chronic condition are worth anything.
For information about specific anorectic class stimulants, see alphabetical listings for: benzphetamine, diethylpropion, fenfluramine, mazindol, phendimetrazine, phenmetrazine, phentermine, and sibutramine
The first diet drug to receive scientific endorsement was thyroid hormone. Its use for this purpose began in the 1890s on the theory that it would boost a person’s metabolism and thereby promote faster use of calories. The same theory made dinitrophenol a standard diet drug before World War II. Although it boosted metabolic rate, it also boosted rates of cataracts and of harm to the peripheral nervous system (which involves the functioning of various organs and muscles). For those reasons the drug was abandoned. In the 1930s amphetamines became available and quickly became a popular diet aid despite their potential for abuse.
Many stimulants suppress appetite, and some are used as medicines to help people lose weight. Those medicines are called “anorectics.” Their stimulant effects may be lower than drugs in other classes but can still have potential for abuse and addiction. For that reason, many anorectics are scheduled substances.
Such drugs are casually described as appetite suppressants, but not all promote weight loss in that way. For instance, some may affect the way food is absorbed in the body; some increase a person’s rate of metabolism so the person burns more calories; some make a person more physically energetic. Question has even been raised about whether a stimulant’s anorectic action simply comes from elevating the mood of depressed people and thereby reducing their need to gain comfort from eating. Mechanisms by which anorectics work are poorly understood.
Indeed, whether they work at all is uncertain. Compared to placebos, most studies show additional weight loss among persons taking anorectics to be measurable but barely noticeable; some studies show anorectics to be no more effective than placebos. In experiments where anorectics work well, skeptics wonder if results come from factors other than the drug, such as rapport between physician and patient, belief that the substance would work, or even from basics such as controls on food intake during the experiment. Scientists directing one study of anorectics concluded that sensations of appetite suppression were so subtle that a user could miss them unless the person was trying to be aware of them.
The effectiveness of an anorectic declines as weeks go by, through development of tolerance. A telling exception to development of tolerance is methylcellulose, an unscheduled substance used to increase bulk of consumed food and thereby increase the physical feeling of fullness. The substance has no psychological effect, and no tolerance develops. Methylcellulose is also among the least effective dieting aids.
Abusers of stimulant anorectics exhibit symptoms similar to those found among abusers of amphetamines, from skin rash to psychosis. Some persons using anorectics properly under medical supervision experience muscle pain and cramps, weariness, peevishness, depression, difficulty in thinking. That group of symptoms is the same as those undergone by persons trying to cope with lack of food regardless of drug use, a coincidence raising question about whether some undesired effects attributed to anorectics are simply undesired effects of being hungry.
A harsh fact about anorectics is that weight lost while using them tends to return if a person stops taking the drugs (and generally they are intended for short-term use only). Behavioral therapy teaches people how to change their eating and exercise habits. A comparison study not only found behavioral therapy superior to anorectic therapy in preventing regain of lost pounds but also found behavioral therapy to be more effective alone than when using anorectics along with it—a troubling result for advocates of anorectics. Skeptics ask whether drugs that produce only mild temporary improvement in a chronic condition are worth anything.
For information about specific anorectic class stimulants, see alphabetical listings for: benzphetamine, diethylpropion, fenfluramine, mazindol, phendimetrazine, phenmetrazine, phentermine, and sibutramine
Barbiturate Class
Barbiturates were introduced into medical practice during the early 1900s, for combating insomnia, anxiety, and seizures. Despite occasional flurries of concern, not until the 1960s did much alarm grow about barbiturates in the United States. Members of a U.S. Senate subcommittee began portraying the drug class as a menace in the 1970s, and afterward stricter controls were put on use.
Barbiturates and alcohol have similar effects. If someone intoxicated by alcohol takes barbiturates, the drunkenness will deepen as if more alcohol had been swallowed.
Pharmaceutical effects of alcohol alone can kill a person who overdoses, and adding barbiturates can transform a session of social drinking into a fatal one. More than one person has died by taking barbiturate sleeping pills with alcohol instead of water.
The similarity of alcohol and barbiturates is also shown by the appearance of a serious withdrawal syndrome called delirium tremens in alcohol and barbiturate abusers who are cut off from their drug. Lesser withdrawal symptoms for both drugs may include perspiring and vomiting. Barbiturate withdrawal may involve dizziness, tremors, fidgety behavior, edgy feelings, and insomnia. Even with strict medical supervision, withdrawal can be fatal. Tolerance can develop. More details can be found in alphabetical entries for spec barbiturates.
A person using barbiturates should take the same precautions as a person using alcohol, for example, using care about running dangerous machinery such as automobiles.
Barbiturates can cause reflex sympathetic dystrophy of the arm, a disease in which a hand loses bone density and becomes painful and difficult to move. This class of drugs may also cause a syndrome that produces pain in the shoulder and hand, interfering with their movement.
Extended dosage with barbiturates may cause rickets, a disease in which bones soften. One of the most dangerous effects of barbiturate overdose is temporary stoppage of electrical activity in the brain, which could lead to premature declaration of a patient’s death, particularly if the patient is being treated for some injury without caregivers knowing about the person’s barbiturate usage.
This class of substances may interfere with blood thinner medicine, with birth control pills, and with other female hormone medications. Barbiturates may extend the time that an MAOI dose lasts.
In animal experiments barbiturates have encouraged the development of cancer.
When used by pregnant women, barbiturates can cause birth defects ranging from internal organ deformities to malformations of the face. If a pregnant woman uses barbiturates regularly, her offspring may be born resonant with them. This class of drugs passes into the milk of nursing mothers and may depress consciousness, pulse rate, and respiration of nursing infants.
For information about specific barbiturate class depressants, see alphabetical listings for: butalbital, mephobarbital, pentobarbital, and phenobarbital.
Barbiturates and alcohol have similar effects. If someone intoxicated by alcohol takes barbiturates, the drunkenness will deepen as if more alcohol had been swallowed.
Pharmaceutical effects of alcohol alone can kill a person who overdoses, and adding barbiturates can transform a session of social drinking into a fatal one. More than one person has died by taking barbiturate sleeping pills with alcohol instead of water.
The similarity of alcohol and barbiturates is also shown by the appearance of a serious withdrawal syndrome called delirium tremens in alcohol and barbiturate abusers who are cut off from their drug. Lesser withdrawal symptoms for both drugs may include perspiring and vomiting. Barbiturate withdrawal may involve dizziness, tremors, fidgety behavior, edgy feelings, and insomnia. Even with strict medical supervision, withdrawal can be fatal. Tolerance can develop. More details can be found in alphabetical entries for spec barbiturates.
A person using barbiturates should take the same precautions as a person using alcohol, for example, using care about running dangerous machinery such as automobiles.
Barbiturates can cause reflex sympathetic dystrophy of the arm, a disease in which a hand loses bone density and becomes painful and difficult to move. This class of drugs may also cause a syndrome that produces pain in the shoulder and hand, interfering with their movement.
Extended dosage with barbiturates may cause rickets, a disease in which bones soften. One of the most dangerous effects of barbiturate overdose is temporary stoppage of electrical activity in the brain, which could lead to premature declaration of a patient’s death, particularly if the patient is being treated for some injury without caregivers knowing about the person’s barbiturate usage.
This class of substances may interfere with blood thinner medicine, with birth control pills, and with other female hormone medications. Barbiturates may extend the time that an MAOI dose lasts.
In animal experiments barbiturates have encouraged the development of cancer.
When used by pregnant women, barbiturates can cause birth defects ranging from internal organ deformities to malformations of the face. If a pregnant woman uses barbiturates regularly, her offspring may be born resonant with them. This class of drugs passes into the milk of nursing mothers and may depress consciousness, pulse rate, and respiration of nursing infants.
For information about specific barbiturate class depressants, see alphabetical listings for: butalbital, mephobarbital, pentobarbital, and phenobarbital.
Benzodiazepine Class
Benzodiazepines became widely available for medical purposes in the 1960s and replaced barbiturates in treatments of many conditions. Benzodiazepines proved themselves less prone to abuse than barbiturates, in addition to being safer—accidental overdose is unlikely because the amount needed for a medical effect is so much smaller than a poisonous amount. In addition to reducing anxiety, benzodiazepines may improve quality of sleep—from fighting insomnia to eliminating sleepwalking. This class of drugs is also used to calm people and to treat convulsions. Some users experience mild euphoria.
As might be expected with drugs that promote sleep, benzodiazepines can worsen reaction time, vigilance, and thinking abilities and therefore should be used cautiously if a person is operating dangerous machinery such as an automobile.
Problems may also develop for persons who are already unsteady on their feet, such as elderly persons prone to falling. The substances can also cause memory trouble, typically difficulty in recalling recent experiences. Headache, peevishness, confusion, and tremors may occur. In unusual cases rageful outbursts may occur. These are “paradoxical reactions,” meaning they are the opposite of what would be expected from the drug. Expressions of rage possibly emerge because the drug reduces anxiety in a person who is angry about something, and less anxiety can lead to less inhibition against doing something.
Over a 12-year span a practitioner observed patients taking benzodiazepines to treat serious sleep problems such as night terrors and sleepwalking. The practitioner found that 2% of this population (not 2% of all patients but just those using benzodiazepines against these sleep disorders) occasionally abused them, and this population base included persons with a previous history of drug abuse; thus we can expect benzodiazepine abuse to be even lower in a general population. Among persons treated for drug abuse, benzodiazepines are among the least-abused substances. Experiments giving free access to benzodiazepines to persons undergoing treatment for drug abuse revealed little interest in those compounds.This class of depressants can be highly popular among special populations, however. One study noted that 30% of alcoholics were using benzodiazepines. When benzodiazepines were given to rats in experiments, the animals’ consumption of alcohol increased, suggesting that human benzodiazepine usage might increase alcohol’s appeal. Although benzodiazepines are administered to treat alcohol withdrawal, combining the two substances recreationally is a dangerous mix that can prove fatal.
Different benzodiazepines have differing attractiveness to abusers. Measured by amount of misuse, claims made by misusers about drug effects, mental and physical effects verified in scientific experiments, and impressions reported by medical caregivers, diazepam is considered to have one of the greatest potentials for abuse. Alprazolam and lorazepam have similar, but lower, risk. Halazepam and oxazepam seem to be among the least risky for abuse.
Tolerance to some benzodiazepine effects can develop (many details are in this book’s alphabetical section). Dependence can also emerge, with a withdrawal syndrome similar to those of alcohol and barbiturates. Often the syndrome may be avoided by gradual reduction of dosage.
Small studies have found that women who use benzodiazepines during pregnancy produce infants who are smaller than normal. Children in one of these studies rapidly caught up in some growth perimeters, but at the age of months head size still remained smaller than normal. Facial deformities were common. The children had persistent trouble with muscle control. Similar findings in another small study included mental retardation, but still another study noted that such children also had heavy fetal exposure to alcohol, exposure that is known to produce mental retardation. Thus the actual role of benzodiazepines was unclear.
Some of these reports did not track outcomes past infancy. Research tracking children up to four years of age found that early problems attributed to benzodiazepines cleared up in most of them. When teachers were asked to evaluate schoolchildren who had fetal exposure, the instructors found no difference between them and classmates.
Researchers who investigated the outcome of thousands of pregnancies found no evidence that benzodiazepines cause cleft palate. A large study involving hundreds of pregnancies found birth defects to be no more likely among women who used benzodiazepines than among women who did not use them; and even when malformations occurred, no particular kind of birth
defect tended to appear in benzodiazepine offspring. Drugs that cause fetal harm generally cause particular types of damage; lack of a particular type with benzodiazepines suggests that the drug was not the cause of observed malformations. Some investigators believe they have detected a particular birth defect pattern, but such findings have been questioned. As the twentyfirst century began, a research team reported evidence that benzodiazepines may damage fetal brain development. Science has not yet rendered a verdict on the safety of benzodiazepines during pregnancy. Infants with fetal exposure can be born dependent on this type of drug. It passes into breast milk, but the amount from lower-dosage levels probably has no effect on nursing infants.
For information about specific benzodiazepine class depressants, see alphabetical listings for: alprazolam, chlordiazepoxide, clonazepam, clorazepate, diazepam, estazolam, flunitrazepam, flurazepam, halazepam, lorazepam, midazolam, oxazepam, prazepam, quazepam, temazepam, and triazolam.
As might be expected with drugs that promote sleep, benzodiazepines can worsen reaction time, vigilance, and thinking abilities and therefore should be used cautiously if a person is operating dangerous machinery such as an automobile.
Problems may also develop for persons who are already unsteady on their feet, such as elderly persons prone to falling. The substances can also cause memory trouble, typically difficulty in recalling recent experiences. Headache, peevishness, confusion, and tremors may occur. In unusual cases rageful outbursts may occur. These are “paradoxical reactions,” meaning they are the opposite of what would be expected from the drug. Expressions of rage possibly emerge because the drug reduces anxiety in a person who is angry about something, and less anxiety can lead to less inhibition against doing something.
Over a 12-year span a practitioner observed patients taking benzodiazepines to treat serious sleep problems such as night terrors and sleepwalking. The practitioner found that 2% of this population (not 2% of all patients but just those using benzodiazepines against these sleep disorders) occasionally abused them, and this population base included persons with a previous history of drug abuse; thus we can expect benzodiazepine abuse to be even lower in a general population. Among persons treated for drug abuse, benzodiazepines are among the least-abused substances. Experiments giving free access to benzodiazepines to persons undergoing treatment for drug abuse revealed little interest in those compounds.This class of depressants can be highly popular among special populations, however. One study noted that 30% of alcoholics were using benzodiazepines. When benzodiazepines were given to rats in experiments, the animals’ consumption of alcohol increased, suggesting that human benzodiazepine usage might increase alcohol’s appeal. Although benzodiazepines are administered to treat alcohol withdrawal, combining the two substances recreationally is a dangerous mix that can prove fatal.
Different benzodiazepines have differing attractiveness to abusers. Measured by amount of misuse, claims made by misusers about drug effects, mental and physical effects verified in scientific experiments, and impressions reported by medical caregivers, diazepam is considered to have one of the greatest potentials for abuse. Alprazolam and lorazepam have similar, but lower, risk. Halazepam and oxazepam seem to be among the least risky for abuse.
Tolerance to some benzodiazepine effects can develop (many details are in this book’s alphabetical section). Dependence can also emerge, with a withdrawal syndrome similar to those of alcohol and barbiturates. Often the syndrome may be avoided by gradual reduction of dosage.
Small studies have found that women who use benzodiazepines during pregnancy produce infants who are smaller than normal. Children in one of these studies rapidly caught up in some growth perimeters, but at the age of months head size still remained smaller than normal. Facial deformities were common. The children had persistent trouble with muscle control. Similar findings in another small study included mental retardation, but still another study noted that such children also had heavy fetal exposure to alcohol, exposure that is known to produce mental retardation. Thus the actual role of benzodiazepines was unclear.
Some of these reports did not track outcomes past infancy. Research tracking children up to four years of age found that early problems attributed to benzodiazepines cleared up in most of them. When teachers were asked to evaluate schoolchildren who had fetal exposure, the instructors found no difference between them and classmates.
Researchers who investigated the outcome of thousands of pregnancies found no evidence that benzodiazepines cause cleft palate. A large study involving hundreds of pregnancies found birth defects to be no more likely among women who used benzodiazepines than among women who did not use them; and even when malformations occurred, no particular kind of birth
defect tended to appear in benzodiazepine offspring. Drugs that cause fetal harm generally cause particular types of damage; lack of a particular type with benzodiazepines suggests that the drug was not the cause of observed malformations. Some investigators believe they have detected a particular birth defect pattern, but such findings have been questioned. As the twentyfirst century began, a research team reported evidence that benzodiazepines may damage fetal brain development. Science has not yet rendered a verdict on the safety of benzodiazepines during pregnancy. Infants with fetal exposure can be born dependent on this type of drug. It passes into breast milk, but the amount from lower-dosage levels probably has no effect on nursing infants.
For information about specific benzodiazepine class depressants, see alphabetical listings for: alprazolam, chlordiazepoxide, clonazepam, clorazepate, diazepam, estazolam, flunitrazepam, flurazepam, halazepam, lorazepam, midazolam, oxazepam, prazepam, quazepam, temazepam, and triazolam.
Cocaine Class
As decades change, so do attitudes toward cocaine. In the latter 1800s it was widely used by ordinary middle-class Americans and had a reputation no worse than alcohol or tobacco. In the years before World War I, news media stories tied the drug to African Americans and crime, and public opinion transformed the substance from a commonplace item into a substance used
mainly by social deviants. Cocaine received little attention from the 1960s illicit drug culture, which seemingly considered cocaine an archaic item no longer of interest. In the 1970s cocaine was portrayed as a drug used by wealthy “beautiful people,” and in the 1980s it was portrayed as a poor ghetto dweller’s drug. In the 1800s cocaine was considered highly addictive, but from the 1950s into the 1980s it was described as nonaddictive. By the 1990s cocaine was called the most addictive drug known, and demand for the product resulted in accessibility likened to fast-food hamburgers. Although tolerance develops with abuse of most stimulants and was reported with cocaine in the 1800s, in the 1970s and 1980s a scientific consensus held that tolerance did not develop among cocaine abusers. On the contrary, abuse was believed to sensitize people taking the drug, allowing them to achieve the same effects with smaller and smaller doses. Yet by the 1990s cocaine addicts were believed to have a compulsive desire to take more and more of the drug. They were seen to engage in the same kind of binge habit exhibited by amphetamine abusers.
Although a chemical formula stays unaltered as decades pass, ways of using a substance can change. Long ago cocaine was used to make mildly stimulating drinks. Velo-Coca and Vin Mariani were popular cocaine beverages of the nineteenth century, the latter endorsed by notables such as Thomas Edison, Jules Verne, and Pope Leo XIII. The soft drink Coca-Cola originally contained cocaine, but the drug was dropped from the soda early in the twentieth century. These old beverages, however, had about the same relation to cocaine as beer has to white lightning moonshine.
A pint of beer and a pint of white lightning may both contain alcohol, but their impact on a user will likely differ. Compared to full-strength pharmaceutical cocaine, old cocaine beverages were relatively weak concoctions.
Some notables are famed for their use of the full-strength product, the most famous example being that of the pioneering psychiatrist Sigmund Freud. When he no longer found the drug useful, he tapered off and eventually quit with no particular difficulty. His example has been duplicated by many other users. He and they were persons enjoying lives of fulfillment in which cocaine was simply one part. In contrast, persons who are dissatisfied with their lives, for whom cocaine brings relief of unhappiness, may face a harder struggle in giving up the drug if it begins degrading the quality of their lives. The more needs a drug satisfies for a person, the stronger its appeal. Some needs may be biological; a study of identical twins finds their cocaine usage patterns to be remarkably similar. Some needs may derive from a person’s life situation.
Cocaine abuse is normally part of a multiproblem lifestyle. A study of homeless cocaine abusers found that achieving abstinence was easier for them if they obtained shelter and employment. Compared to the whole population, cocaine addicts are much likelier to be addicted to gambling as well. Alcoholism and suicidal thoughts increase the likelihood that a person who uses cocaine will become addicted. One study of persons being treated for cocaine abuse found over one half to be jobless and over one third to have jail records. A survey of crack smokers found that over one third had been physically attacked over a one-year period. Five years of records at one hospital showed the following primary reasons for admission of cocaine-using patients: assaults, stabbings, and bullet wounds. Such persons obviously face serious challenges other than cocaine; any inability to cope with the drug is but a single element in a general inability to cope with life.
For information about specific cocaine class stimulants, see alphabetical listings for: coca and cocaine.
mainly by social deviants. Cocaine received little attention from the 1960s illicit drug culture, which seemingly considered cocaine an archaic item no longer of interest. In the 1970s cocaine was portrayed as a drug used by wealthy “beautiful people,” and in the 1980s it was portrayed as a poor ghetto dweller’s drug. In the 1800s cocaine was considered highly addictive, but from the 1950s into the 1980s it was described as nonaddictive. By the 1990s cocaine was called the most addictive drug known, and demand for the product resulted in accessibility likened to fast-food hamburgers. Although tolerance develops with abuse of most stimulants and was reported with cocaine in the 1800s, in the 1970s and 1980s a scientific consensus held that tolerance did not develop among cocaine abusers. On the contrary, abuse was believed to sensitize people taking the drug, allowing them to achieve the same effects with smaller and smaller doses. Yet by the 1990s cocaine addicts were believed to have a compulsive desire to take more and more of the drug. They were seen to engage in the same kind of binge habit exhibited by amphetamine abusers.
Although a chemical formula stays unaltered as decades pass, ways of using a substance can change. Long ago cocaine was used to make mildly stimulating drinks. Velo-Coca and Vin Mariani were popular cocaine beverages of the nineteenth century, the latter endorsed by notables such as Thomas Edison, Jules Verne, and Pope Leo XIII. The soft drink Coca-Cola originally contained cocaine, but the drug was dropped from the soda early in the twentieth century. These old beverages, however, had about the same relation to cocaine as beer has to white lightning moonshine.
A pint of beer and a pint of white lightning may both contain alcohol, but their impact on a user will likely differ. Compared to full-strength pharmaceutical cocaine, old cocaine beverages were relatively weak concoctions.
Some notables are famed for their use of the full-strength product, the most famous example being that of the pioneering psychiatrist Sigmund Freud. When he no longer found the drug useful, he tapered off and eventually quit with no particular difficulty. His example has been duplicated by many other users. He and they were persons enjoying lives of fulfillment in which cocaine was simply one part. In contrast, persons who are dissatisfied with their lives, for whom cocaine brings relief of unhappiness, may face a harder struggle in giving up the drug if it begins degrading the quality of their lives. The more needs a drug satisfies for a person, the stronger its appeal. Some needs may be biological; a study of identical twins finds their cocaine usage patterns to be remarkably similar. Some needs may derive from a person’s life situation.
Cocaine abuse is normally part of a multiproblem lifestyle. A study of homeless cocaine abusers found that achieving abstinence was easier for them if they obtained shelter and employment. Compared to the whole population, cocaine addicts are much likelier to be addicted to gambling as well. Alcoholism and suicidal thoughts increase the likelihood that a person who uses cocaine will become addicted. One study of persons being treated for cocaine abuse found over one half to be jobless and over one third to have jail records. A survey of crack smokers found that over one third had been physically attacked over a one-year period. Five years of records at one hospital showed the following primary reasons for admission of cocaine-using patients: assaults, stabbings, and bullet wounds. Such persons obviously face serious challenges other than cocaine; any inability to cope with the drug is but a single element in a general inability to cope with life.
For information about specific cocaine class stimulants, see alphabetical listings for: coca and cocaine.
Depressant Class
Depressants generally have the opposite effect of stimulants. Many depressants are used as sedatives or tranquilizers, terms often used as if they mean the same thing even though some experts would dispute such interchangeable usage of the terms sedative and tranquilizer.
Depressant drugs slow a person down, and one result can be reduction of tension, which in turn can improve a mentally depressed mood. Depressant withdrawal symptoms typically include uneasiness and sleeping difficulty. If dependence is strong enough, withdrawal may also involve tremors, loss of strength, delirium, and seizures. Gradual reduction in dosage may help avoid withdrawal symptoms, but much depends on the particular drug and the strength dependence.
For information about specific depressants not listed among the following classes, see alphabetical listings for: alcohol, chloral hydrate, ethchlorvynol, GHB, glutethimide, ketamine, mandrake, meprobamate, methaqualone, PCP, pentazocine, zaleplon, and zolpidem.
Depressant drugs slow a person down, and one result can be reduction of tension, which in turn can improve a mentally depressed mood. Depressant withdrawal symptoms typically include uneasiness and sleeping difficulty. If dependence is strong enough, withdrawal may also involve tremors, loss of strength, delirium, and seizures. Gradual reduction in dosage may help avoid withdrawal symptoms, but much depends on the particular drug and the strength dependence.
For information about specific depressants not listed among the following classes, see alphabetical listings for: alcohol, chloral hydrate, ethchlorvynol, GHB, glutethimide, ketamine, mandrake, meprobamate, methaqualone, PCP, pentazocine, zaleplon, and zolpidem.
Hallucinogens Class
Although various drugs cause hallucinations, some drugs are so notable for such an effect that they are classified as hallucinogens. Controversy exists about what a hallucination is. Is it a bluish tint to colors in a normal scene? Is it wavy motions in a solid and stationary object? Is it shapes in fireplace flames transforming into animal heads? Is it something that goes away if someone’s eyes open? Is it a creature that appears out of nowhere and provides mystical insights? Is it sensations of floating? Is it a different flow of time? Is it cross-wiring of senses, where colors are heard and smells are seen? Specialists may quibble, but this book classifies all such experiences as hallucinations.
Many people dislike hallucinatory experiences, especially people who like to be in control of themselves and of situations around them. Such people often find hallucinations not only unpleasant but downright frightening. Other people find the sensations intriguing and pleasurable.
Scientific interest in hallucinogens began to emerge in the 1800s, blossoming in the 1950s and 1960s. In those latter times hallucinogens were popularly identified with beatniks and hippies, and social disapproval of those lifestyles promoted legal restrictions on hallucinogens that terminated almost all scientific research regarding these substances. Thus much of the scientific data is old.
For information about specific hallucinogens, see alphabetical listings for: AET, amanita, belladonna, bufotenine, DET, DMT, DOB, DOM, dronabinol, ergot, ibogaine, jimson weed, LSD, marijuana, MDA, MDEA, MDMA, mescaline, morning glory, nutmeg, peyote, psilocybin, 2C-B, and yage.
Many people dislike hallucinatory experiences, especially people who like to be in control of themselves and of situations around them. Such people often find hallucinations not only unpleasant but downright frightening. Other people find the sensations intriguing and pleasurable.
Scientific interest in hallucinogens began to emerge in the 1800s, blossoming in the 1950s and 1960s. In those latter times hallucinogens were popularly identified with beatniks and hippies, and social disapproval of those lifestyles promoted legal restrictions on hallucinogens that terminated almost all scientific research regarding these substances. Thus much of the scientific data is old.
For information about specific hallucinogens, see alphabetical listings for: AET, amanita, belladonna, bufotenine, DET, DMT, DOB, DOM, dronabinol, ergot, ibogaine, jimson weed, LSD, marijuana, MDA, MDEA, MDMA, mescaline, morning glory, nutmeg, peyote, psilocybin, 2C-B, and yage.
Inhalants Class
Although some authorities consider inhalants to be depressants, and inhalants have hallucinogenic qualities, for several reasons this book lists inhalants as a substance type in their own right. First, despite easy availability, inhalants are among the most dangerous of abused substances. There is no range of inhalants, some of which are benign and some of which are risky, as there is with stimulants or depressants. All inhalants are dangerous despite wide variations in their chemistry, and this sets them apart from other types of drugs. Second, inhalants are generally used by inhaling them in their gaseous state (which is not the same as smoking and also differs from eating a solid or drinking a liquid). That dosage format sets them apart from other drugs. Third, inhalants are used mainly by younger persons (typically teenage males), a usage pattern that also sets inhalants apart from other drugs.
With some inhalants the amount needed to produce a recreational effect is close to a fatal dose, and deadly outcomes demonstrate that the difference was too close for some deceased users to handle. In addition, strenuous exercise seems related to inhalant death, troublesome for users at dance clubs. The products are often flammable, sometimes producing serious physical injury unrelated to pharmacology. Some users act as if they do not realize they need a continual supply of oxygen, and they administer inhalants in ways that cause suffocation. In addition to all these acute dangers, long-term use of many inhalants can produce nerve damage, impairing the ability to use arms and legs and hands and feet, damage verified scientifically. Another type of long-term damage appears to be assorted types of psychoses. This consequence is harder to verify because inhalant users often take other potent drugs, so proving which mind-altering drug affected the mind can be very difficult. Unquestionably, however, inhalant users can develop states of mind interfering with—or even preventing—their ability to function in society.
Admittedly, some users avoid serious outcomes, just as some car drivers run red lights
without harm. Escape, however, does not mean that danger should be disregarded.
Generally, adult drug users shun most inhalants except as a choice of desperation if nothing else is available. Inhalant users tend to be teenagers or younger, perhaps because other drugs of abuse (even alcohol and tobacco) are harder for some young persons to obtain. Sniffing is often a social event with acquaintances rather than a solitary pastime. As the 1960s began, the average age among 130 glue sniffers in Denver was 13. In this group 124 were male; most were lower-class Hispanics in trouble with school or law enforcement authorities; many had emotional problems. Another study found glue sniffers to have personalities matching those of alcoholics.
Gasoline sniffers are often emotionally deprived teens from troubled families, typically living lower-class lives in rural areas, often members of native populations whose cultures have
been devastated (American Indians in the United States, aborigines in Australia, Island peoples in the Pacific). Case studies of butane sniffers tell of lonely persons with difficulties at school or at home. A psychological test of 59 inhalant abusers found them to be impulsive persons with little respect for authority. Most research finds inhalant users to be unhappy persons marginalized by society. Yet not all researchers find that inhalant users are social misfits from dysfunctional families; some appear to be ordinary persons, though still youthful.
That difference in findings—most researchers saying inhalant abusers are social misfits, with some researchers contending inhalant abusers are normal— deserves an attempt at explanation. Many inhalant researchers work where inhalant abuse has been publicized as a major community problem, and those places tend to have populations of socially marginalized people.
Researchers commonly study persons receiving medical attention for inhalant abuse, and sometimes the medical attention is received involuntarily by court order. Such persons may be no more typical of inhalant users than hospitalized alcoholics receiving court-ordered treatment are typical of most alcohol users. And the definition of “user” may influence understanding. A user who sniffs several times a day is not the same kind of user who sniffed with some friends once or twice over a period of several years. Although most research finds inhalant abusers to be troubled outcasts, it is possible that such typical findings are due to the demographics of the population being studied.
For information about specific inhalants, see alphabetical listings for: butane,
ether, freon, gasoline, mothballs, nitrite, nitrous oxide, TCE, and toluene
With some inhalants the amount needed to produce a recreational effect is close to a fatal dose, and deadly outcomes demonstrate that the difference was too close for some deceased users to handle. In addition, strenuous exercise seems related to inhalant death, troublesome for users at dance clubs. The products are often flammable, sometimes producing serious physical injury unrelated to pharmacology. Some users act as if they do not realize they need a continual supply of oxygen, and they administer inhalants in ways that cause suffocation. In addition to all these acute dangers, long-term use of many inhalants can produce nerve damage, impairing the ability to use arms and legs and hands and feet, damage verified scientifically. Another type of long-term damage appears to be assorted types of psychoses. This consequence is harder to verify because inhalant users often take other potent drugs, so proving which mind-altering drug affected the mind can be very difficult. Unquestionably, however, inhalant users can develop states of mind interfering with—or even preventing—their ability to function in society.
Admittedly, some users avoid serious outcomes, just as some car drivers run red lights
without harm. Escape, however, does not mean that danger should be disregarded.
Generally, adult drug users shun most inhalants except as a choice of desperation if nothing else is available. Inhalant users tend to be teenagers or younger, perhaps because other drugs of abuse (even alcohol and tobacco) are harder for some young persons to obtain. Sniffing is often a social event with acquaintances rather than a solitary pastime. As the 1960s began, the average age among 130 glue sniffers in Denver was 13. In this group 124 were male; most were lower-class Hispanics in trouble with school or law enforcement authorities; many had emotional problems. Another study found glue sniffers to have personalities matching those of alcoholics.
Gasoline sniffers are often emotionally deprived teens from troubled families, typically living lower-class lives in rural areas, often members of native populations whose cultures have
been devastated (American Indians in the United States, aborigines in Australia, Island peoples in the Pacific). Case studies of butane sniffers tell of lonely persons with difficulties at school or at home. A psychological test of 59 inhalant abusers found them to be impulsive persons with little respect for authority. Most research finds inhalant users to be unhappy persons marginalized by society. Yet not all researchers find that inhalant users are social misfits from dysfunctional families; some appear to be ordinary persons, though still youthful.
That difference in findings—most researchers saying inhalant abusers are social misfits, with some researchers contending inhalant abusers are normal— deserves an attempt at explanation. Many inhalant researchers work where inhalant abuse has been publicized as a major community problem, and those places tend to have populations of socially marginalized people.
Researchers commonly study persons receiving medical attention for inhalant abuse, and sometimes the medical attention is received involuntarily by court order. Such persons may be no more typical of inhalant users than hospitalized alcoholics receiving court-ordered treatment are typical of most alcohol users. And the definition of “user” may influence understanding. A user who sniffs several times a day is not the same kind of user who sniffed with some friends once or twice over a period of several years. Although most research finds inhalant abusers to be troubled outcasts, it is possible that such typical findings are due to the demographics of the population being studied.
For information about specific inhalants, see alphabetical listings for: butane,
ether, freon, gasoline, mothballs, nitrite, nitrous oxide, TCE, and toluene
Opiate Class
Along with alcohol, opiates are the oldest known depressants. At one time the term narcotic referred specifically and only to opiates, but when drug control laws were strengthened in the early twentieth century the language of those laws expanded the dictionary definition of narcotic and made it a synonym for all controlled drugs.
Although opiates have various medical uses, the main therapeutic application is pain control. Other common uses are for fighting coughs and reducing diarrhea. Some other therapeutic uses of specific opiates are given in this book’s alphabetical listings of drugs.
The chance of medical opiate usage turning a person into an addict is slim. Very few persons receiving medical opiates find them attractive, and almost all patients who enjoy opiates already have a drug abuse problem. Researchers examined records of 11,882 patients who received narcotics and found 4 with a subsequent addiction problem who lacked a prior drug addiction history. The chance of developing dependence is higher, but a patient can be weaned off opiates in ways that avoid withdrawal symptoms.
Illicit users of opiates generally seek to achieve a mental state of indifference in which problems and frustrations no longer feel bothersome. A person high on opiates is oblivious to the world and unlikely to bother anyone. Some users experience euphoria.
Classic unwanted actions from opiates are constipation, urinary difficulty, low blood pressure, and breathing trouble. MAOI drugs, described earlier, may interact dangerously with opiates. In contrast to such problems, a desirable drug interaction is that opiates may boost pain relief from aspirin.
Originally the phrase “being hooked on a drug” referred to being so resonant with (that is, dependent on) an opiate that a withdrawal syndrome occurred if dosage stopped. Symptoms of opiate withdrawal are similar to those of influenza: sweats, goose bumps, muscle aches, cramps, runny nose, diarrhea, and sleep difficulties. Although conscienceless and irresponsible addicts may be particularly short-tempered and dangerous if undergoing withdrawal, for other persons the experience is miserable, but not horrible, and usually lasts only a few days. Traditionally those few days are the extent of withdrawal, but some authorities believe a subsequent stage of withdrawal occurs in which a person experiences aches, insomnia, and grouchiness for several months. Such symptoms, however, may simply be signs that the psychological buffer provided by opiate use is no longer available.
Drug addiction “maintenance” programs are designed to supply enough drug to hold off withdrawal but not enough to produce recreational sensations. Unless participants supplement the legal dosage with illicit supplies, such persons will not experience opiate effects enjoyed by addicts. Someone on a maintenance dose can adequately perform job duties and safely operate a motor vehicle. Performance may not be as sharp as in a drug-free state, but performance is in the normal range.
Opiates have a wide range of effects on fetal behavior. If a pregnant woman uses opiates regularly the fetus soon adapts to the presence of the drug and seems to develop normally, although an infant can be born resonant with (that is, dependent on) the drug and undergo withdrawal. Intermittent use of opiates is more damaging to a fetus than regular use, with the changing drug environment causing extra stress as a fetus copes with one condition and then another. Opiates cause fetal metabolism to increase, diverting energy away from body development. Infants born to opiate users are commonly smaller than normal, and early slowness of brain development has been observed.
Evidence exists that fetal exposure causes long-lasting problems in children, involving impulsiveness and inattention, but some researchers feel that home environment (often involving a single-parent opiate abuser with additional problems) is a better explanation for those difficulties.
For information about specific opiate class depressants, see alphabetical listings for: buprenorphine, codeine, dihydrocodeine, etorphine, heroin, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, morphine, nalbuphine, opium, oxycodone, pholcodine, and thebaine.
Although opiates have various medical uses, the main therapeutic application is pain control. Other common uses are for fighting coughs and reducing diarrhea. Some other therapeutic uses of specific opiates are given in this book’s alphabetical listings of drugs.
The chance of medical opiate usage turning a person into an addict is slim. Very few persons receiving medical opiates find them attractive, and almost all patients who enjoy opiates already have a drug abuse problem. Researchers examined records of 11,882 patients who received narcotics and found 4 with a subsequent addiction problem who lacked a prior drug addiction history. The chance of developing dependence is higher, but a patient can be weaned off opiates in ways that avoid withdrawal symptoms.
Illicit users of opiates generally seek to achieve a mental state of indifference in which problems and frustrations no longer feel bothersome. A person high on opiates is oblivious to the world and unlikely to bother anyone. Some users experience euphoria.
Classic unwanted actions from opiates are constipation, urinary difficulty, low blood pressure, and breathing trouble. MAOI drugs, described earlier, may interact dangerously with opiates. In contrast to such problems, a desirable drug interaction is that opiates may boost pain relief from aspirin.
Originally the phrase “being hooked on a drug” referred to being so resonant with (that is, dependent on) an opiate that a withdrawal syndrome occurred if dosage stopped. Symptoms of opiate withdrawal are similar to those of influenza: sweats, goose bumps, muscle aches, cramps, runny nose, diarrhea, and sleep difficulties. Although conscienceless and irresponsible addicts may be particularly short-tempered and dangerous if undergoing withdrawal, for other persons the experience is miserable, but not horrible, and usually lasts only a few days. Traditionally those few days are the extent of withdrawal, but some authorities believe a subsequent stage of withdrawal occurs in which a person experiences aches, insomnia, and grouchiness for several months. Such symptoms, however, may simply be signs that the psychological buffer provided by opiate use is no longer available.
Drug addiction “maintenance” programs are designed to supply enough drug to hold off withdrawal but not enough to produce recreational sensations. Unless participants supplement the legal dosage with illicit supplies, such persons will not experience opiate effects enjoyed by addicts. Someone on a maintenance dose can adequately perform job duties and safely operate a motor vehicle. Performance may not be as sharp as in a drug-free state, but performance is in the normal range.
Opiates have a wide range of effects on fetal behavior. If a pregnant woman uses opiates regularly the fetus soon adapts to the presence of the drug and seems to develop normally, although an infant can be born resonant with (that is, dependent on) the drug and undergo withdrawal. Intermittent use of opiates is more damaging to a fetus than regular use, with the changing drug environment causing extra stress as a fetus copes with one condition and then another. Opiates cause fetal metabolism to increase, diverting energy away from body development. Infants born to opiate users are commonly smaller than normal, and early slowness of brain development has been observed.
Evidence exists that fetal exposure causes long-lasting problems in children, involving impulsiveness and inattention, but some researchers feel that home environment (often involving a single-parent opiate abuser with additional problems) is a better explanation for those difficulties.
For information about specific opiate class depressants, see alphabetical listings for: buprenorphine, codeine, dihydrocodeine, etorphine, heroin, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, morphine, nalbuphine, opium, oxycodone, pholcodine, and thebaine.
Opioid Class
Opioids are often called opiates, which is satisfactory for practical purposes because the two classes of drugs basically produce the same effects in the same way. A technical difference exists between the two classes, however. If the history of a product were traced backward through its manufacturing processes, opiates generally would begin with the opium plant, but opioids would generally begin in a laboratory. Despite this technical distinction, the terms opiates and opioids are often used synonymously. Some of these substances are called “semisynthetic” and are referred to as “opiate/opioid.” Some opiates, such as morphine, can even be manufactured wholly in a laboratory without starting from the natural product opium; thus the same chemical can be either an opiate or an opioid.
For information about specific opioid class depressants, see alphabetical listings for: butorphanol, dextromethorphan, dextromoramide, dextrorphan, diphenoxylate, dipipanone, fentanyl, ketobemidone, LAAM, levorphanol, meperidine, methadone, oxymorphone, phenoperidine, piritramide, propoxyphene, remifentanil, and trimeperidine.
For information about specific opioid class depressants, see alphabetical listings for: butorphanol, dextromethorphan, dextromoramide, dextrorphan, diphenoxylate, dipipanone, fentanyl, ketobemidone, LAAM, levorphanol, meperidine, methadone, oxymorphone, phenoperidine, piritramide, propoxyphene, remifentanil, and trimeperidine.
Pyridine Alkaloids Class
Tobacco and areca nut are the most widely used substances containing drugs from this class. Although most Americans think of tobacco’s nicotine as a recreational drug, it has had agricultural functions as a pesticide and for ridding farm animals of worms. Nicotine is readily absorbed through the skin and causes “green tobacco sickness” among farmworkers who handle leaves, a poisoning sometimes severe enough to require hospitalization. The tobacco plant has been known to kill livestock that eat it. Humans have also been poisoned when attempting to use tobacco as food, such as by boiling greens.
Tobacco apparently originated in the Americas, where native peoples did not seem to regard it as a recreational substance. Their uses were spiritual and medical. Even in the twentieth century some native peoples used tobacco to treat conditions ranging from chills to infections and snake bites. When Europeans discovered tobacco in the New World, they removed it from the cultural context in which its primary uses had been medical and spiritual. Used without those restrictions, hazards became obvious soon enough. Lacking the shared social values that had long limited tobacco’s use in the New World, Europeans attempted to control the substance by law. Property of cultivators and traffickers became subject to forfeiture in Hungary and Russia and even Japan. In the 1600s smoking was condemned by the pope and by King James of England, and smokers were condemned to death in Turkey, Iran, Russia, and some German states. Legal harshness, however, was unable to substitute for the social values that had limited consumption in lands where tobacco originated.
We often measure drug addiction by the amount of drug used, assuming that the more a person uses, the stronger the drug’s hold. Researchers have found this assumption to be incorrect for nicotine. Measured by strength of dependence symptoms, a person who smokes more than a half pack of tobacco cigarettes each day may be no more addicted than a person who smokes just
half a pack, meaning the lighter smoker may have just as much trouble quitting as the heavier smoker.
Among cigarette users, the amount of smoking depends in part on the tobacco’s nicotine content, but other factors are also involved. During the 1990s in the United States female smokers tended to have a higher degree of tobacco addiction than male smokers did (measured not in number of cigarettes smoked but in strength of addiction symptoms such as tolerance, withdrawal, and difficulty in reducing consumption). Whites had stronger levels of addiction than did members of other races. Adolescents tended to smoke fewer cigarettes than middle-aged persons, but despite adolescents’ lower usage, their addiction symptoms were just as strong as those found in heaviersmoking middle-aged persons. Older smokers were the least addicted even though they were the heaviest users. Researchers are unsure whether such differences are caused by biology or culture or a combination.
In the United States tobacco smoking is associated with being an adult, and adolescents may take up the practice partly as a symbol of their passage into adulthood. Role models are also important; a prominent person who smokes may inspire admirers to do so. Celebrity endorsements of cigarettes were once routine in advertising, but the admired person can also be a personal acquaintance. A survey in Spain revealed that the role model of teachers who smoke seems to be a major factor in starting the habit among students there.
The popularity of smoking among American teenagers declined in the 1970s and 1980s but increased in the 1990s. A cancer statistics authority reported that by 1997 over 33% of American high schoolers were using cigarettes. A study of Taiwanese high school students published in 1999 found a much lower usage rate, more like 10%. In 1999 a survey of over 14,000 young adult American college students found about 33% using some sort of tobacco product, mostly cigarettes. The latest statistics can be found through the “Sources for More Information” at the end of this book.
For information about specific pyridine alkaloids class stimulants, see alphabetical listings for: areca nut and nicotine.
Tobacco apparently originated in the Americas, where native peoples did not seem to regard it as a recreational substance. Their uses were spiritual and medical. Even in the twentieth century some native peoples used tobacco to treat conditions ranging from chills to infections and snake bites. When Europeans discovered tobacco in the New World, they removed it from the cultural context in which its primary uses had been medical and spiritual. Used without those restrictions, hazards became obvious soon enough. Lacking the shared social values that had long limited tobacco’s use in the New World, Europeans attempted to control the substance by law. Property of cultivators and traffickers became subject to forfeiture in Hungary and Russia and even Japan. In the 1600s smoking was condemned by the pope and by King James of England, and smokers were condemned to death in Turkey, Iran, Russia, and some German states. Legal harshness, however, was unable to substitute for the social values that had limited consumption in lands where tobacco originated.
We often measure drug addiction by the amount of drug used, assuming that the more a person uses, the stronger the drug’s hold. Researchers have found this assumption to be incorrect for nicotine. Measured by strength of dependence symptoms, a person who smokes more than a half pack of tobacco cigarettes each day may be no more addicted than a person who smokes just
half a pack, meaning the lighter smoker may have just as much trouble quitting as the heavier smoker.
Among cigarette users, the amount of smoking depends in part on the tobacco’s nicotine content, but other factors are also involved. During the 1990s in the United States female smokers tended to have a higher degree of tobacco addiction than male smokers did (measured not in number of cigarettes smoked but in strength of addiction symptoms such as tolerance, withdrawal, and difficulty in reducing consumption). Whites had stronger levels of addiction than did members of other races. Adolescents tended to smoke fewer cigarettes than middle-aged persons, but despite adolescents’ lower usage, their addiction symptoms were just as strong as those found in heaviersmoking middle-aged persons. Older smokers were the least addicted even though they were the heaviest users. Researchers are unsure whether such differences are caused by biology or culture or a combination.
In the United States tobacco smoking is associated with being an adult, and adolescents may take up the practice partly as a symbol of their passage into adulthood. Role models are also important; a prominent person who smokes may inspire admirers to do so. Celebrity endorsements of cigarettes were once routine in advertising, but the admired person can also be a personal acquaintance. A survey in Spain revealed that the role model of teachers who smoke seems to be a major factor in starting the habit among students there.
The popularity of smoking among American teenagers declined in the 1970s and 1980s but increased in the 1990s. A cancer statistics authority reported that by 1997 over 33% of American high schoolers were using cigarettes. A study of Taiwanese high school students published in 1999 found a much lower usage rate, more like 10%. In 1999 a survey of over 14,000 young adult American college students found about 33% using some sort of tobacco product, mostly cigarettes. The latest statistics can be found through the “Sources for More Information” at the end of this book.
For information about specific pyridine alkaloids class stimulants, see alphabetical listings for: areca nut and nicotine.
Steroids Class
The steroids governed by schedules of controlled substances are anabolic steroids. Anabolic substances build up parts of living organisms, as opposed to catabolic substances, which decompose those parts. Anabolic steroids are abused mainly by persons desiring to increase muscle mass, such as competitive athletes and body builders. Steroids can improve muscle strength in females and in castrated males, but scientific evidence is weaker for intact males.
Still, steroids do seem to promote muscle mass, endurance, and overall athletic performance while dosage continues. Some scientists suspect that any performance enhancement experienced from anabolic steroids comes not from muscle power but from psychological effects, with the drugs increasing a user’s aggressiveness. Anabolic steroids can produce mania, anger, impulsiveness, euphoria, and feelings of invincibility—a combination that may lead some users into harmful social interactions. The combination can produce other types of unwise behavior as well, such as extravagant expenditures of money and taking reckless physical risks. Reports exist of paranoia and hallucinations developing while using steroids and disappearing when steroid usage is stopped.
Sports governing authorities banned the use of anabolic steroids by competitors. Some athletes ignore the ban in hopes of avoiding detection. Various other drugs are prohibited as well, but in 1988 most of the failed drug tests ordered by the International Olympic Committee revealed anabolic steroids, the most common one being nandrolone. Below that elite level, athletic use of steroids seems uncommon. In the 1990s a study involving 58,625 college students found only 175 steroid takers to study. That small group also had a much higher consumption of other drugs, legal and illegal, than the average student—suggesting that the steroid abusers were predisposed to use drugs for coping with all sorts of life situations, not just sports. Similar association of steroids with other illicit drug usage is found at the high school level.
High school steroid statistics are often based on the concept of “lifetime use.” Lifetime use means a person has taken a steroid at least once, which is not the same as regularly taking them. The number of regular users will be much smaller than the number of “lifetime” users.
Anabolic steroids are related to testosterone. Most, if not all, are androgens, substances promoting male characteristics. A female who uses those drugs may develop facial hair and a deeper voice, along with unwanted changes in sexual organs. In a young person who is still growing, androgens can prematurely halt further growth and thereby cause a smaller adult stature.
Among persons of either gender and any age, androgens may alter blood composition and increase the body’s retention of various minerals. That retention is not necessarily good. For example, sodium retention promotes bloating and can be inadvisable for persons with heart trouble. Liver damage and reduction of male fertility may occur due to anabolic steroids. Extended use of the substance may worsen cholesterol levels, thereby narrowing blood vessels, and such narrowing promotes heart attack and stroke years later. Steroid abusers tend to take far higher doses than are considered medically safe, thus further increasing the risks. Oral and slow-release under-the-skin implant formats of anabolic steroids can be processed in ways that will physically permit them to be injected. Such a practice is highly dangerous, as noninjectable formats of drugs have components that are not designed for direct introduction into the bloodstream.
Anabolic steroid dependence is reported with withdrawal symptoms that can include weariness and depression. Use by a pregnant woman can permanently masculinize a female fetus.
For information about specific anabolic steroids, see alphabetical listings for: boldenone, ethylestrenol, fluoxymesterone, methandriol, methandrostenolone, methyltestosterone, nandrolone, oxandrolone, oxymetholone, stanozolol, testolactone, testosterone, and trenbolone.
Still, steroids do seem to promote muscle mass, endurance, and overall athletic performance while dosage continues. Some scientists suspect that any performance enhancement experienced from anabolic steroids comes not from muscle power but from psychological effects, with the drugs increasing a user’s aggressiveness. Anabolic steroids can produce mania, anger, impulsiveness, euphoria, and feelings of invincibility—a combination that may lead some users into harmful social interactions. The combination can produce other types of unwise behavior as well, such as extravagant expenditures of money and taking reckless physical risks. Reports exist of paranoia and hallucinations developing while using steroids and disappearing when steroid usage is stopped.
Sports governing authorities banned the use of anabolic steroids by competitors. Some athletes ignore the ban in hopes of avoiding detection. Various other drugs are prohibited as well, but in 1988 most of the failed drug tests ordered by the International Olympic Committee revealed anabolic steroids, the most common one being nandrolone. Below that elite level, athletic use of steroids seems uncommon. In the 1990s a study involving 58,625 college students found only 175 steroid takers to study. That small group also had a much higher consumption of other drugs, legal and illegal, than the average student—suggesting that the steroid abusers were predisposed to use drugs for coping with all sorts of life situations, not just sports. Similar association of steroids with other illicit drug usage is found at the high school level.
High school steroid statistics are often based on the concept of “lifetime use.” Lifetime use means a person has taken a steroid at least once, which is not the same as regularly taking them. The number of regular users will be much smaller than the number of “lifetime” users.
Anabolic steroids are related to testosterone. Most, if not all, are androgens, substances promoting male characteristics. A female who uses those drugs may develop facial hair and a deeper voice, along with unwanted changes in sexual organs. In a young person who is still growing, androgens can prematurely halt further growth and thereby cause a smaller adult stature.
Among persons of either gender and any age, androgens may alter blood composition and increase the body’s retention of various minerals. That retention is not necessarily good. For example, sodium retention promotes bloating and can be inadvisable for persons with heart trouble. Liver damage and reduction of male fertility may occur due to anabolic steroids. Extended use of the substance may worsen cholesterol levels, thereby narrowing blood vessels, and such narrowing promotes heart attack and stroke years later. Steroid abusers tend to take far higher doses than are considered medically safe, thus further increasing the risks. Oral and slow-release under-the-skin implant formats of anabolic steroids can be processed in ways that will physically permit them to be injected. Such a practice is highly dangerous, as noninjectable formats of drugs have components that are not designed for direct introduction into the bloodstream.
Anabolic steroid dependence is reported with withdrawal symptoms that can include weariness and depression. Use by a pregnant woman can permanently masculinize a female fetus.
For information about specific anabolic steroids, see alphabetical listings for: boldenone, ethylestrenol, fluoxymesterone, methandriol, methandrostenolone, methyltestosterone, nandrolone, oxandrolone, oxymetholone, stanozolol, testolactone, testosterone, and trenbolone.
Cannabis
Source
Plants of the genus Cannabis, particularly Cannabis sativa.
Forms and appearance
Herbal:
dried plant material, similar to a coarse-cut tobacco-like mixture. Usually greenish brown in colour. Sometimes the mixture has been compressed into blocks; occasionally it is seen wound with thread around a thin stick.
Resin:
dried and compressed resinous sap, found in blocks of various sizes and shapes. Ranges in colour from black or grey, through every shade of brown,to a pale honey colour. Ranges in consistency from hard and brittle, for hard and dense, to soft and oily, to dry and crumbly.
Oil:
extracted from the resin form by the use of a chemical solvent. Seen as a thick heavy oil ranging in colour from dark green or dark brown to jet black and with a distinctive smell like rotting vegetation.
Marketing
Sold by the ounce or as fractions of an ounce in a variety of packaging and sometimes with no packaging at all. Available in every city,town and village in the UK, in public houses and clubs, on the street, outside schools and colleges – indeed, anywhere that young people gather.
Legal position
Class C controlled substance under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.
Methods of use
Commonly smoked in a variety of ways. Can be put into food or made into drinks. Occasionally eaten on its own.
Effects of use
Relaxation, happiness, congeniality, increased powers of concentration, sexual arousal,loss of inhibitions,warmth,increased appetite,talkativeness.
Adverse effects
Loss of short-term memory, impaired judgement, impaired driving skills, dry mouth, lethargy, decreased blood pressure, bloodshot eyes, dizziness, confusion, anxiety, panic, paranoia, psychosis, depression, schizophrenia,
potential for causing cancers and breathing disorders.
Tolerance potential
Tolerance develops rapidly with continued use.
Habituation potential
True physical habituation is rare, but most users will develop a strong psychological habituation with continued use.
Withdrawal effects
Disturbed sleep patterns, anxiety, restlessness, irritability and aggression, nausea and cramping.
Overdose potential
It is not thought to be possible to fatally overdose with cannabis.
Plants of the genus Cannabis, particularly Cannabis sativa.
Forms and appearance
Herbal:
dried plant material, similar to a coarse-cut tobacco-like mixture. Usually greenish brown in colour. Sometimes the mixture has been compressed into blocks; occasionally it is seen wound with thread around a thin stick.
Resin:
dried and compressed resinous sap, found in blocks of various sizes and shapes. Ranges in colour from black or grey, through every shade of brown,to a pale honey colour. Ranges in consistency from hard and brittle, for hard and dense, to soft and oily, to dry and crumbly.
Oil:
extracted from the resin form by the use of a chemical solvent. Seen as a thick heavy oil ranging in colour from dark green or dark brown to jet black and with a distinctive smell like rotting vegetation.
Marketing
Sold by the ounce or as fractions of an ounce in a variety of packaging and sometimes with no packaging at all. Available in every city,town and village in the UK, in public houses and clubs, on the street, outside schools and colleges – indeed, anywhere that young people gather.
Legal position
Class C controlled substance under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.
Methods of use
Commonly smoked in a variety of ways. Can be put into food or made into drinks. Occasionally eaten on its own.
Effects of use
Relaxation, happiness, congeniality, increased powers of concentration, sexual arousal,loss of inhibitions,warmth,increased appetite,talkativeness.
Adverse effects
Loss of short-term memory, impaired judgement, impaired driving skills, dry mouth, lethargy, decreased blood pressure, bloodshot eyes, dizziness, confusion, anxiety, panic, paranoia, psychosis, depression, schizophrenia,
potential for causing cancers and breathing disorders.
Tolerance potential
Tolerance develops rapidly with continued use.
Habituation potential
True physical habituation is rare, but most users will develop a strong psychological habituation with continued use.
Withdrawal effects
Disturbed sleep patterns, anxiety, restlessness, irritability and aggression, nausea and cramping.
Overdose potential
It is not thought to be possible to fatally overdose with cannabis.
Cannabis Source, form and Appeareance
All plants of the genus Cannabis produce a complex chemical called
delta- 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
Three varieties of the plant produce THC in significant amounts:
Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica and Cannabis ruderalis.
Of these, C. sativa produces THC in the highest concentrations and therefore is the preferred source of the drug. C. sativa occurs wild in subtropical countries and is cultivated extensively in many of those countries for export to the rest of theworld. It is grown in the UK, but it does not flourish here unless it is provided artificially with the high light levels, extended daylight hours and warm temperatures that it is used to. C. indica and C. ruderalis produce lower levels of THC but are more tolerant of the climatic conditions of northern Europe and are grown both under artificial conditions and in the open. In recent years, all three varieties have been hybridised to produce varieties that will provide high THC levels and grow well in the UK. The plant has two distinct forms, a male and a female; both produce THC, but the female produces higher levels.
Form and Appeareance
Herbal, or vegetable, cannabis has in the past fewyears slipped in popularity in comparison with the resinous varieties. Herbal cannabis now accounts for perhaps 45 per cent of the UK market. It is produced by drying and chopping the leaves of the cannabis plant into a coarse-cut tobacco-like mixture. The finest-quality herbal cannabis is produced by drying and chopping the flower, known as the bud, of the female cannabis plant. This preparation, known on the streets as sinsemilla and sinsy, contains the highest levels ofTHCin herbal form, but it is rare and relatively expensive.
Drug producers are more interested in the quantity of drugs that they can produce rather than the quality, and so the vast majority of herbal cannabis that finds its way on to the streets of theUKgenerally is of poor quality. It consists of a mixture of chopped leaves of all sizes from both female and male plants, thin stems, small quantities of flower buds and some seeds. Most samples of herbal cannabis are greenish brown in colour, although rarely, pale green and golden samples are seen.
Herbal cannabis can easily be mistaken for various forms of tobacco due to their similar appearances, and many parents and teachers have accused young people of illegal possession of cannabis only to find out later that itwas nothing of the sort. Close examination of the sample should prevent this mistake. Most samples of tobacco have been produced by chopping dried plugs of tobacco leaves that have been formed from several leaves of different tobacco varieties layered together and cured. This layering can be seen in the form of strata of differing colours in the small shreds of tobacco. Cannabis has no such layering. Round seeds about 5mm in diameter are often found in herbal cannabis; tobacco contains no such seeds. Tobacco often has a strong aromatic smell, whereas herbal cannabis simply smells a little musty.
delta- 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
Three varieties of the plant produce THC in significant amounts:
Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica and Cannabis ruderalis.
Of these, C. sativa produces THC in the highest concentrations and therefore is the preferred source of the drug. C. sativa occurs wild in subtropical countries and is cultivated extensively in many of those countries for export to the rest of theworld. It is grown in the UK, but it does not flourish here unless it is provided artificially with the high light levels, extended daylight hours and warm temperatures that it is used to. C. indica and C. ruderalis produce lower levels of THC but are more tolerant of the climatic conditions of northern Europe and are grown both under artificial conditions and in the open. In recent years, all three varieties have been hybridised to produce varieties that will provide high THC levels and grow well in the UK. The plant has two distinct forms, a male and a female; both produce THC, but the female produces higher levels.
Form and Appeareance
Herbal, or vegetable, cannabis has in the past fewyears slipped in popularity in comparison with the resinous varieties. Herbal cannabis now accounts for perhaps 45 per cent of the UK market. It is produced by drying and chopping the leaves of the cannabis plant into a coarse-cut tobacco-like mixture. The finest-quality herbal cannabis is produced by drying and chopping the flower, known as the bud, of the female cannabis plant. This preparation, known on the streets as sinsemilla and sinsy, contains the highest levels ofTHCin herbal form, but it is rare and relatively expensive.
Drug producers are more interested in the quantity of drugs that they can produce rather than the quality, and so the vast majority of herbal cannabis that finds its way on to the streets of theUKgenerally is of poor quality. It consists of a mixture of chopped leaves of all sizes from both female and male plants, thin stems, small quantities of flower buds and some seeds. Most samples of herbal cannabis are greenish brown in colour, although rarely, pale green and golden samples are seen.
Herbal cannabis can easily be mistaken for various forms of tobacco due to their similar appearances, and many parents and teachers have accused young people of illegal possession of cannabis only to find out later that itwas nothing of the sort. Close examination of the sample should prevent this mistake. Most samples of tobacco have been produced by chopping dried plugs of tobacco leaves that have been formed from several leaves of different tobacco varieties layered together and cured. This layering can be seen in the form of strata of differing colours in the small shreds of tobacco. Cannabis has no such layering. Round seeds about 5mm in diameter are often found in herbal cannabis; tobacco contains no such seeds. Tobacco often has a strong aromatic smell, whereas herbal cannabis simply smells a little musty.
Cannabis Resin and Oil
Resin
The leaves and stems of both male and female cannabis plants are covered in a coating of fine hairs. In bright sunlight, as the plant approaches maturity, each hair begins to exude a sticky resinous sap. This exudate is collected and then dried and compressed to produce the finest forms of cannabis resin. As with the herbal variety, modern producers are intent upon producing the drug in large quantities without being concerned about quality; therefore, rather than wait for the plant to exude its own resin, producers often crush the sap from the whole plant in commercial-size crushing machines.
Cannabis resin now accounts for approximately 55 per cent of the UK market. No cannabis resin is produced in the UK; all of the resin thatwe see is imported from countries with generally warmer climates than our own. Morocco, Lebanon, Pakistan, Turkey, India, Nepal and Afghanistan are major producers of the cannabis resin that reaches the UK.
Cannabis resin is seen in a wide variety of colours, consistencies and forms. The variations in colour and consistency are mostly a result of differences in climate and production methods. The colour can vary from the deepest black, through slate grey and every imaginable shade of brown, to pale honey. Some black forms are hard, shiny and brittle and can be snapped like old-fashioned liquorice. Dark-brown resins tend to be hard and dense and very difficult to break up. The user normally has to heat the block with a flame before being able to crumble it.
This process of heating is called ‘roasting’ or ‘toasting’. Many of the paler resins are soft and dry and crumble easily in the fingers.
Oil
Cannabis oil is produced by dissolving the flowering parts of the cannabis plant or its resin in a powerful commercial solvent, filtering out the fibre content and then evaporating off the solvent to leave behind a viscous heavy oil that contains a very high level of THC. The oil varies in colour from dark green or dark brown to black.
It has a very powerful smell similar to that of a rotting cabbage or bag of Brussels sprouts. This oil is either dribbled onto hand-rolling cigarette tobacco or smeared with a matchstick onto the sides of commercially made cigarettes.
Note
Despite the differences between the various forms of cannabis, in essence they are all simply THC.Whatever it is called and whatever it looks like, it is all the same. Many users claim that they use only one sort or another and never touch the other forms. This is nonsense: whatever form they use, it is THC that they are putting into their bodies.
The leaves and stems of both male and female cannabis plants are covered in a coating of fine hairs. In bright sunlight, as the plant approaches maturity, each hair begins to exude a sticky resinous sap. This exudate is collected and then dried and compressed to produce the finest forms of cannabis resin. As with the herbal variety, modern producers are intent upon producing the drug in large quantities without being concerned about quality; therefore, rather than wait for the plant to exude its own resin, producers often crush the sap from the whole plant in commercial-size crushing machines.
Cannabis resin now accounts for approximately 55 per cent of the UK market. No cannabis resin is produced in the UK; all of the resin thatwe see is imported from countries with generally warmer climates than our own. Morocco, Lebanon, Pakistan, Turkey, India, Nepal and Afghanistan are major producers of the cannabis resin that reaches the UK.
Cannabis resin is seen in a wide variety of colours, consistencies and forms. The variations in colour and consistency are mostly a result of differences in climate and production methods. The colour can vary from the deepest black, through slate grey and every imaginable shade of brown, to pale honey. Some black forms are hard, shiny and brittle and can be snapped like old-fashioned liquorice. Dark-brown resins tend to be hard and dense and very difficult to break up. The user normally has to heat the block with a flame before being able to crumble it.
This process of heating is called ‘roasting’ or ‘toasting’. Many of the paler resins are soft and dry and crumble easily in the fingers.
Oil
Cannabis oil is produced by dissolving the flowering parts of the cannabis plant or its resin in a powerful commercial solvent, filtering out the fibre content and then evaporating off the solvent to leave behind a viscous heavy oil that contains a very high level of THC. The oil varies in colour from dark green or dark brown to black.
It has a very powerful smell similar to that of a rotting cabbage or bag of Brussels sprouts. This oil is either dribbled onto hand-rolling cigarette tobacco or smeared with a matchstick onto the sides of commercially made cigarettes.
Note
Despite the differences between the various forms of cannabis, in essence they are all simply THC.Whatever it is called and whatever it looks like, it is all the same. Many users claim that they use only one sort or another and never touch the other forms. This is nonsense: whatever form they use, it is THC that they are putting into their bodies.
Cegah Peredaran Narkoba, Aktifkan Kegiatan Remaja
Istilah “Tenda Biru’ di kawasan Cawang, Jakarta Timur, sampai saat ini masih menjadikan trauma tersendiri bagi warga sekitar. Pasalnya, sebutan tersebut identik dengan narkoba. Padahal tak satu pun warga yang mau kalau anggota keluarganya terjebak pada keganasan narkoba.
Susiati, warga Cililitan, Jakarta Timur, mengaku gerah dengan adanya “tenda biru” yang letaknya tidak jauh dari tempat tinggalnya. Apalagi dua anaknya ini masih kecil-kecil dan dikhawatirkan terkena imbas dari para pelaku pengedar Narkoba yang biasa mangkal di kawasan tersebut.
Polisi memang sudah sering menggrebek tempat yang berlokasi di Jl Letjen Soetoyo atau tepatnya di samping Pool Bus PPD ini. Tak hanya itu, warga RW 05 Kelurahan Cawang juga telah mendirikan Posko Penanggulangan Narkoba untuk tingkat RW (P2NRW). Kemudian, tiap Minggu pagi, warga juga beramai-ramai berkeliling di wilayahnya menyerukan antinarkoba yang diikuti pula oleh anak - anak. Namun sampai saat ini warga tetap saja khawatir.
Nampaknya masalah narkoba di Jakarta juga menjadi perhatian serius Wakil Gubernur DKI Jakarta Prijanto. Karena keberadaannya sangat membahayakan, maka Prijanto meminta pada warga untuk tetap waspada dan berhati-hati. Wagub juga meminta seluruh aparat di tingkat RT, RW dan Kelurahan untuk terus berpatroli, memonitor perkembangan daerahnya masng-masing. Selain itu, pihaknya juga meminta agar kegiatan remaja diaktifkan terus. “Saya minta seluruh RT dan RW untuk meningkatkan kegiatan pembinaan bagi para remajanya,” ujarnya, Senin (26/11).
Pembinaan yang dimaksud Prijanto antara lain, mengaktifkan kegiatan Karang Taruna, pengajian remaja masjid dan berbagai jenis kegiatan lain yang bersifat positif. “Maksudnya agar para remaja ini tidak terjerumus pada narkoba,” imbuhnya.
Sementara di tempat terpisah, Ketua Presidium Gerakan Rakyat Anti Madat (GERAM), M Masykur kepada beritajakarta.com mengatakan, pihaknya sangat prihatin dengan meningkatnya peredaran narkoba di Ibu Kota.
Karenanya ia meminta pada seluruh jajaran BNP, BNK, dan lainnya terus memerangi peredaran barang haram tersebut.
Selanjutnya ia meminta pada Gubernur DKI Jakarta agar jabatan Ketua Pos P4GN (pencegahan, pemberantasan, penyalahgunaan dan peredaran gelap narkoba) di kelurahan tidak dijabat lagi oleh para lurah. Alasannya, lurah memiliki banyak tugas pemerintahan sehingga kurang maksimal dalam melakukan pencegahan dan memerangi peredaran Narkoba di wilayahnya masing-masing.
“Idealnya yang menjadi ketua P4GN itu adalah pihak eksternal kelurahan sehingga dapat berjalan dengan optimal. Ini demi kepentingan bangsa dan Negara, agar generasi penerus bangsa tidak terjerumus pada Narkoba,” jelasnya, Senin (26/11).
Apalagi diyakini bahwa ujung tombak pencegahan peredaran narkoba berada pada level kelurahan. Makanya diperlukan figur pimpinan yang tangguh dan tidak terganggu oleh aktifitas lainnya. “Kami juga minta agar pak gubernur selaku Ketua BNP DKI Jakarta untuk menegur dan jika perlu memberikan sanksi pada para lurah yang tidak bisa mengatasi peredaran narkoba di kampungnya sendiri,” tukasnya.
Penulis: NURITO
Sumber: nurito
Cannabis: its Effects of use and Adverse effects
Effects of use
The effects of using cannabis, and the duration of those effects, vary greatly from person to person and according to the strength used and the expectations and mental state of the user. An inexperienced or irregular user can expect the effects of one cannabis cigarette of medium strength to produce effects that will last for between two and four hours, with the effects tapering off after that.
Most users will experience a feeling of bodily warmth, which is a purely physical reaction to the drug. The small blood vessels close to the surface of the skin dilate and suffuse with blood. This gives the skin a flushed appearance and makes it warm to the touch. It also leads to the characteristic cannabis user’s bloodshot eyes known as ‘cannabis red eye’.
Users often report a feeling of relaxation, happiness and congeniality, with them taking a great deal of pleasure from the company of other people around them. If these other people are also using cannabis, then there is the potential for very pleasurable experiences. Many cannabis users make use of the drug in order to give themselves confidence in social situations and find that it helps them to mix with others and to make friends. Cannabis users often become very talkative and report that the drug has opened their minds and given them such insights that they are able to have the most wonderful conversations with other cannabis users about all sorts of subjects, including the big questions of life, love, religion and death. The truth of this is very different: we have listened many times to these conversations as sober observers and have found them to be utter drivel and to make no sense at all. A common feature of these conversations is the ‘unfinished sentence effect’, otherwise known as the ‘ums’, in which the user will forget the subject of their conversation halfway through and the sentence will tail off in an extended ‘um …’.
Some users claim that cannabis in low doses temporarily increases their powers of concentration, and many young people use it as an aid to studying and revision. They feel that the drug enables them to study for longer periods without fatigue. Most users will lose their inhibitions and do things that theywould never dream of doing when sober. In some users, cannabis raises sexual awareness; this, together with the loss of inhibitions, may lead them to have unprotected sex, sometimes resulting in unplanned pregnancy or the transmission of various diseases.
Adverse effects
Short-term effects
At low or infrequent doses, the adverse effects of cannabis are fairly mild; many users report few if any adverse effects. Some users suffer from dryness of the mouth and throat if the cannabis has been smoked, and some will suffer bouts of nausea and dizziness. An increase in appetite is experienced by most users. Many users experience ‘the munchies’, during which they consume large quantities of food, often stripping the refrigerator on their return home of anything edible, even things that they would not normally eat.
At comparatively low levels of use, many users suffer from short-term memory loss, with no retention of any clear memory of events occurring during and immediately following their use of the drug. This makes a nonsense of the use of the drug as an aid to studying. Such users maywell have the powers of concentration that learning requires, but the drug prevents them retaining much of what they have been studying.We have had a great deal of contact with students in ourwork and have often been told by them of their realisation, sometimes too late, that their use of cannabis while studying had a deleterious effect on their grades.
Even at these low levels, cannabis has a powerful effect on the judgement and information-processing skills required to perform complex tasks such as driving a car or even riding a bike. In 2000, the UK Department for Transport published a research report into the effects of cannabis on driving.1 They concluded that cannabis impairs driving in many of the same ways as alcohol does but that many cannabis users adopt a more cautious driving style than those affected by alcohol. Thus, the adverse effects of cannabis use can, to a certain extent, be mediated by a change in driving style.
Many cannabis users who make regular use of the drug report that time appears to run at a different rate than normal. This ‘cannabis time’ runs much more slowly, with minutes feeling like hours. Some users report that they feel that they are walking in slow motion when under the influence of the drug. As the dose increases, many users begin to suffer the onset of many of the more unpleasant side effects of cannabis. THC is a moderately powerful hallucinogenic substance, and users will begin to experience an altering of their perception of the world around them. Their hearing may be enhanced and low-level sounds may be exaggerated until they reach unpleasant or even frightening proportions. Light levels and colours may change, causing confusion, disorientation and nausea. The initially pleasant feeling of relaxation and happiness may be replaced by anxiety, panic and eventually paranoia.
Many users report that they feel trapped insidewhat they are still able to recognise is a false reality created by the drug and feel that it is never going to end.
Although rare, full-scale hallucinations are possible with high doses of cannabis. These ‘trips’, unlike those induced by some other hallucinogenic drugs, are almost always unpleasant and can be positively terrifying.
Long-term effects
Trying to make sense of all of the available information about the long-term effects of regular cannabis use is very difficult. Our current state of knowledge can be likened to the position that society was in some years ago with our knowledge of the health problems associated with the smoking of tobacco. Research had revealed some very serious problems, such as lung cancer and heart disease, but as time went on further research was to reveal much more. Medical research of a similar nature into cannabis use is still in the early stages, but it is beginning to reveal some worrying evidence.
Perhaps the most concerning effect of regular cannabis use by young people is that their use of it as a way of dealing with the ups and downs and the stresses and strains of modern life means that they fail to learn the necessary coping skills to deal with such problems in the real world. Such coping skills can be learnt properly only when a person is young – trying to learn them effectively during adulthood is difficult if not impossible. If a young person fails to learn those skills, they will have great difficulty in dealing with adult life, and many will find that they can cope with the pressures of life only by using drugs – and often potentially much more dangerous drugs than cannabis.
Many regular users of cannabis demonstrate a loss of basic motivation, sometimes called amotivational syndrome. It seems clear to us from having dealt with many such young people that it is not possible to place the blame for this solely on the use of cannabis. Many of these unmotivated young people were performing badly at school and demonstrating similar forms of unmotivated behaviour before they were using cannabis, and, at worst, the cannabis simply exacerbated a pre-existing condition. It is not uncommon for such young people to drop out of school or college, to give up work and to opt out of life in general. Most will have no goals – and see no point in having any. Their lives may be characterised by drift and increasingly will become built around their drug use.
Cannabis is certainly cancer-causing. The smoke produced by burning it contains about 50 per cent more known carcinogens than the same volume of cigarette- tobacco smoke and deposits around four times as much tar in the lungs and bronchial passages of the smoker. This is not as straightforward as it seems at first glance. Most people who smoke only tobacco consume much greater amounts of their chosen drug than do people whose choice is cannabis. Having said that, it is not so unusual now as it once was to find people who use amounts of cannabis that
approach the amounts of tobacco consumed by many cigarette-smokers. There are also important differences in the way users smoke cannabis. Most users of cannabis will inhale much more deeply than most tobacco-smokers do and will, in order to extract the maximum effect from it, retain the cannabis smoke in their lungs for much longer. This means that the smoke will be in contact with the membranes of the throat and lungs for a greater period of time than is usual with cigarette-smoking.
The picture is confused further by the facts that most cannabis is smoked mixed with tobacco and that most cannabis-smokers also smoke tobacco cigarettes.What is clear is that there are growing numbers of documented cases of throat, mouth and lung cancers that appear to be connected directly to the smoking of cannabis.
A 2005 review of cannabis-related health risks by the drugs information charity DrugScope drew attention to a number of cases of cancers of the digestive tract found in young adults with a history of heavy cannabis use. These forms of cancer are not common in people under the age of 60 and further highlight the carcinogenic potential of cannabis.
There can be serious problems for the fetus growing in the womb of a woman who uses cannabis. Cannabis crosses the placental barrier and enters the bloodstream of the unborn infant, who will be affected in the same way as the mother, but to a much greater extent. Put bluntly, when a pregnant woman is stoned, so is her child. The developing fetus is very delicate and susceptible to damage caused by the actions of drugs taken by the mother. Firmevidence on this issue is difficult to come by and can be contradictory. Female users of cannabis during pregnancy will, in our experience, often use a range of other substances, including tobacco and alcohol.
Such multi-drug use can make it difficult to separate the causal agents of any subsequent health problems in the baby.What does seem clear is that use of cannabis on any regular basis during pregnancy can lead to reduced birth weight and a range of problems during the child’s early years, including attention, memory and cognitive functioning deficits.
Cannabis has an effect on the level of the hormone testosterone in males. This is the hormone that provides masculine characteristics. As soon as a male begins to use cannabis, his testosterone level reduces. If he stops using the drug, the level will return quickly to normal. The real problems occur in males, particularly those with a predisposition to sperm-production problems, who continue to use cannabis on a regular basis and over an extended period.
Research indicates that in some males, the reduction in testosterone level becomes permanent and the level becomes so low that problems are then experienced in achieving or maintaining an erection and performing sexual intercourse. It would seem to us that these things are of some importance to most young males and something they ought to consider. One of the most worrying aspects of chronic use of cannabis by young people is the link between such use and its potential adverse effects on mental health. In our conversations with many hundreds of young cannabis users over the years, it has become clear to us that this aspect of the health issues surrounding cannabis is the one that concerns them most. Cannabis in high doses can precipitate an acute psychosis in some users. This manifests itself in anxiety, confusion, agitation, hallucinations and delusions.What is also becoming apparent is a link between cannabis use and schizophrenia. Although it remains unclear as to whether cannabis use alone can cause schizophrenia in otherwise mentally healthy young people, the drug does seem to precipitate schizophrenia in people who may already be vulnerable to the illness. The conclusion seems to be that any young person with a family history of schizophrenia would be extremely unwise to make cannabis use a part of their lifestyle.
This research is ongoing, and it seems likely thatmuch more information will be revealed yet. What can be said with certainty at this stage is that cannabis is not a harmless herb, as some would have young people believe, but a powerful drug that no-one should underestimate.
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