In the turn of this century, the use of drugs and stimulants skyrocketed. Hence, the need for a cursory look into this topic informed my research.
WHAT IS DRUG AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE?
Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, is a patterned use of a drug in which the user consumes the substance in amounts or with methods which are harmful to themselves or others, and is a form of substance-related disorder. Widely differing definitions of drug abuse are used in public health, medical and criminal justice contexts. In some cases criminal or anti-social behavior occurs when the person is under the influence of a drug, and long term personality changes in individuals may occur as well.
HISTORY OF DRUG ABUSE
Humans have used drugs for thousands of years. Early civilization used wine from at least the time of the early Egyptians. The earliest recorded use of narcotics dates back to 4,000 B.C, with medicinal marijuana appearing in China around 2,737 B.C.
The extraction of active ingredients from psychoactive drugs did not occur until the 19th century. Thereafter, the emergence of unregulated and freely prescribed drugs, such as morphine, laudanum, and cocaine, laid the groundwork for modern addiction. People could buy these drugs in patented medicine bottles at local drugstores. During the American Civil War, wounded veterans returned home with their morphine kits. As a result, opium dens thrived. By the early 1900s, an estimated 250,000 morphine addicts lived in the United States.
WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR BRAIN WHEN YOU TAKE DRUGS?
Drugs are chemicals that tap into the brain's communication system and disrupt the way nerve cells normally send, receive, and process information. There are at least two ways that drugs are able to do this: by imitating the brain's natural chemical messengers, and/or overstimulating the "reward circuit" of the brain.
Nearly all drugs, directly or indirectly, target the brain's reward system by flooding the circuit with dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter present in regions of the brain that control movement, emotion, motivation, and feelings of pleasure. The overstimulation of this system, which normally responds to natural behaviors that are linked to survival (eating, spending time with loved ones, etc), produces euphoric effects in response to the drugs. This reaction sets in motion a pattern that "teaches" people to repeat the behavior of abusing drugs.
Long-term drug abuse causes changes in other brain chemical systems and circuits, as well. Brain imaging studies of drug-addicted individuals show changes in areas of the brain that are critical to judgment, decision-making, learning and memory, and behavior control. Together, these changes can drive an abuser to seek out and take drugs compulsively -- in other words, to become addicted to drugs. While these brain changes can powerfully influence behavior and the impulse to use drugs, people in the midst of an addiction do not completely lose their ability to exercise judgment and make decisions; their desire to stop using drugs and pursue treatment hinges on the wish to live sober. As with many chronic, relapsing disorders, recovery then becomes an active lifelong process.
FACTS AND RISKS OF COMMON(street)DRUGS:
COCAINE:
This drug comes in different forms. A user can snort the powder type through their nose or inject it into their bloodstream. Crack is a crystal form of the drug that’s smoked and absorbed into the bloodstream through the lungs.
What else it’s called: Blow, Bump, C, Candy, Charlie, Coke, Crack, Flake, Rock, Snow, or Toot.
What type of drug is it? Cocaine is a highly addictive stimulant made from the coca plant. Crack cocaine is even more addictive.
What are the effects? It triggers your brain to release dopamine and creates a euphoric feeling. The high is intense but short-lived, which leads people to use it repeatedly to try to keep the feeling going.
The risks are:
Increased heart rate
High blood pressure
Increased body temperature
Stomach pain, nausea
Loss of appetite, malnourishment
Heart damage and heart attack
Stroke
Death
Loss of smell, nosebleeds, and problems swallowing
Higher risk of HIV and hepatitis C due to sharing needles or other drug equipment
When used during pregnancy it can cause spontaneous abortion, low birth weight, birth defects, and a baby born addicted to the drug.
ECSTACY
Users often take this drug by mouth in pill or tablet form. You can also snort it or inject it into a vein.
What else it’s called: MDMA or Molly.
What type of drug is it? This is a man-made stimulant and hallucinogen.
What are the effects? Ecstasy increases levels of several chemicals in the brain, including serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. It alters your mood and makes you feel closer and more connected to others. Users get a sense of euphoria and a boost in energy.
When the drug wears off, though, it can lead to confusion, depression, anxiety, and sleep problems.
The physical effects that it has on the body can be very similar to other stimulants like cocaine and amphetamines.
Those effects include:
Increased heart rate
Increased blood pressure
Tense muscles
Nausea
Blurred vision
Dizziness
Sweating or chills
FLAKKA
This designer drug is similar to bath salts. It is a pale-hued crystal that users eat, snort, inject, or vaporize using an e-cigarette device.
It might also be referred to as Gravel, because of the way it looks.
What type of drug is it? Like bath salts, it also contains synthetic cathinone.
What are the effects? The drug has a stimulant-like effect but can cause paranoia, hallucinations, and can lead to violence or self-harm. It’s been linked to deaths due to heart attack, suicide, and kidney damage or kidney failure.
HEROINE:
Heroin comes as a white or tan powder, or a black sticky substance, known as “black tar heroin.” Users can inject, inhale or smoke it.
What else it’s called: Brown Sugar, China White, Dope, H, Horse, Junk, Skag, Skunk, Smack, and White Horse
What type of drug is it? It’s an opioid derived from the opium poppy flower. It’s rapidly absorbed into the brain, which makes it highly addictive.
What are the effects? A rush of euphoria followed by dry mouth, a heaviness sensation in the arms and legs, and a fuzzy mind.
Heroin use can be deadly. Risk factors for overdose include, simultaneous use of sedatives or alcohol, use of prescription pain pills, and recent abstinence with relapse. It can also lead to:
Collapsed veins
Skin Infections
Gastrointestinal problems (especially constipation)
Kidney disease
Suppressed breathing, which is which is leading cause of coma, brain damage, and death
Risk of catching HIV and hepatitis C through sharing needles and other drug equipment
When used during pregnancy it can cause spontaneous abortion, low birth weight, birth defects, and a baby born addicted to the drug.
KROKODIL
This drug isn’t common in the U.S., but it’s used widely in Russia, especially among young adults as a cheaper alternative to heroin. It’s a man-made form of morphine and about 10 times stronger.
It’s a combination of several harmful chemicals including codeine, iodine, gasoline, paint thinner, lighter fluid and others.
Users inject it into the bloodstream, and it has a rapid and brief effect. It’s also sometimes spelled Crocodil.
What type of drug is it? Opioid.
What are the effects? Krokodil is named for the crocodile-like appearance it creates on the skin. Over time, it damages blood vessels and causes the skin to become green and scaly. The tissue damage can lead to gangrene and result in amputation or death.
LSD
This drug became popular in the 1960s and is still commonly used today. It's made from an acid found in a fungus that grows on rye and other grains.
What else it’s called: Acid, Blotter, Doses, Hits, Microdots, Sugar Cubes, Trips, Tabs, and Window Panes.
What type of drug is it? Hallucinogen.
What are the effects? It causes someone to see, hear, and feel things that seem real, but aren’t. These hallucinations, called “trips,” can last as long as 12 hours.
LSD can cause physical effects such as dilated pupils, increased heart rate and blood pressure, sweating, less appetite, dry mouth, and shakiness.
MARIJUANA
It's still the most-used illegal drug in the U.S., despite it recently earning legal status for medical purposes in many states.
Marijuana refers to the dried leaves, flowers, stems, and seeds of the hemp (Cannabis sativa) plant. Most people smoke marijuana, but it can also be added to foods and eaten.
What else it’s called: Blunt, Bud, Dope, Ganja, Grass, Green, Herb, Joint, Mary Jane, Pot, Reefer, Skunk, Smoke, Trees, Weed, Ashish, Boom, Hash, and Hemp.
What type of drug is it? It can act as both a stimulant and a depressant, and even a hallucinogen.
What are the effects? Marijuana contains the chemical THC, which acts on different parts of the brain to create the “high” that users experience, such as changes in sensations, mood, body movements, thinking, and memory.
When used regularly, marijuana can affect brain development and lead to a drop in IQ. Over time it can become addictive for some people, and also cause serious health problems such as breathing issues, increased heart rate, and higher risk of heart attacks, depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts for some people. Among young people, heavy MJ use has been associated with cognitive impairment and mental illness, like schizophrenia. However, in adults, chronic use has not been associated with serious medical conditions.
METHAMPHETAMINES:
Meth is a white powder that users swallow, smoke, snort, or inject. It’s made from a combination of pseudoephedrine, a common ingredient in cold medications, along with other toxic chemicals.
What else it's called: Crystal meth, Chalk, Crank, and Ice.
What type of drug is it? Stimulant.
What are the effects? Meth creates an immediate high that quickly fades. As a result, users often take it repeatedly, making it extremely addictive. The physical effects are very similar to other stimulants like cocaine and amphetamines. Those effects can include:
Increased breathing
Rapid heart rate
High blood pressure
- Increased body temperature
With repeated long-term use, meth can lead to extreme weight loss, skin sores, and severe dental issues. Chronic abusers often suffer from anxiety, confusion, insomnia, hallucinations and delusions, and paranoia. Injecting the drug can raise the risk of getting HIV or hepatitis when sharing needles and other drug equipment.
When used during pregnancy it can cause spontaneous abortion, low birth weight, birth defects, and a baby born addicted to the drug.
MUSHROOMS
Psilocybin and peyote mushrooms are eaten, brewed in a tea, or added to foods to get a high. Though cravings may occur, physical dependence isn’t usually present with hallucinogens.
What else they’re called: Boomers, Little Smoke, Magic Mushrooms, and Shrooms.
What type of drug is it? The active ingredient is psilocybin, which is a hallucinogen found in certain types of mushrooms.
What are the effects? The effects start within about 20 minutes and last as long as 6 hours. Similar to LSD, mushrooms can cause hallucinations, an altered perception of time, and an inability to tell the difference between what’s real and what’s not.
Taking high doses or using them for a long time can cause panic, psychosis, or flashbacks. They can also cause extreme pupil dilation, nausea, and vomiting.
SPICE
This is a mixture of different herbs and chemicals that looks similar to potpourri. Users either smoke it like marijuana or make it into an herbal tea-like drink.
What else it’s called: Black Mamba, Bliss, Bombay Blue, Fake weed, Fire, Genie, K2, Moon Rocks, Skunk, Smacked, Yucatan, or Zohai.
What type of drug is it? Synthetic cannabinoid.
What are the effects? Compounds in Spice act on the same parts in the brain as THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. As a result, the effects are very similar, such as feeling happier and more relaxed. But the compounds in Spice can lead to a stronger effect.
Users also report severe anxiety, paranoia, and hallucinations.
Other effects of Spice can include:
Rapid heart rate
Vomiting
Confusion
Seizures
Increased blood pressure
Heart attack (rarely)
SALVIA
This drug is an herb in the mint family that’s native to parts of Mexico. Users chew or smoke its leaves.
What else it’s called: Maria Pastora, Sage of the Seers, Diviner’s Sage, Sally-D, and Magic Mint.
What type of drug is it? Hallucinogen.
What are the effects? The drug creates intense but short-lived effects, which start within 5 to 10 minutes and last about 30 minutes. The hallucinogenic effects include changes in vision, mood, emotions, and body sensations.
BATH SALTS
These designer drugs came on the scene fairly recently and became popular fast. That may be because they were easy to get and used to be hard to detect in drug tests.
They're highly addictive, and they come in a crystalline powder that users swallow, inhale, or inject.
Despite their name, bath salts have nothing in common with products you can use for a soak in the tub.
What else they’re called: Plant Food, Bloom, Cloud Nine, Ivory Wave, Lunar Wave, Scarface, Vanilla Sky, or White Lightning.
What type of drug is it? Bath salts contain manmade stimulants called cathinones, which are similar to amphetamines.
What are the effects? These stimulants increase levels of dopamine, a brain chemical that can create feelings of euphoria.
Some say the effects are similar to cocaine or methamphetamines. But they’re even more likely to cause serious health effects, including:
Violence
Paranoia
Agitation
Hallucinations
Psychosis
Racing heart
High blood pressure
Chest pain
Panic attacks
Dehydration
Kidney failure
Death
DRUG ABUSE AND ADDICTION IN PREGNANT WOMEN
During pregnancy, addiction treatment can mean the difference between having a healthy child and losing a baby or giving birth to an infant with serious developmental problems.Drugs and alcohol can cause serious complications with pregnancy, as well as harm to the physical and cognitive development of the fetus.
According to The 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) reports the following statistics on substance abuse in pregnant women:
Approximately 5.4 percent of pregnant females age 15-44 were actively using illicit drugs at the time of the survey, compared with 11.4 percent of non-pregnant females.
Pregnant teens age 15-17 were more likely to abuse drugs than older teens and women (14.6 percent versus 3.2 percent) who were pregnant.
About 9.4 percent of pregnant women reported that they were active users of alcohol.
Approximately 2.3 percent of pregnant women reported binge drinking, or consuming five or more alcoholic beverages in one sitting, while 0.4 percent reported that they were current heavy drinkers.
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