Marijuana: The active principal substance is THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol). Marijuana is the most frequently used illegal drug in the United States. It is estimated that 50% of American teenagers have tried marijuana at some point in their lives. The plant Cannabis sativa is the substance that is most associated with marijuana. The dried flowers and leaves, greenish-gray to brown, produce a distinctive sweet, herbal, and floral scent. The reason that people smoke marijuana varies widely. Some use it to enhance a mundane activity or task, some for medicinal purposes, and others to experience the high. The effect of marijuana occurs in minutes, peaks in 10-30 minutes, and may last for 2-4 hours. Users experience joy, well-being, relaxation, and various mental functions such as associative thinking, episodic memory, and complex motor coordination. These effects can cause detrimental impairment to an individual.
Alcohol: The oldest and most widely used psychoactive drug in the world is alcohol. Classified as a depressant, its use is still quite prevalent despite the potential for misuse and adverse health effects. Life stressors can lead to unconscious drinking to alleviate emotional pain and distress. Depression can also be a reason for heavy drinking. Reliance on alcohol as a mechanism for coping with personal/emotional troubles can progress into heavy use or abuse. Heavy use of alcohol is not only harmful to the individual psychologically but physically as well. Blackouts, hangovers, and alcohol poisoning are direct effects of drinking, particularly in heavy drinking episodes. Long-term abuse can lead to damaging of most organs in the body, mentally impair a person, and cause severe dysfunction in personal, social, work, and family life. Approximately 14 million people in the United States meet diagnostic criteria for alcohol use disorders (NIAAA). Measures such as safe drinking have been used to try to reduce the harm of alcohol in society, to no avail.
Alcohol
Personality and mental function: As a depressant, alcohol can accentuate pre-existing mood problems. Euphoria gives way to agitation and depressed mood. Chronic abuse can cause severe depression. High suicide rates are associated with alcoholism. Primary mental effects are loss of memory and other cognitive functions. Wernicke’s encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s psychosis are caused by a deficiency in vitamin B1 that is common in alcoholics. They are characterized by confusion, paralysis of the nerves in the eye, poor coordination, and apathy. If untreated, they can progress to irreversible brain damage. Alcohol exacerbates certain mental disorders. Anxiety and insomnia are common in recovering alcoholics. People with schizophrenia have high rates of alcohol abuse. It is also a common factor in cases of domestic abuse. During the 1980s, the term “dual diagnosis” was coined to describe patients with a psychological disorder and chemical dependence. Often, the double is alcoholism, and so many treatment services are oriented toward this substance.
Effects on the body: Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant. At low doses, it acts primarily on the limbic system and causes a feeling of euphoria. This is due to the release of inhibition in some brain regions. Behavior at this point is cheerful and gregarious. As the dose increases, it affects the entire brain, and motor skills are impaired. Vision and hearing are diminished. At excessive doses, alcohol can act as a general anesthetic and can cause coma and death. Alcohol affects virtually every cell in the body. The health effects of chronic abuse affect every system in the body.
Alcohol is one of the oldest and most widely used psychoactive substances. It is legal and easily obtained and, therefore, frequently abused. In the United States, alcohol is a factor in many deaths, particularly in the areas of automobile accidents and “shooting” accidents. Over one-half of all drivers killed in a crash have been drinking or using drugs. In 1997, 40 percent of the 1.7 million people who were incarcerated for nonviolent offenses reported that they were drinking at the time of their arrest. The cost of alcohol abuse to American society has been estimated at $117 billion annually. It is second only to smoking among the category of addictions in terms of economic impact.
Marijuana
Marijuana (cannabis) is a popular mood-altering drug, which ranks as the most prevalent illegal drug used in the United States. Roughly 70% of those who state it is their drug of choice are under the age of 18. People smoke marijuana in hand-rolled cigarettes called joints, in pipes or water pipes (bongs), in loose form brewed into tea, and in blunts (emptied cigars refilled with marijuana). Marijuana cigarettes or blunts often smell sweet and fragrant. The THC content of marijuana has been increasing since the 1970s. Before this, the THC content was less than 1%, and current levels range between 4-29%. This is a concern because the higher levels of THC equate to more potent effects on the user’s mental state, and there is evidence to suggest that high THC levels may result in the user becoming dependent. Most people use marijuana because of the way it makes them feel.
Depending on the dose and potency, it has numerous immediate psychological and physical effects, which may last for a few hours. These can include joy, a dreamy and relaxed sensation, a heightened perception of the environment, and food cravings. Uppers are also known, as marijuana will increase the heart rate by 20-100% shortly after smoking; this effect can be potentiated if other drugs are mixed with marijuana. It can also cause a decrease in saliva production and an increase in phlegm production. High doses of marijuana may result in a person experiencing hallucinations or delusions. Some forms of hemp are grown as an ornamental plant and have relatively few effects on the THC’s primary psychoactive effects. Chronic smokers of marijuana may have many of the same respiratory problems experienced by people who smoke tobacco, and hopefully, if the trend continues, public awareness will follow.
Cocaine
Cocaine hydrochloride is a salt form of cocaine that can be snorted or dissolved in water and injected. This form of the drug is relatively expensive and known for its “high-class” stereotype. “Crack” is a smokable and more economically priced form of freebase cocaine that is processed with ammonia or sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and water. This creates small “rocks” that, when crystallized and dried, are placed into a pipe and smoked. While the intensities and durations of the highs differ between the two forms of the drug, they serve as equal reinforcers for continued use. Because crack is a more affordable form, the crack-cocaine epidemic in the mid-1980s to mid-1990s was associated with far more damaging consequences to the users and inner-city impoverished communities in which it was most heavily marketed and sold.
Cocaine was first isolated from coca leaves in the mid-19th century and came to be extensively used in tonics and elixirs by the turn of the century. Used extensively in the past in the medical community for its local anesthetic and vasoconstrictive properties, synthetic drugs later replaced it with less abuse potential. In addition to societal and legal constraints, the medical community no longer promotes the use of cocaine for the purposes above. However, it continues to have its appeal for those looking for a quick boost of energy and increased alertness.
Opioids
Opioids are substances that act on the nervous system in the body to relieve pain. They are classified as depressant drugs, which means they slow down the messages traveling between the brain and the rest of the body. Depressants do not necessarily make a person feel depressed. Instead, they help to relieve anxiety and pain. Opioids prescribed by doctors come in a variety of forms, the most common being tablets, such as codeine, and others are liquid, such as methadone. Other prescription opioids are oxycodone and morphine. When used as prescribed by a doctor for a short period under close medical supervision, opioids are effective pain relievers. However, frequent or continued use can result in physical dependence and withdrawal. Many people who are prescribed prescription opioids by a doctor have reported developing a tolerance to opioids and have then turned to using other forms of the drug to deal with their pain.
Due to the addictive nature of opioids and the result of continued use, this can cause a person to develop a dependency on opioids, and prolonged abuse can lead to addiction. Opioids tend to be misused due to the pain relief and ability to make users feel relaxed and happy, also known as a state of euphoria. This occurs because opioids act on specific receptors in the brain and spinal cord, and the increase in opioids will affect the release of a chemical known as dopamine, which is associated with a rewarding sensation. This can cause users to increase the dosage and the methods by which they take the drug for a more significant effect.
Stimulants
Stimulants are psychoactive drugs that induce temporary improvements in either mental or physical function or both. This is accomplished by increasing the production of one or more neurotransmitters in the brain. A diverse group of chemical compounds can accomplish this task through various pharmacological mechanisms, the most prominent being the class of drugs known as monoamine oxidase inhibitors and the broad family of sympathomimetic medications. It seems that the most prominent attraction related to stimulant use/abuse is the long-lasting changes in brain function, which result in improved mood, increased alertness, higher energy levels, and increased productivity. Unfortunately, the vast majority of stimulants that are used and abused by people today are due to the activation of the brain’s reward system in a way that does not occur naturally. This results in feelings of euphoria or intense rushes of pleasure. This feeling is caused by the release of high levels of dopamine in the brain, which is a common mechanism of action for virtually all abused drugs but varied in nature. Changes in brain function are also accompanied by an array of physiological side effects that vary in incidence and severity.