one of your friends thinks that marijuana is safe and that its use should be decriminalized nationally. Evaluate this person’s position by considering potential health effects on the population, both positive and negative, if marijuana were legalized in all 50 states.
Chapter 7
Drug Use and
Abuse
Drug Use and Abuse
• Drugs are nonfood chemicals that alter the way a
person thinks, feels, functions, or behaves.
• Drugs are commonly taken for medicinal purposes.
• Psychoactive drugs are taken for their mind-altering
and mood-altering effects.
• Inappropriate drug use contributes to crime,
unemployment, and family violence and dissolution.
Drug Use, Misuse, and Abuse
• Medications have beneficial uses, such as for treating
diseases or correcting physiological abnormalities.
• Drug misuse is the temporary and improper use of a
legal drug.
• Drug abuse is the intentional improper or nonmedical
use of a drug.
Drug Use, Misuse, and Abuse
• The government classifies abused psychoactive drugs
into five schedules according to their potential for
abuse, medical usefulness, and safety.
• Schedule I drugs (e.g., heroin, LSD) have the most
stringent control status. They are commonly abused,
have little medicinal value and lack accepted safety
for use.
• Schedule II, III, IV, and V drugs are available by
prescription.
Psychoactive Drugs: Effects on the
Mind and Body
• Interact with nerve cells in the brain and alter activity
of chemical transmitters
• Many commonly abused drugs affect specific brain
regions called reward centers.
• Produce euphoria, an intense feeling of well-being (a
“high”)
Psychoactive Drugs: Effects on the
Mind and Body
• Psychoactive drugs reach the brain through the
bloodstream.
• Undergo detoxification mostly in the liver
– Some drugs are stored in body fat for weeks and
detoxified slowly over time.
• Overdose—when the body is unable to eliminate
excessive amounts of a drug before reaching toxic levels
Psychoactive Drugs: Effects on the
Mind and Body
• Polyabuse—abusing more than one drug at a time
• Synergism—when different drugs that have similar
effects are combined, the effects of each drug can be
amplified
Illicit Drug Use in the United States
• Illegal drugs (i.e., illicit drugs) have no currently
accepted medical use in the United States.
• 9.2% of population are current illicit drug users.
• 37.3% of full-time college students took one or more
illicit drugs during 2012.
Illicit Drug Use in the United States
• Why do people use psychoactive drugs?
– Relieve boredom, satisfy curiosity, escape
problems, and stress release
• Patterns of psychoactive drug use
– Drug experimentation and illicit use peak between
the ages of 18 and 20.
– Cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana are gateway drugs.
Drug Dependence
• Drug dependence or addiction occurs when the user
develops a habitual pattern of taking the drug that
results in a compulsive need that is physical and
psychological.
• Dependent persons are unable to avoid using drugs,
and their preoccupation with them interferes with their
ability to manage the responsibilities of family and
work.
Physiological Dependence
• Occurs when people take certain psychoactive drugs
repeatedly over an extended period. Their bodies make
various physiological adjustments to function as
normally as possible.
• As a result, these people display characteristic signs
and symptoms of physical dependence or physical
addiction.
– Tolerance—ability to endure larger amounts of
certain psychoactive drugs while the adverse effects
decrease
– Withdrawal—temporary physical and
psychological state that occurs when certain drugs
are discontinued
Psychological Dependence
• Occurs when a person needs to use a drug
regularly to relieve boredom, anxiety, or stress.
Psychological dependence can result in
powerful cravings for drugs, and motivates
drug-seeking behavior.
Risk Factors for Drug Dependency
• Addiction is the result of complex interactions among
biological, personal, social, and environmental factors.
• Protective factors, such as strong family and school
ties, parental monitoring of behavior with clear rules
of conduct, and academic success, reduce the potential
for drug use among youth.
Stimulants
• Relieve fatigue, suppress appetite, and improve
mood
• Enhance chemical activity in parts of the brain that
influence emotions, attention, sleep, and learning
• Increase blood pressure levels and heart rates
Amphetamines and Methamphetamines
• Amphetamines increase energy and alertness, lessen
the need for sleep, produce euphoria, and suppress
appetite.
• Methamphetamines (speed) are more potent forms of
amphetamines that have few medically approved uses.
• Overdoses of methamphetamines can be deadly by
causing cardiovascular collapse or strokes.
Party Drugs
• Includes: amphetamines, methamphetamines, alcohol,
GHB, GBL, rohypnol, LSD, ketamine, and ecstasy
• Reduce anxiety, induce euphoria, or build energy
• These drugs can have long-lasting negative effects on the
brain.
Ritalin, Adderall, and Other Medically
Useful Stimulants
• Ritalin is prescribed for people with attention
disorders; it is abused among high school and college
students.
• The stimulant Adderall is more recently used for the
treatment of ADHD; it is also abused by those who do
not need it for medical reasons.
• Stimulants are also prescribed to treat narcolepsy; their
use to suppress appetite is controversial.
Cocaine
• Cocaine is a powerful stimulant derived from the
leaves of the coca bush.
• Crack is a rock crystal form of cocaine.
• It has some medical uses, particularly as an anesthetic.
• Cocaine is highly addictive and can cause serious
health problems including damage to the nasal
passages, lungs, and respiratory tract, cardiovascular
problems, and severe psychotic reactions, including
paranoia.
Caffeine
• Most commonly used psychoactive substance, causes
limited dependence
• Improves alertness and reaction time, lifts the mood,
helps the body burn fat, blunts pain, and helps relive
headache pain
• Withdrawal from caffeine causes headaches, tiredness,
irritability, and depression.
• Caffeine can disturb sleep and provoke migraine
headaches in those prone to them.
Caffeine
• Consuming 200 mg or more per day may increase the
risk of miscarriage.
• Caffeinism occurs with high doses (more than 600
ml/day). Symptoms include nervousness, trembling,
irritation of the stomach lining, insomnia, increased
urine production, diarrhea, sweating, and rapid heart
rate.
• Typical patterns of moderate caffeine consumption are
not harmful to healthy people.
Depressants
• Slow the activity of the central nervous system,
producing sedative (calming) and hypnotic (trancelike) effects as well as drowsiness
• Alcohol, barbiturates, and minor tranquilizers
• Some depressants have medical value, they are often
misused and abused.
• Depressants slow heart and respiratory rates,
increasing the risk of death when overdoses are taken.
• Tolerance and dependency occur with regular use;
withdrawal can be deadly.
Sedatives and Tranquilizers
• These depressants are sometimes prescribed to treat
insomnia or mild anxiety.
• Safer therapies are available.
• Rohypnol is often referred to as a “date-rape drug”
because it produces sedation as well as memory loss
concerning the events that occurred while one is under
the drug’s influence.
GHB and GBL
• GHB: formerly sold in health food stores as a dietary
supplement to induce sleep and build muscle
– Banned by the FDA in 1990
– Became a Schedule I drug in 2000 because of its
dangerous side effects including seizures and coma
• GBL: body converts to GHB; associated with reports
of at least 55 adverse health effects, including one
death
Opiates
• Opiates include opium, the dried sap of the opium poppy,
and drugs such as codeine, morphine, heroin, and
Percodan, which are derived from opium.
• Medically used as sedatives, analgesics (alleviate pain),
and narcotics (alter the perception of pain and induce
euphoria and sleep) and to treat severe diarrhea and severe
coughing
• Opiates are highly addictive; excessive doses depress the
CNS, slowing respiration and reducing mental
functioning.
Opiates
• Drugs dealers chemically convert opium to heroin after it
enters the United States.
• Heroin is often adulterated before it is sold illegally,
which increases the risk of overdoses.
• Worldwide, heroin is one of the most widely abused
illegal drugs.
Opiates
• OxyContin
– Prescribed for moderate to severe chronic pain
– Abuse of the drug is popular among high school
students.
– It is very dangerous when combined with other drugs,
such as alcohol.
• Vicodin
– Prescribed to reduce pain
– Abuse is higher than OxyContin, especially among
high school students and young adults.
Marijuana
• The most widely used illicit drug in the United States
• THC is the psychoactive substance in marijuana.
• Alters muscular coordination and normal thought
processes such as mental concentration, problem solving,
time perception, and short-term memory
• Damages respiratory tract and reproductive functioning
• Rarely causes physical dependence
• Psychological dependence
Marijuana
• Approved for medical use in 20 states and in Washington,
DC
• Federal authorities may prosecute patients whose
physicians prescribe marijuana for medical use; state laws
do not protect users from the federal ban on the drug.
Hallucinogens
• Produce abnormal and unreal sensations, anxiety and
depression, and the feeling of losing control over your
mind
• Physical side effects: elevated blood pressure, dilated
pupils, and increased body temperature
• Psychological but not physical dependence
Hallucinogens
• LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide)
– “Acid”
– Psychotic reactions, paranoid delusions and flashbacks
are possible.
• Mescaline
– Derived from a small cactus
– Street sources are often adulterated with LSD.
Hallucinogens
• Psilocybin
– Mushrooms
• PCP
– Angel dust, rocket fuel
• Ketamine
– Analog to PCP
Inhalants
• Gases that are breathed in and produce euphoria,
dizziness, confusion, and drowsiness
• Sniffed or inhaled from a bag or soaked rag
• Negative health effects include brain damage, irregular
heartbeat, anemia, liver damage, kidney failure, coma,
and death.
Designer Drugs: Drugs with Mixed
Effects
• By making chemical alterations to an existing controlled
drug, one can make a new drug that is not classified as a
controlled substance.
• More toxic than the drugs from which they are derived
(e.g., ecstasy, K2, bath salts)
Over-the-Counter Drugs
• To be sold in this country, an over-the-counter (OTC)
drug must be safe and effective when people follow the
product information that comes with it.
• Herbal products that are sold as food supplements in
health food stores are not regulated by the FDA.
• Misuse and abuse of OTC medicines is common.
• Look-alike drugs
• Weight loss aids
• Ephedrine
Drug Treatment and Prevention
• Medical supervision may be necessary.
• Three long-term programs
– Methadone maintenance programs
– Outpatient drug-free programs
– Residential therapeutic communities
• Limited effectiveness if
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