Illegal Drugs

Medicine misuse

• When medicines are used in ways other than intended

• Carelessness• Misused intentionally

Substance abuse• Any unnecessary or

improper use of chemical substance for non-medical purposes

• Overuse or multiple use of a drug

Illegal drugs

•Street drugs

•Against the law to manufacture, possess, buy, or sell

Synthetic drugs• Chemical substances

produced artificially in a laboratory.

• Regardless of how they are taken the effects are deadly

Illicit drug use

•Use or sale of any substances that are illegal or otherwise not permitted

Gateway drugs

•Drugs that often lead to other serious and dangerous drug use

•Alcohol and nicotine

Trends in teen drug use• Using drugs at younger ages• 11% of teens age 12 and up use

drugs• More trying heroin• 9% use marijuana• Consider marijuana to be safe

Overdose • A strong or even fatal reaction

to taking a large amount of a drug

• Accidental• Can not control quality, purity,

or strength

Tolerance

•Need more and more to get the same effects

Physiological dependence

• Body develops a chemical need for the drug

• Experiences severe effects when the drug is taken away

Psychological dependence

• Person believes a drug is needed in order to feel good or to function normally

Withdrawal • Occurs when a person stops

using a drug• Nervousness, insomnia,

severe nausea, headaches, vomiting, chills, cramps, and death

Addiction

•Physiological and psychological dependence on a drug

Costs of substance abuse

• Negatively affects performance in school, sports, relationships and family

• $67 billion burden on society – criminal cost each year

• 5% of the 4 million women give birth to drug addicted babies

Psychoactive drugs• Stimulants – medical use• Depressants – medical use• Narcotics – medical use• Hallucinogens – no

medical use

Stimulants• Drugs that speed up the central nervous system

• commonly abused – amphetamines, methamphetamines, cocaine

• Nicotine and caffeine

Cause• Increase heart and respiratory• High blood pressure• Dilated pupils• Decrease appetite• Blurred vision• sleeplessness

Chronic users

• Hallucinations• Delusions• Paranoia – irrational

suspiciousness or distrust of others

Amphetamines• Medical use has declined• Used illegally to stay

awake and alert, improve athletic performance, lose weight, temporary high

• Physical and psychological

Euphoria

•Feeling of intense well-being or elation that may be followed by a complete “crash” of letdown

Methamphetamine• Used to treat diseases –

Parkinson’s and obesity• Called crank, speed, or ice• Paranoid or violent• Smoked, snorted, injected or

swallowed

•Food and water not important

•Fumes alone are deadly

Cocaine

• Made from the coca bush• Illegal to use or possess • Powerful stimulant• Effects last from 20 min.

to several hours

• High is followed by a let down – user will want more

• Depression, edginess, weight loss

• Physical dependence

• Tissues damage to nose

• malnutrition

•Risk of heart attack•May disturb electrical impulses in the heart

•HIV – shared needles•Snorted

Crack• Form of cocaine that is

smoked• Converts cocaine into lumps

or rocks – freebase – use dangerous solvents; can cause injury or death – explosion or fire

• Extremely addictive and dangerous

• Effects are felt within seconds – want more when the high starts going away – less than 20 min.

• Sore throat, hoarseness, and lung damage

• Death by cardiac or respiratory failure

Depressants

• Sedatives

• Drugs that to slow down the central nervous system

• Most commonly used - alcohol

• Relax muscles, relieve tension and worry, bring on sleep, slows down heart & breathing, reduces blood pressure

• Physical and psychological

Barbiturates

• Induce sleep• Mood changes, more sleep

than normal, coma• Alcohol + Barbiturates =

death

Tranquilizers• Reduce muscular activity,

coordination, & attention span

• Medical use – relieve anxiety, muscle spasms, sleeplessness, & nervousness

Methaqualone

• Reduce anxiety and insomnia

• Temporary euphoria – withdrawals are unpleasant

• Physical

• Physical

• Effects – headaches, diarrhea, dizziness, convulsions, and coma

• Many die from combining this drug with alcohol

Narcotics

Opiates • Another name for narcotics• Drugs derived from the opium

plant that have a sedative effect• Opium poppy flower• Relieves pain

• Cause drowsiness• Physiological dependence• Cause stupor, sleep, depress

respiration, coma or death• Commonly abused – heroin

Morphine • Reduce severe pain• Terminal cancer patients• Appetite suppressant, cause

severe constipation, addiction• Physical

Codeine

•Weaker than morphine

•Used in cough medication

•Physical

Heroin

• Made from morphine• No medical use• Depresses central nervous

system• Slows breathing and heart rate

• Coma and death• Tolerance develops very

quickly – physical • Babies can be born addicted• Withdrawal is very painful• HIV• Now 10 x purer

Methadone• Laboratory-made drug narcotic

that blocks the withdrawal symptoms of opiate narcotics

• Physical• Does not produce euphoria and

mind-altering effects

Hallucinogens

• Drugs that alter moods, thoughts, and sense perceptions, including vision, hearing, smell, and touch

• All hallucinogens are psychological dependence

Phencyclidine

• PCP or angle dust• Considered the most

dangerous drug• Prepared synthetically• Feels distant and detached

• Time pass slowly, body movements slow down, muscle coordination is impaired, and touch and pain are dulled.

• Tragic deaths, serious accidents, and terrible acts of violence

• Overdose and death by strange and destructive behaviors

Lysergic acid diethylamide

• LSD or acid• Most potent of all mood-

altering chemicals• Tablet, capsule, and liquid –

that is colorless, tasteless, and odorless

• Superman effects – false sense of security and power that has resulted in deaths

• Panic , anxiety, or accidental suicide

Mescaline

• Psychoactive ingredient in peyote cactus

• Bad trips or frightening imagines

• Stomach cramps and vomiting

Anabolic steroids• Synthetic testosterone• Causes mood swings and

aggressive behavior• High blood pressure, acne,

baldness, liver damage, heart disease, increase body and facial hair

• Strokes, clogged arteries• Males – depression, low

sperm count, decrease testicles, increase breast size

• Females – breast shrinkage • Muscles look bigger but not

stronger

Cannabis • Hemp plant• Illegal drug• Hallucinogen but has the

effects of both Stimulate and depressant

Tetrahydrocannabinol

•THC

•Produces the “high” in marijuana

•10 x stronger today

Marijuana• Cannabis that is smoked,

eaten, or drunk for intoxicating effects

• Alters senses, coordination, reaction time, impairs decisions making skills

• Lowers body temp, increases heart and blood pressure

• Stimulates the appetite – “munchies” – however lose the effect when one eats

• Talkative, giddy or quiet, withdrawn

• Loss of will power, motivation, lack of energy and paranoia

• Affects memory, difficulty in recalling things and paying attention, slower reaction time

• More carcinogens than cigarettes

• Stronger today than in the 60’s

• Males – lowers hormone testosterone and decreases sperm production

• Females – stillbirths, low birth weight and conditions similar to FAS

• Damaging to respiratory system• Psychological

Hashish

• Hash

• The dark brown resin collected from the tops of the cannabis plant

Inhalants• Substances with breathable

fumes that are sniffed and inhaled to give hallucinogenic or mind-altering high

• Many accidental deaths

• Nausea, sneezing, coughing, nosebleeds, fatigue, liver and kidney damage, change in bone marrow, brain damage

• Coma or death 1st time used• Suffocation • Peak age of use 14

Designer drugs

• Synthetic substances meant to imitate the effects of narcotics and hallucinogens

• Ecstasy – methamphetamine and mescaline – Combination of stimulant and hallucinogen

Effects – euphoria, confusion, depression, paranoia, psychosis, increase heart rate and blood pressure, and long term brain damage

Look-alike drugs

•Drugs made so as to physically resemble specific illegal drugs