Author: John Carter

Drug Definition, Types, Interactions, Abuse, & Facts

If you or a loved one struggles with drug abuse and addiction, we can help. Theactive ingredientin tobacco is nicotine, a chemical that acts as both a stimulant and a depressant. Tobacco gives users a minor, immediate rush, followed by a feeling of relaxation. Nicotine is one of the most addictive substances available on the market and is dangerous to even try. One of the most devastating truths aboutdrug abuseis that it doesn’t just affect the person using it; it also affects their friends and families.

1. Users also experience severe craving for the drug during withdrawal, which can precipitate continued abuse and/or relapse.
2. Scientists have learned a great deal about how THC acts in the brain to produce its many effects.
3. After binding to a receptor, an antagonist can block the effect of an agonist.
4. It’s important to understand the underlyingcauses of addiction— fromprescription drug abuseto an attempt to self-medicatemental illness.

Global Action for Healthy Communities without Drugs

It is aSchedule I drug(i.e., it has a high potential for addiction) but has increasing medicinal uses in the United States. Still, marijuana is often abused by those who do not medically require it. It’s difficult to pinpoint when recreational drug use triggers an outright addiction, but the physical and psychological risks of drug use are many. It’s important to understand the underlyingcauses of addiction— fromprescription drug abuseto an attempt to self-medicatemental illness.

More on Specific Drugs

It is important to talk to yourloved onesabout drugs and how these substances can negatively impact their lives. We offer a number of free resources to help facilitate discussion, including our comprehensiveDrug Index A-Z. Mostly made up of everyday household items, these drugscausebrief feelings of euphoria. As the name suggests,inhalantsare always inhaled as gases or fumes. The “highs” slightly differ between inhalants, but most people who abuse inhalants are willing to huff whatever substance they can get.

Risks of Cannabis Abuse

Examples include the receptors for acetylcholine and for other fast excitatory or inhibitory transmitter substances in the nervous system, such as glutamate and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). THC acts upon specific sites in the brain, called cannabinoid receptors, kicking off a series of cellular reactions that ultimately lead to the “high” that users experience when they smoke marijuana. Some brain areas have many cannabinoid receptors; others have few or none. The highest density of cannabinoid receptors are found in parts of the brain that influence pleasure, memory, thinking, concentrating, sensory and time perception, and coordinated movement. The powdered hydrochloride salt form of cocaine can be snorted or dissolved in water and then injected. Crack is the street name given to the form of cocaine that has been processed to make a rock crystal, which, when heated, produces vapors that are smoked.

Alcohol as a Depressant

The term “crack” refers to the crackling sound produced by the rock as it is heated. Club drugs are a pharmacologically heterogeneous group of psychoactive drugs that tend to be abused by teens and young adults at bars, nightclubs, concerts, and parties. Gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB), Rohypnol, ketamine, as well as MDMA (ecstasy) and methamphetamine are some of the drugs included in this group. Made from the hemp plant Cannabis sativa, the primary chemical that alters the brain is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. When marijuana is smoked, THC and other chemicals pass from the lungs into the bloodstream and travel to the brain, resulting in a sense of relaxation. Large doses of marijuana may cause temporary acute psychosis (hallucinations, delusions, and loss of personal identity).

By Rebeca SchillerRebeca Schiller is a health and wellness writer with over a decade of experience covering topics including digestive health, pain management, and holistic nutrition. Side effects of taking opioids include drowsiness, confusion, nausea, constipation, and respiratory depression (slow and ineffective breathing). Nicotine, which people can find in smoked and chewed tobacco products, is a stimulant and depressant. A psychoactive substance is any substance that interacts with the central nervous system. When a person uses them, it causes changes in how the brain responds to stimuli. In addition, people who inject AAS run the added risk of contracting or transmitting HIV/AIDS or hepatitis, which causes serious damage to the liver.

They often fit into one or more categories, including stimulants, depressants, opiates, and hallucinogens. Because they may not undergo professional manufacturing processes in a laboratory, a person cannot be sure what ingredients an illegal drug may contain. Legal drugs, such as caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, and prescription medications, tend to be safe with responsible use. However, this effect fades over time and leaves a person feeling fatigued. Their body can also become dependent on nicotine, which can lead to addiction.

Cocaine abusers can also experience severe paranoia—a temporary state of full-blown paranoid psychosis—in which they lose touch with reality and experience auditory hallucinations. Methamphetamine affects the brain and can create feelings of pleasure, increase energy and elevate mood. Abusers may become addicted quickly, needing higher doses more often. Adverse health effects include irregular heartbeat, increased blood pressure and a variety of psychological problems. Long-term effects may include severe mental disorders, memory loss and severe dental problems. It is this excess of dopamine that is responsible for cocaine’s euphoric effects.

Risks of Opioid Abuse

With repeated use, cocaine can cause long-term changes in the brain’s reward system and in other brain systems as well, which may eventually lead to addiction. With repeated use, tolerance to the cocaine high also often develops. Many cocaine abusers report that they seek but fail to achieve as much pleasure as they did from their first exposure. Some users will increase their dose in an attempt to intensify and prolong the euphoria, but this can also increase the risk of adverse psychological or physiological effects. For example, cocaine constricts blood vessels, dilates pupils, and increases body temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure.

Long-term methamphetamine abuse has many negative health consequences, including extreme weight loss, severe dental problems (“meth mouth”), anxiety, confusion, insomnia, mood disturbances, and violent behavior. Chronic methamphetamine abusers can also display a number of psychotic features, including paranoia, visual and auditory hallucinations, and delusions (for example, the sensation of insects crawling under the skin). Methamphetamine is a central nervous system stimulant drug that is similar in structure to amphetamine. Due to its high potential for abuse, methamphetamine is classified as a Schedule II drug and is available only through a prescription that cannot be refilled. Although methamphetamine can be prescribed by a doctor, its medical uses are limited, and the doses that are prescribed are much lower than those typically abused. Substance use disorder is chronic disease that has adverse effects on individuals, their family, and friends.

Like other drugs, nicotine affects the brain with the release of dopamine, reinforcing the behavior and leading to addiction. When drugs are introduced to the system, dopamine, a neurotransmitter that responds to pleasurable activities is switched on and lights up that network. Below is a list of drugs, including alcohol and tobacco, and how each one affects the brain and contributes to SUD. When drugs are introduced, the neurons sending and receiving signals through their neurotransmitters are disrupted.