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By Pascale Maria
TYPES OF DRUGS
• A drug can be listed in many categories, such as the kind of drug, availability, cost, purity, mode of administration, duration and the possible danger it has on the body.
• Depending on their type, they fall into the following categories: DRUGS THAT HAVE A DEPRESSING EFFECT ON THE NERVOUS SYSTEM (ex. alcohol, sedatives) - symptoms: lethargy, inability to concentrate, and excessive hours of sleep.
• DRUGS THAT HAVE A STIMULATING EFFECT ON THE NERVOUS SYSTEM (ex. amphetamine, cocaine) - symptoms: the need to laugh or talk, insomnia, and loss of appetite.
• OPIOIDS (ex. heroin, morphine) - symptoms: euphoria and blocking of pain receptors.
• HALLUCINOGENS (ex LSD, methamphetamine) - symptoms: change in perception of one’s own person or location, psychosis, hallucinations and alterations of senses.
• MARIJUANA - symptoms: psychosis and hallucinations.
ALCOHOL
We are all familiar with the concept of alcohol and its effects. Whether you've experienced being drunk yourself or heard stories of drunk people calling their exes in the club you probably have an idea about the unpleasant states that alcohol produces. But what causes this condition of "drunkenness" and why do people react differently under its influence?
Ethanol is an organic compound made up of carbon molecules found in alcohol and is the only one of the three types of alcohol that can be consumed by people. Despite this fact, it does not mean that it is not toxic.
Alcohol enters the bloodstream and then the organs (liver and brain). First, the enzymes break down the molecules of ethanol to help the liver process it. After this process, it is broken down into: acetaldehyde - which is toxic - and acetate - which is non-toxic. The alcohol finally reaches the brain where, because of its sensitivity, the feeling of "drunkenness” appears. Alcohol makes the neurotransmitter GABA (which helps us relax) to be much more active while slowing down glutamate activity which causes neurons to calm down and be neutral.
When someone consumes alcohol, their brain produces what we call endorphins, which are substances produced to help the person relax and induce a state of happiness. Due to the sensitivity of endorphins some people are prone to alcohol addiction and due to variation in the transmission of the neurotransmitter GABA other people have a lower risk of developing an addiction.
How is this addiction created?
When someone frequently consumes alcohol, the body is accustomed to a higher than normal number of endorphins that create a new standard. So when the level of endorphins is at "normal" the brain does not perceive it to be so and asks for more alcohol to increase the level of endorphins.
Alcohol, unfortunately, is very normalized as a social construct. Many people drink a glass of wine or champagne with friends or colleagues to relax and feel good. Many teenagers suffer from FOMO (fear of missing out) which encourages them to drink from a young age. This also happens for social reasons, similar to smoking. All these factors lead to alcohol being the second most used drug after nicotine.
COCAINE
The active substance in cocaine is called the cocaine alkane that makes up the drug we've all heard of. Cocaine can be drunk as tea, smoked, injected or inhaled and the way in which someone consumes affects the body differently. The most popular method of consuming cocaine is through nasal inhalation. Cocaine is a vasoconstrictor substance which causes the blood vessels to shrink, then when inhaled, it will cover the entire mucous membrane in the nose and will be absorbed by the blood vessels in there.
When something unusual is inhaled the nose produces more mucus to stop the substance to reach the body. This also happens with cocaine, but if it is consumed frequently the nostrils will accumulate more mucus than the nose can handle and that’s why addicts have this habit of constantly blowing their noses.
After passing through the nasal passages, the blood containing the cocaine alkane reaches the heart and from the heart goes into the brain where it has a very big impact on the dopamine neurotransmitters, serotonin and norepinephrine.
In short, a neurotransmitter makes the synapse connection, which is the connection between two neurons. A neurotransmitter will leave the first neuron and stay in the synaptic cleft until enters the second neuron where it transmits a specific signal to the brain. This signal stops and the neurotransmitter returns to the first neuron, a process called reuptake.
Cocaine will enter the course of the reuptake and will make the signals of dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine to last much longer which will cause that desire to talk or laugh excessively, hyperactivity and insomnia.
Cocaine is a drug that is consumed several times a day and is combined with other potent drugs because its effect does not last long (around 15-20 minutes, no more than an hour) and it is very easy for an individual to overdose.
LSD
Integrating a little history into its presentation, LSD was discovered in 1943 in Basel, Switzerland by Albert Hofmann (a chemist). He began to study it, being very intrigued by the fact that the LSD molecule is very similar to the serotonin molecule and it was discovered later on that all psychedelics have molecules similar to serotonin.
LSD is a hallucinogen so powerful that it can alter your perception of reality from 3 to 12 hours and the duration depends on the person's gender, weight, age but also certain genetic factors.
Hofmann did not know this when he tested the drug on himself. He took what he thought to be a small dose, exactly 250 micrograms of LSD, which is double the dose that a consumer takes nowadays.
The symptoms felt were dizziness, anxiety, hallucinations and paralysis, so he decided that in order to continue his study he would give LSD to anyone who asked for it and wanted to try it.
In the 60s, he "marketed" LSD to a psychiatric hospital to see what use this drug would have. It was tested on alcoholics and smokers and it was noticed that this drug made them quit.
In the 60s, LSD was like a miracle drug which, taken in small doses, cured anxiety and depression… That was until the 70s when it was banned and placed in the first category of drugs (that means it is very dangerous, has a high risk of abuse and no medical use) but how did it come to this?
Studies have shown that taking LSD repeatedly brings symptoms of depression and anxiety back a lot worse than before, that helps the addiction to alcohol and smoking to disappear only if the person that person consumes LSD is consuming it with the intention of getting rid of this addiction and besides that it can produce states of extreme psychosis, chromosomal defects and suicide.
184 countries have banned psychedelics such as LSD or DMT for this reason, but their use was allowed in religious rituals with the supervision of shamans.
Many people describe the spiritual experiences in which they consume psychedelics such as ayahuasca, which contains DMT, as the most touching personal experiences of their lives.
When we talk about the areas of the brain affected when someone consumes hallucinogenic substances, we go further than the damage of some neurotransmitters and we are talking about the alteration of the areas of the brain that deal with thoughts about the future and the past and the area where scientists believe ego and self-perception are found.
MARIJUANA
The reason why marijuana does not fall into the category of hallucinogens, although it has the same effects is because the symptoms have a much lower intensity.
Marijuana is a very interesting drug from this point of view because it has different effects on different people and scientists don't know very much about this substance because of the variation in symptoms.
Marijuana is composed of two compounds THC (which is toxic) and CBD (which it is non-toxic) and for some people THC can trigger episodes of psychosis, which lasts even after the drug's effect wears off and that eventually leads to the diagnosis of schizophrenia.
MIXING UP DRUGS
Mixing drugs or medications is when the active substances of the second drug interferes with the effect that the first one should have on the body.
For example, blood thinners such as hesperdin and aspirin, both have more or less the same effect and taken separately should not create a problem. Diluents prevent the formation of clotting factors and aspirin prevents blood cells from pooling. Well, because of these combined effects, they can lead to internal bleeding.
The same effect is obtained if someone consumes cocaine combined with heroin, two drugs that are separately quite dangerous.
Another dangerous combination is Nurofen and alcohol. When you take nurofen, the enzymes in your body break down the pill and from this fact it is obtained acetaminophen which is a toxic substance in nurofen but harmless if the pill is taken in the recommended doses. If consumed with nurofen, the alcohol makes the enzymes in the body go crazy and increase the production of acetaminophen which ultimately leads to liver failure.
References
Washington. edu
,,How does alcohol make you drunk?-Judy Griesel”-Ted Ed
,,What alcohol does to your brain| Dr. Andrew Huberman”-HubermanLabClips
,,Why cocaine is so incredibly dangerous.”-Institute Of Human Anatomy
,,Psihedelicele-Mintea, pe înțelesul tuturor sezonul 1, ep. 5”-Netflix
,,Is marijuana bad for your brain?-Anees Bhji”-Ted Ed
,,The dangers of mixing drugs-Céline Valéry”-Ted Ed
,,ABUZUL SI DEPENDENTA DE SUBSTANTE PSIHOACTIVE Manual pentru studenții în medicina și medicii rezidenți psihiatrii”-Dan Prelipceanu și Victor Voicu editura medica
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