Have you ever wondered what the difference between a drug and a medicine is? In most cases people think of drugs and medicines as the same, they both attempt to solve a problem in your body or your psychological state; however, that is false. Drugs and medicines are actually the complete opposite of each other (“Critical Difference”, n.d). Medicines are substances that can be liquids or pills etc. that are used to restore your body to its normal condition giving you control over your body; on the other hand, what about drugs? What does it do to our body and mind in general and what do some specific drugs do? Information about drugs, its effect, and the effects of different types of drugs specifically marijuana, cocaine, heroin and alcohol will be explained.
Drugs
A drug is a substance that can be made from chemicals or plants etc. that unlike medicine, which gives you control over your body; it actually takes control over your body itself depending on the drugs nature and purpose. How do sleeping pills work? They take control over your body and force you to sleep. In this example the forced sleep is not normal or natural which means the effect is not caused from a medicine but a drug and so sleeping pills are actually labeled as drugs. When you have a sleeping pill you simply can’t fight back the force that’s making you sleep as you lost control over your mind and body and the drug took the control.
But how do drugs actually take this control? When a drug enters the body it releases chemicals that interact with cell’s receptors or neurotransmitters (NT) or even enzymes depending on its function. While attached to the receptor or NT, the drug can either copy/mimic or even block the function of what it is attached to and in this ...
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...om http://www.bettyfordcenter.org/recovery/addiction/addictive-substances-grid.php
Sotonoff J., Study Explains Why People Use Heroin, (October 2011). Retrieved December 6th, 2013 from http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20111019/news/710199933/
Hartney E., What Heroin Effects Feel Like, the Sensation of Getting High on Heroin (September 2011) Retrieved December 6th, 2013 from http://addictions.about.com/od/dailylifewithaddiction/a/What-Do-Heroin-Effects-Feel-Like.htm House, S. L. (n.d.). The facts on the effects of Heroin. Retrieved December 6th, 2013, from Drugbeat: http://www.drugbeat.org/Facts&Effects/heroin.html
Drug Facts: Cocaine (April 2013), Retrieved December 6th, 2013 from http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/cocaine
Drug Facts: Marijuana (December 2012) Retrieved December 6th, 2013 from
http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/marijuana
The documentary states that over 27,000 deaths a year are due to overdose from heroin and other opioids. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2015 prescription pain relievers account for 20,101 overdose deaths, and 12,990 overdose deaths are related to heroin (Rudd et al., 2010-2015). The documentary’s investigation gives the history of how the heroin epidemic started, with a great focus on the hospice movement. We are presented with the idea that once someone is addicted to painkillers, the difficulty in obtaining the drug over a long period of time becomes too expensive and too difficult. This often leads people to use heroin. This idea is true as a 2014 survey found that 94% of respondents who were being treated for opioid addiction said they chose to use heroin because prescription opioids were “more expensive and harder to obtain (Cicero et al., 2014).” Four in five heroin users actually started out using prescription painkillers (Johns, 2013). This correlation between heroin and prescription painkiller use supports the idea presented in the documentary that “prescription opiates are heroin prep school.”
Psychoactive drugs are classified into five different groups depending on how they affect the brain. In this essay I will be looking at three of these groups: stimulants, depressants and hallucinogens and how they exert influence on neural processing.
Although drugs are used in an illegal aspect for the most part, there are accounts of medical research to prove the positive effects on some patients with long-term diseas...
The dependence on hard core drugs in the United States is on a continuous climb. Heroin is the leading reason for this. Considered by many to be the hardest of hard drugs, thus making heroin a very popular choice among drug addicts. Heroin is a narcotic produced from the opium of the poppy plant and poses a serious risk to society. Since it could be injected, snorted or smoked heroin also causes health complications and the possibility of death. Sadly, none of that matters to an addict because they only want their next fix. A century ago the doctors who developed heroin were only hoping for a way to help patients, they were unaware their new found medicine would lead to decades of addiction, abuse, health problems and even death for many.
Smith, Tony. "How dangerous is heroin?" British Medical Journal 25 Sept. 1993: 807. Academic OneFile. Web. 30 Nov. 2013.
...conomic class, whose dependency most likely began after being prescribed opiates. This has resulted in a demographic shift in the subpopulation of heroin addicts, which further emphasizes the misguided stereotyping of heroin addicts in particular, but also probably other drug subculture demographics as well. Addicts need to be identified as sick individuals who deserve the same health services and treatment as other individuals addicted to other, more socially accepted habits, like eating sugar or socially acceptable alcohol abuse. We, as a country and society, need to harbor on the need for more societal, political and financial support of better, more effective, non-punitive means to rehabilitate drug addicts. Thus, both the social and legal exclusions of addiction need to be rethought, while also replacing the inherently engrained image of an opiate drug abuser.
In 2016 Americans are turning to heroin to deal with their despair, pain and turmoil in their lives, subsequently causing an opiate epidemic. This point is further evidenced by the following statement
The rate of death due to prescription drug abuse in the U.S. has escalated 313 percent over the past decade. According to the Congressional Quarterly Transcription’s article "Rep. Joe Pitt Holds a Hearing on Prescription Drug Abuse," opioid prescription drugs were involved in 16,650 overdose-caused deaths in 2010, accounting for more deaths than from overdoses of heroin and cocaine. Prescribed drugs or painkillers sometimes "condemn a patient to lifelong addiction," according to Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This problem not only affects the lives of those who overdose but it affects the communities as well due to the convenience of being able to find these items in drug stores and such. Not to mention the fact that the doctors who prescribe these opioids often tend to misuse them as well. Abusing these prescribed drugs can “destroy dreams and abort great destinies," and end the possibility of the abuser to have a positive impact in the community.
Drug use as well as drug abuse is on a constant rise. There is a wide spread misunderstanding about drugs. Many believe a drug is something that the government has said is illegal to use or consume. However this is not entirely true. A drug is any chemical you take that affects the way your body works. Alcohol, caffeine, aspirin and nicotine are all drugs. A drug must be able to pass from your body into your brain. Once inside your brain, drugs can change the messages your brain cells are sending to each other, and to the rest of your body. They do this by interfering with your brain's own chemical signals, I will discuss this further later on in the paper.
America has a problem with drugs. In order to understand the problem, we first need to understand what is considered a drug. It is “any ingestible substance that has a noticeable effect on the mind or body”. (Schmalleger, 2011) Drugs are used for medicinal as well as recreational purposes. Unfortunately both types of drugs have played a role in American culture.
Gabor Mate 's essay “Embraced by the Needle” addresses important issues on the negative effects that childhood experiences have on the development of addictions, and the long term effects that drugs play throughout an addict 's life. The author states that addictions originate from unhappiness and pain that is often inflicted upon addicts at early age such as infancy. In Mate essay, he uses many patients past childhood experiences to help create a picture of the trauma that an addict faced as child and the link it plays with who they are today. Mate builds an impressive argument based on the way he organizes his ideas on what addiction is, and how it corresponds to a person 's childhood experience. The author does this effectively
Drug abuse has changed over the years due to the trends that Americans face from the encouragement of different cultures. The abuse of substances creates many health problems. The following will discuss the past and current trends of drug use and the effects these drugs have on the health of the individuals who abuse the drugs.
Controversies over drugs and the effects they have physically, mentally, and emotionally have been around for centuries. Some argue the fact that smoking marijuana has no health effects on the body. Some also say that other drugs have no long term mental consequences to suffer. Now, thanks to technology and hours of studies, answers have came to show the true long term health effects of drugs on the human body and mind.
The use of drugs is a controversial topic in society today. In general, addicts show a direct link between taking drugs and suffering from their effects. People abuse drugs for a wide variety of reasons. In most cases, the use of drugs will serve a type of purpose or will give some kind of reward. These reasons for use will differ with different kinds of drugs. Various reasons for using the substance can be pain relief, depression, anxiety and weariness, acceptance into a peer group, religion, and much more. Although reasons for using may vary for each individual, it is known by all that consequences of the abuse do exist. It is only further down the line when the effects of using can be seen.
Drugs are chemicals that change the way a person's body or mind works. Drugs are not good for health as they have many side effects and damage our brain, heart and other important organs. Drug is a depressant that slows down the functions of the central nervous system and makes us less aware of the events around us. I...