How Do Drugs Affect Our Society

Cocaine is one of the oldest, most powerful and most dangerous stimulants in the world. This powerfully addictive drug effects over 35 million people In the United States. Cocaine addiction prevents a person from being a productive member in our society. It also increases the cost for law enforcement and treatment facilities. It rapidly decreases the workplace, increases the homeless rate and needless deaths on a daily basis.

Marijuana is also called weed, herb, pot, grass, bud, ganja, Mary Jane, and a lot of other terms in today’s world. It is a greenish- grey mixture of the dried shredded leaves and flowers of Cannabis sativa, which is the hemp plant. Some users smoke marijuana in hand- rolled cigarettes called joints, many use pipes, bongs, or marijuana cigars called blunts. (H. (2016, August). What is marijuana? Retrieved November 07, 2016). Marijuana is not only used for personal use but is sold legally and is consumed for medical purposes by people who have permission to do so. Marijuana is a controversial topic in today’s world because to legalize it in every state has brought up issues. Some states have done so and some still have yet to.

Marijuana is a mixture of dried, shredded leaves, stems and flowers from a hemp plant better know as Cannabis sativa. Uses of marijuana can be recreational or medical and the earliest recorded uses date from the 3rd millennium BC. (Rudgley, “The

1b. List and describe briefly the major structures of the brain, as presented in your textbook, including the function of those elements that are most related to psychoactive drug reaction.

Today, cocaine is commonly derived from the coca plant that is most commonly grown in Columbia but also Peru and Bolivia. It is harvested and processed into a “coca paste” which the base of is extracted and turned into the white powder form of cocaine. Once the powder is made it is often mixed with laundry detergent, laxatives, or boric acid to cut down the potency and have more to distribute. Cocaine can be used snorting, smoking, injecting or swallowed. The United States outlawed cocaine in the early 1920’s but it wasn’t until the 1970’s and middle of the 1980’s that cocaine was at

Cocaine’s primary effect on the brain is to produce “psychoactive and addictive effects primarily by acting on the brain’s limbic system, a set of interconnected regions that regulate pleasure and motivation. Initial, short- term effect- a buildup of the neurochemical, dopamine which gives rise to euphoria and a desire to take the drug again”(Nestler, 2005, p.4). This is normally seen in some individuals that draw in the drug like through inhaling. It gives them an instant increase in blood, and brain levels. It causes the individual to become addicted to this substance. Cocaine is thought to produce pleasure/reward like any addicted drug

What lead to the failure of the War on Drug? To answer that we need to know about the War on

Marijuana is a drug increasingly being smoked across the nation. Cannabis refers to dried greenery, stems, and flowers

LSD is a hallucinogen that can alter and distort an individual senses. It was originally deprived from a fungus called “ergot”. Pure LSD is a white, odourless, and slightly bitter crystalline powder that can dissolve in water and be taken by mouth or

One of the most abused psychostimulant drugs in today’s society is cocaine (Hummel and Unterwald, 2002). Cocaine is a purified extract derived from the leaves of the Erthroxylum coca bush found in the Andes region of South America. Cocaine can undergo several different chemical processes producing either crack cocaine, known as “crack” or “rock”, which is smoked, or powered cocaine, known as “coke” or “blow”, which can be snorted or dissolved in water and injected. A longitudinal study of cocaine use amongst 1253 college students at one public university found a significant increase in cocaine use over time from 1st year to 4th year. By their 4th year of college, 36% of students had been offered cocaine at least once, with 13% having used it (Kasperski et al., 2011).

Commonly known Hallucinogen drugs are LSD, also known as acid or mellow yellow; PCP, also known as angel dust, tic tac, super grass, or rocket fuel; Psilocybin also known as “shrooms” or magic mushrooms; DMT; and Peyote. Hallucinogen drugs alter human perception and mood by changing the user’s sense of reality. Effects of hallucinogenic drug abuse are unpredictable and the intensity varies on the dose amount. Common effects of abuse include an increase in heart rate and blood pressure, feelings of detachment from self and surroundings, nausea, vomiting, panic reactions, delusions, blurred vision, dizziness, and hallucinations (Drug-rehabilitation). “According to a study published in the Journal of Substance Abuse, 36 percent of Southern

The book that I read “This is Your Country on Drugs: The Secret of Getting High in America by Ryan Grim” tells us the stories and relationship among Americans, their drugs and the government, which is a drug literature. The book and author will give us a tour in an illicit world of drugs use in the United States. The Americans dilemma of love-hate relationship with psychotomimetic substances extended from the nations commencing until the present time.

In pre-modern times, drugs took on a role of medicinal use. As they were distributed in a free market without any constraints, Opium was recommended for sleepless nights, Cocaine for anesthesia, Hashish for relaxation (Hart, Ksir & Ray). These drugs were not dubbed as harmful, therefore, under the appropriate circumstances, provided beneficial effects to its users. More recently, individuals are more inclined to use drugs as an ‘escape’. Stimulants provide a sort of alternate existence which tends to reduce mental tension, increase energy, or induce euphoria (Hart, Ksir & Ray). Argumentatively speaking, drug use only affects the user, so there is no valid reasoning for impairing the freedom of citizens by prohibiting them. Individuals benefit by having the freedom to use

Cocaine’s impact on modern society according to the United States Department of Justice says, how only 1% of cocaine is used on an everyday basis by college-aged students. Furthermore, they say that the casual use is much higher because within the last year 5.1% of college-aged students consumed cocaine. However, nothing can really be done to change these percentages because due to the 20th century this illegal drug, as some others, have become legal in the United States therefore, trying to prevent this drug is something that can’t be accomplished.

Drugs are everywhere. There are many reasons why people turn to drugs, such as peer pressure, depression, and etc. Using drugs is a choice that many people decide to do. Drugs can get prescribed by people such as doctors and psychiatrists and those drugs can be used to help cure the body. Even with those prescribed drugs some like to abuse them, which can have a negative effect on our bodies and can lead to many different things. Things such as possibly going to jail, losing your job, ruin relationships with family and friends, and possibly death.