What is Alcoholism?

Alcoholism, which is also known as "alcohol dependence syndrome," is a disease that is characterized by the following elements:

• Craving: A strong need, or compulsion, to drink.
  
  
• Loss of control: The frequent inability to stop drinking once a person has begun.
  
  
• Physical dependence: The occurrence of withdrawal symptoms, such as nausea, sweating, shakiness, and anxiety, when alcohol use is stopped after a period of heavy drinking. These symptoms are usually relieved by drinking alcohol or by taking another sedative drug.
  
  
• Tolerance: The need for increasing amounts of alcohol in order to get "high."

Alcoholism has little to do with what kind of alcohol one drinks, how long one has been drinking, or even exactly how much alcohol one consumes. But it has a great deal to do with a person's uncontrollable need for alcohol.

This description of alcoholism helps us understand why most alcoholics can't just "use a little willpower" to stop drinking. He or she is frequently in the grip of a powerful craving for alcohol, a need that can feel as strong as the need for food or water.

While some people are able to recover without help, the majority of alcoholic individuals need outside assistance to recover from their disease. With support and treatment, many individuals are able to stop drinking and rebuild their lives.

Many people wonder: Why can some individuals use alcohol without problems, while others are utterly unable to control their drinking? Recent research supported by NIAAA has demonstrated that for many people, a vulnerability to alcoholism is inherited.

Yet it is important to recognize that aspects of a person's environment, such as peer influences and the availability of alcohol, also are significant influences. Both inherited and environmental influences are called "risk factors."

But risk is not destiny. Just because alcoholism tends to run in families doesn't mean that a child of an alcoholic parent will automatically develop alcoholism.

                   Effects of Alcohol

Alcohol abuse is a pattern of problem drinking that results in health consequences, social, problems, or both. However, alcohol dependence, or alcoholism, refers to a disease that is characterized by abnormal alcohol-seeking behavior that leads to impaired control over drinking.

Short-term effects of alcohol use include:

• distorted vision, hearing, and coordination
• altered perceptions and emotions
• impaired judgment
• bad breath; hangovers

Long-term effects of heavy alcohol use include:

• loss of appetite
• vitamin deficiencies
• stomach ailments
• skin problems
• sexual impotence
• liver damage
• heart and central
• nervous system damage memory loss

What is Cocaine/Crack?

 Cocaine is a powerfully addictive stimulant that directly affects the brain. Cocaine has been labeled the drug of the 1980s and '90s, because of its extensive popularity and use during this period. However, cocaine is not a new drug. In fact, it is one of the oldest known drugs.

The pure chemical, cocaine hydrochloride, has been an abused substance for more than 100 years, and coca leaves, the source of cocaine, have been ingested for thousands of years.

Pure cocaine was first extracted from the leaf of the Erythroxylon coca bush, which grows primarily in Peru and Bolivia, in the mid-19th century. In the early 1900s, it became the main stimulant drug used in most of the tonics/elixirs that were developed to treat a wide variety of illnesses.

Today, cocaine is a Schedule II drug, meaning that it has high potential for abuse, but can be administered by a doctor for legitimate medical uses, such as a local anesthetic for some eye, ear, and throat surgeries.

There are basically two chemical forms of cocaine: the hydrochloride salt and the "freebase." The hydrochloride salt, or powdered form of cocaine, dissolves in water and, when abused, can be taken intravenously (by vein) or intranasally (in the nose). Freebase refers to a compound that has not been neutralized by an acid to make the hydrochloride salt. The freebase form of cocaine is smokable.

Cocaine is generally sold on the street as a fine, white, crystalline powder, known as "coke," "C," "snow," "flake," or "blow." Street dealers generally dilute it with such inert substances as cornstarch, talcum powder, and/or sugar, or with such active drugs as procaine (a chemically-related local anesthetic) or with such other stimulants as amphetamines.

Crack is the street name given to the freebase form of cocaine that has been processed from the powdered cocaine hydrochloride form to a smokable substance. The term "crack" refers to the crackling sound heard when the mixture is smoked.

Crack cocaine is processed with ammonia or sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and water, and heated to remove the hydrochloride.

Because crack is smoked, the user experiences a high in less than 10 seconds. This rather immediate and euphoric effect is one of the reasons that crack became enormously popular in the mid 1980s. Another reason is that crack is inexpensive both to produce and to buy.

             Effects of Cocaine/Crack

 Cocaine's effects appear almost immediately after a single dose, and disappear within a few minutes or hours. Taken in small amounts (up to 100 mg), cocaine usually makes the user feel euphoric, energetic, talkative, and mentally alert, especially to the sensations of sight, sound, and touch. It can also temporarily decrease the need for food and sleep.

Some users find that the drug helps them to perform simple physical and intellectual tasks more quickly, while others can experience the opposite effect. The duration of cocaine's immediate euphoric effects depends upon the route of administration. The faster the absorption, the more intense the high. Also, the faster the absorption, the shorter the duration of action. The high from snorting is relatively slow in onset, and may last 15 to 30 minutes, while that from smoking may last 5 to 10 minutes.

The short-term physiological effects of cocaine include constricted blood vessels; dilated pupils; and increased temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure. Large amounts (several hundred milligrams or more) intensify the user's high, but may also lead to bizarre, erratic, and violent behavior.

These users may experience tremors, vertigo, muscle twitches, paranoia, or, with repeated doses, a toxic reaction closely resembling amphetamine poisoning. Some users of cocaine report feelings of restlessness, irritability, and anxiety. In rare instances, sudden death can occur on the first use of cocaine or unexpectedly thereafter. Cocaine-related deaths are often a result of cardiac arrest or seizures followed by respiratory arrest.
 

Cocaine is a powerfully addictive drug. Once having tried cocaine, an individual may have difficulty predicting or controlling the extent to which he or she will continue to use the drug. Cocaine's stimulant and addictive effects are thought to be primarily a result of its ability to inhibit the reabsorption of dopamine by nerve cells.

Dopamine is released as part of the brain's reward system, and is either directly or indirectly involved in the addictive properties of every major drug of abuse.

An appreciable tolerance to cocaine's high may develop, with many addicts reporting that they seek but fail to achieve as much pleasure as they did from their first experience. Some users will frequently increase their doses to intensify and prolong the euphoric effects. While tolerance to the high can occur, users can also become more sensitive (sensitization) to cocaine's anesthetic and convulsant effects, without increasing the dose taken.

This increased sensitivity may explain some deaths occurring after apparently low doses of cocaine.

Use of cocaine in a binge, during which the drug is taken repeatedly and at increasingly high doses, leads to a state of increasing irritability, restlessness, and paranoia. This may result in a full-blown paranoid psychosis, in which the individual loses touch with reality and experiences auditory hallucinations.

What is Heroin?

Heroin is a highly addictive drug that is processed from morphine, which comes from the seedpod of the opium Asian poppy plant. It is a depressant that inhibits the central nervous system.  Heroin in its purest form is usually a white powder. Less pure forms have varied colors ranging from white to brown. "Black tar" heroin is dark brown or black and has a tar-like sticky feel to it.

      Effects of Heroin

There are many health risks to using heroin. The short-term risks include fatal overdose and the high risk of infections such as HIV/AIDS. The long-term user has additional risks such as:

• Collapsed veins
  
• Infection of the heart lining and valves
  
• Abscesses
  
• Cellulitis
  
• Liver Disease
  
• Pulmonary complications, including various types of pneumonia
  
• Overdose
  

What is Marijuana?

Marijuana is a green, brown, or gray mixture of dried, shredded leaves, stems, seeds, and flowers of the hemp plant (Cannabis sativa). Before the 1960s, many Americans had never heard of marijuana, but today it is the most often used illegal drug in this country.

Cannabis is a term that refers to marijuana and other drugs made from the same plant. Strong forms of cannabis include sinse-milla (sin-seh-me-yah), hashish ("hash" for short), and hash oil.

All forms of cannabis are mind-altering (psychoactive) drugs; they all contain THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), the main active chemical in marijuana. They also contain more than 400 other chemicals.

Marijuana's effect on the user depends on the strength or potency of the THC it contains. THC potency has increased since the 1970s but has been about the same since the mid-1980s.

The strength of the drug is measured by the average amount of THC in test samples confiscated by law enforcement agencies.

                  Effects of Marijuana

The effects of marijuana on each person depend on the

• type of cannabis and how much THC it contains;
  
  
• way the drug is taken (by smoking or eating)
  
  
• experience and expectations of the user;
  
  
• setting where the drug is used; and
  
  
• whether drinking or other drug use is also going on.

Some people feel nothing at all when they first try marijuana. Others may feel high (intoxicated and/or euphoric).

It's common for marijuana users to become engrossed with ordinary sights, sounds, or tastes, and trivial events may seem extremely interesting or funny. Time seems to pass very slowly, so minutes feel like hours. Sometimes the drug causes users to feel thirsty and very hungry - an effect called "the munchies."

What is Crystal Meth?

Methamphetamine is closely related chemically to amphetamine, but the central nervous system effects of methamphetamine are greater. Both drugs have some medical uses, primarily in the treatment of obesity, but their therapeutic use is limited. Methamphetamine (Meth) is an addictive stimulant that strongly activates certain systems in the brain and speeds up the body's central nervous system. It was originally marketed as a nasal decongestant and is currently used medically in the U.S. for treating obesity.

                        Effects of Crystal Meth

The effects from meth differ depending on how it is used. If it is smoked or injected intravenously, the user will feel a strong sensation, resembling a vibration or 'rush', which diminishes within a few minutes. Users who snort or swallow meth experience a feeling of temporary euphoria. Meth users will become talkative, confident and other times paranoid, aggressive and agitated.

It only takes a small amount of meth to produce any of the following effects:

Short-term Effects

• Increased wakefulness
• Dryness of the mouth
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Loss of appetite
• Increased physical activity
• Increased respiration
• Irritability
• Confusion
• Tremors
• Convulsions
• Anxiety
• Paranoia
• Stroke
• Death

Long-term Effects

• amphetamine psychosis
• extreme paranoia
• hallucinations
• repetitive behavior
• sensations of insects crawling under the skin
• obsessive scratching
• violent behavior
• strokes
• death
• irregular heartbeat
• heart attack
• seizures