Mind Altering Drugs

Mind Altering Drugs

What is a drug?

A drug is a substance that when put into your body can change the way your body works. Of course, nearly everything you put into your body changes it somehow. When you eat, you grow; if you breathe the air that is polluted, you react. But when we speak of drugs we mean medicines.

If you have a stomach ache or a head ache, you can go to a drug store and buy medicine that might help you to feel better. If you have a terrible sore throat and your ears ache, you might go to the doctor. He might give you a prescription for a certain medicine to be prepared at the pharmacy.

These ways of taking drugs are legal and necessary. This is called the LICIT USE OF DRUGS.

The use of drugs

There are other substances besides medicines, that are drugs. Coffee, tea and colas all contain small amounts of caffeine, a stimulant. There is nothing illegal about drinking a cup of coffee or a glass of cola.

Alcohol and tobacco are drugs. They are non-medicinal drugs whose use is sometimes restricted, in which case their use is not illegal, though they may be harmful. They are known as social drugs because they are commonly used in group situations.

Many drugs can change your feelings, your perceptions and your behavior. Alcohol is one of these drugs. It can make a person feel relaxed, easy going and cheerful. But it can also make a person lose control over himself.

Highlights

Dealing with normal adolescent
Rebellion

Hobbies

Peer Pressure

Articles

Related Issues

(Mind Altering Drugs)

Developing a healthy approach to life

Reasons for the use of psychotic drugs

Parental handling of the psychotic drug problem

Resisting harmful peer group pressure

FAQs

The illicit use of drugs

This means using a drug that is not legal to possess, or using a drug or substance which is legal to possess but in a manner not permitted by law, as in the following cases :-

It is against the law to possess or use heroin. Using a drug for a purpose it has not been made for; for example to take sleeping pills to get 'high'.

Using a product or substance not intended to be a drug but used in some way to produce an effect caused by the illegal use of drugs; some glues, gasoline and aerosols are examples of these kinds of products.

Drugs that change your feelings, your perceptions and/or your behavior are called PSYCHOTIC DRUGS and these are the drugs with which this booklet is concerned.

The psychotic drugs

A psychotic drug brings about a chemical reaction in the brain that affects feelings, thinking or behavior. The psychotic drugs work on the body and mind in different ways to produce different effects. They may be taken by eating, drinking, smoking and by injections administered subcutaneously or intravenously. Through injections they can spread AIDS and viral hepatitis. There are also drugs which are inhalants which are taken by sniffing or inhaling.

We can classify these drugs by the effects they produce, as follows :-

Narcotics. These are drugs usually used as pain killers. They relieve pain anywhere in the body, they calm a person in pain so that he or she can get a soothing sleep.
Sedatives. These are drugs that relax the body muscles, relieve feelings of tension and worry, and bring on sleep. Sedatives are sometimes called 'DOWNS'.
Stimulants. A stimulant is a drug that increases alertness, activity and excitement by spreading up the body process. Stimulants are sometimes called 'UPS', 'UPPERS', 'SPEED', OR 'ZAPPIES'.
Hallucinogens. To hallucinate means to have imaginary visions - to see, hear or smell things that are not really there. The hallucinogens are drugs that produce great changes in the mind.
Inhalants. The Inhalants cover a wide and strange category of substances which most people do not think of as drugs. In this group are substances that are abused because of the psychotic effects they produce.

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