DRUG ABUSE: A MENACE BEYOND ILLICIT DRUGS Pt 2

Read DRUG ABUSE: A MENACE BEYOND ILLICIT DRUGS Pt 1

Effects of Drugs

Depend on various factors:

• Size, weight and health of a person
• Whether the person is used to taking it (tolerance)
• Whether other drugs are taken around the same time
  (poly drug use)
• The amount taken
• The strength of the drug (varies with illegally produced drugs)
• How drug is used: smoked, injected, ingested
• Environment and mood of users: reason for taking

Classifying Psychoactive Drugs

1. According to the effects on central nervous system (CNS)

• Depressants: Slow down the CNS
• Stimulants: Stimulate the CNS
• Hallucinogens: Distort the CNS

2. According to their legal status

• Over-the-counter with minimal restrictions
• Restricted to medical prescription
• Restricted by social policy
• Completely illegal

3. According to their origin

• Natural: Substances occurring naturally in plants or animals (cannabis)
• Semi-synthetic: Substances based on naturally occurring materials but altered in some way during the manufacturing process (cocaine)
• Synthetic: Substances completely manufactured or synthesized in the laboratory (amphetamine-type substances)

Depressants

Sedative hypnotics

1. Alcohol

2. Benzodiazepines
(minor tranquillizers such as diazepam)

3. Barbiturates 
(produce sedative-like effect such as pentobarbital)

4. Non-barbiturates
(such as methaqualone

Depressants

Opiate/Narcotic analgesics
(natural and synthetic)

• Opium 
• Codeine
• Heroin
• Morphine
• Pethidine
• Dextropropoxyphene (Doloxene)            
• Methadone

Depressant: Heroin

• Narcotic analgesic (painkiller) produced from opium poppy
• Common names for heroin in Nigeria: Gabji, Market
• Generally three forms: White powder; tan-coloured granular form; heroin base made from morphine or codeine
• Duration effect: Three to six hours
• Routes of administration: Injected, smoked, snorted, mixed with cannabis/tobacco and smoked
• Not all people who try heroin become dependent

Depressant: Cannabis

• Cannabis from the plant cannabis sativa
• Psychoactive ingredient: Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) which produces the ‘high’
• Cannabis in three forms: marijuana, hashish and hash oil
• Commonly smoked, eaten or sometimes in Nigeria used in tea as tea leaves
• One in 10 users can become dependent

Common names in Nigeria: Weewee, Igbo, Weed, Marijuana, Mary and Joan, Choko, Yoyo, Kush, Skunk, Green Leaf, Ghanja, Grass, Hemp, Blaze, Taba, Ndedeko, Bendel Market and Genye

Read DRUG ABUSE: A MENACE BEYOND ILLICIT DRUGS Pt 3

By Olusesan Samuel-Kayode

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