Drugs and Drug Use

1. Drugs and Drug Use

2. What Is A Drug? • Drug any substance that alters the chemical reactions (homeostasis) of the body • Medicinal drugs • Help fix illness or deal with symptoms of illness (pain, mood swings, etc.) • Aspirin, morphine, antibiotics… • Recreational drugs • Alter you moods for pleasure/work • Often illegal due to being highly addictive • Alcohol, nicotine, heroine… • 3 Types: • Depressant inhibit nerves • Stimulant enhance nerves/body • Hallucinogen alter nerves to cause visions

3. Why Are Drugs Dangerous? • Formation of addiction: • First time • effect of drug is very strong and mostly positive (euphoria) 2) Building a habit • drug becomes part of your lifestyle; body creates tolerance (alter set point) so more drug is needed to get same effect 3) Addiction • body now depended on drug and mood is horrible when not on drug (dependent) 4) Withdrawal symptoms • body slow to reset set point to normal; negative feelings and sickness drive person back to drug

4. Good Drugs • Antibiotics chemicals that bind to bacteria and pathogens • Kill bacteria • Break homeostasis • Break cell wall/cell membrane • Stop growth/ mark it for white blood cells • Produced first time we get sick so the next time our body can kill the pathogen faster • Medicinal antibiotics help our immune system kill pathogen faster • Narrow-spectrum few species • Broad-spectrum many species • Why can’t these work on viruses? • Viruses are not cells/not alive

5. So-So Drugs • All medicinal drugs, if used properly, can help a person • All mood-altering drugs can become additive • Depends more on person than drug • Pain-killers chemicals that slow down impulses and inhibit pain signals so the body does not feel pain • Based on opiates (opium) • Morphine, Aspirin, valium… • Without pain-killers modern medicine would be very limited • Painful surgeries • Painful recovery after injury

6. Bad (Legal) Drugs • Drugs with mostly no medical benefits but are accepted socially/legally • Alcohol • Ethanol made from fermentation of glucose • Small molecule; quickly absorbed into body and spreads through blood • Broken down by enzyme in liver (alcohol dehydrogenase) • Depressant slows down nerve impulses • Low: Remove inhibitions • Med: Lose fine motor control, memory loss, and deep sleep • High: Brain damage, coma, and death

7. Alcohol and You • Effects of alcohol: • BAC blood alcohol concentration • 20-50 relaxed • 50-80 euphoria • 80-120 impaired (tipsy) • 120-260 drunk • 260-400 very drunk (blackout) • >400 coma/death (alcohol poisoning) • Long Term Effects: • Cirrhosis damaged liver can’t function • Brain/heart damage • Alcoholic dependent on alcohol/ socially difficult person to deal with

8. Bad (Legal) Drugs • Nicotine • Found in tobacco plants (pesticide); inhaled through cigarettes • Absorbed into blood through alveoli and travel to brain • Stimulant that raises blood pressure, heart rate, and activates synapse (addictive) • Cigarettes = Poison • Tar cooled smoke turns into thick black globs that block gas exchange; cannot be removed by cilia • Carbon Monoxide (CO) permanently binds to hemoglobin, reducing blood O2 by 10% • Carcinogens chemical that cause DNA to mutate and become cancer

9. Don’t Smoke!! • Long Term Effects: • Bronchitis tar causes extra mucus in lungs (phlegm); bacteria live happy but make you sick and cough a lot • Emphysema alveoli weaken and burst; decreases gas exchange • Heart disease CO and lowered gas exchange mean heart pumps harder to more O2; smoke also thickens arteries so might get CHD • Lung cancer 90% of lung cancer is those who smoke; carcinogens cause tumors (mass of cells) to spread in lungs

10. Bad (Legal-ish) Drugs • Marijuana • Dried leaves of cannabis plants • Inhaled through marijuana cigarettes and absorbed into blood • Depressant that slows down synapse transmission • THC inhibit receptors of hippocampus (brain region) • Effects of Marijuana: • Short-term memory loss • Slowing of time • Slow coordination • Paranoia • Dry mouth/hunger • Numbness

11. Is Marijuana Bad? • Long Term Effects: • Lung tissue damage due to inhaling smoke • Lowered immune system from THC • Cancer; some carcinogens in cigarette • Not addictive (body doesn’t depend on it) but can be an addictive life style • Negative affects less than alcohol/nicotine, which are legal drugs • Called “Gateway Drug”; being illegal it may lead to other illegal drugs that do lots of harm

12. Bad (Totally Illegal) Drugs • Highly addictive mood altering and hallucination drugs • Heroin • Made from morphine (opiate) • Smoked, injected, sniffed • Inject risks veins collapsing from tissue damage • Powerful depressant that numbs pain receptors • Puts set point to low for pain that not having drug becomes painful AND the body builds a tolerance so more and more heroine is needed

13. Don’t Do Heroine • Long term effects: • Constant need for “fix” (more heroine) • Expensive and illegal drug turns many to crime • Social outcasts • Tissue damage at inject site • Nausea, hallucinations, and sweating if drug is absent for too long (withdrawal) • Rehabilitation: • Giving up heroine “cold turkey” is almost impossible • Methadone, drug similar to heroin but less damaging, can be given in shrinking amounts until “clean”

14. More Bad (Illegal) Drugs • Cocaine: • Power extract from the Erythroxylum coca bush • Snorted, injected, or smoked; extremely stimulant that can cause death on the first use • Floods brain with neurotransmitters leading to happy feelings and a “rush” • LSD: • Accidently discovered in the 1930’s • Eaten or injected; hallucinogen that causes euphoria, enhanced colors, and visions • Ecstasy: • Accidently discovered in 1912 • Eaten; hallucinogen that causes euphoria, enhanced colors, and perception

15. Drugs and Perception • Bryan Saunders • Artist drew 25 self portraits after taking 25 different drugs • See if you can match the drug to the art Nicotine Morphine Marijuana Cocaine Meth Marijuana Morphine Nicotine Mushrooms Meth Cocaine Mushrooms