Drugs The White Death
Uploaded by nikolovska1 on Jul 08, 2007
Drugs-The White Death
Drug dependence is psychological and sometimes physical need to use a drug in order to experience psychological or physical effects. Psychological addiction is more difficult to treat than the physical one and often continues after the physical addiction has been dealt with. Each day there are a lot of new drug addicts, but also there are a lot of those who die because of using this evil, white pleasure. Drug addiction has several forms in expressing the dependency. Also there are a lot of different types of drugs which affect the user in many physical and psychological ways. The reasons for taking drugs are different and individual. They depend on everything that surrounds us. There are as many reasons for drug abuse as there are people with different problems. Some of these people see their only way out of the problems, depression, anxiety or stress in using drugs. Even though, in many countries as Holland, Cuba and others, “soft” drugs are legalized, this doesn’t mean that people over there are not drug-dependants. Also, legalization doesn’t make the effects of the drugs smaller.
Drug dependence takes several forms: tolerance, habituation and addiction. Tolerance, a form of physical dependence, occurs when the body becomes accustomed to a drug and requires increasing amounts of it to achieve the same effects. This condition gets worse when certain drugs are used in high doses for long periods. When the use of the drug is stopped and starts a period of drug withdrawal, the results are headaches, restlessness, sweating, and difficulty in sleeping.
Habituation, a form of psychological dependence, is characterized by the continued desire for a drug, even after physical dependence is gone. A drug often produces feelings of happiness and joy, and a person taking drugs soon believes the drug is needed to function at work or home. Addiction is a desire for the substance and it is involved in a person’s ability to function normally. It may also involve physical dependence.
The drugs that are most abused, except alcohol and tobacco, can be grouped into six classes: opioids, sedative-hypnotics, stimulants, hallucinogens, cannabis, and inhalants.
OPIOIDS
This class includes drugs derived from opium, such as morphine and heroin, and synthetic substitutes such as methadone. Opioids produce different...