Drugs and alcohol abuse:

When drugs and alcohol are taken for purposes other than medicinal level and their amount is vey high that it impare someone’s physical or mental functions, it is called drug or alcohol abuse.

Some type of Drugs are explained below:

(i) Opioids

• Source: Morphine is extracted from the latex of poppy plant Papaver somniferum. Heroin or smack is obtained by acetylation of morphine as a white, odourless, bitter, crystalline compound.
• How to take: By inhalation and injection.
• Mode of action: They bind to specific opioid receptors in the central nervous system (CNS).
• Heroin is a depressant and slows down body functions.
• Morphine is an effective sedative and painkiller.

(ii) Cannabinoids

• Source: Obtained from flower tops, leaves and resins of Cannabis sativa. These products in different combinations produce hashish, charas, marijuana and ganja etc.
• How to take: By inhalation and oral ingestion.
• Mode of action: They interact with the cannabinoid receptors present in the brain.
•  Effect the cardiovascular system of the body.

(iii) Coca alkaloid or cocaine

• Source: Derived from the leaves and young branches of Erythroxylum coca.
• How to take: By inhalation.
• It has a potent stimulating action on central nervous system and interferes with the transport of the neurotransmitter dopamine.
• Effect: Its overdose can causes headache, convulsions, hallucinations and death due to cardiovascular or respiratory failure.

(iv) Hallucinogens

• Source: Obtained from plants like Atropa belladona and Datura sps.
• How to take: By oral ingestion.
• These drugs are called psychedelic drugs (produce hallucinations and apparent expansion of consciousness) because of their effect on the cerebrum and sense organs.
• Effect: These drugs effect thoughts, feelings and perceptions of an individual or to overcome depression and insomnia (sleeplessness).

(v) Tobacco

• Source: Tobacco plant.
• How to take: It is smoked, chewed or used as a snuff.
• It has nicotine which stimulates the adrenal gland to release adrenaline and nor-adrenaline which in turn increases the blood pressure and heart rate.
• Effects:

(a) It increases the changes of lung cancer, bronchitis, emphysema, coronary heart disease, cancer of throat, gastric ulcer, cancer of urinary bladder, etc.

(b) Smoking leads to increase in carbon monoxide content of blood and reduces concentration of blood-bound oxygen, as a result of which oxygen deficiency in the body created.

(c) Chewing of tobacco causes oral cancer.

(vi) Alcohol

• Mode of intake: Oral intake.
• Alcohol has an anaesthetic effect on nervous system affecting cerebrum, cerebellum and other parts.
• Effect: It may cause euphoria ( a good feeling of intense happiness ), peptic ulcer, gastric carcinoma, hepatitis, liver failure, liver cell carcinoma( a type of liver cancer).