What Would You Do - BEME Inc.

What Is It?

Stimulants are a class of drugs that elevate mood, increase feelings of well-being, and increase energy and alertness.

Stimulants often produce a feeling of euphoria in users. Examples of stimulants include cocaine, crack cocaine, amphetamines, Methamphetamine, methylphenidate (Ritalin®), nicotine, and MDMA (3-4 methylenedioxyMethamphetamine, better known as Ecstasy).

Cocaine is a hydrochloride salt, made from the leaf of the coca plant, and comes in the form of a white powder. Crack is a smokeable form of cocaine that is processed with ammonia or baking soda and water, and heated to remove the hydrochloride.

Amphetamines are sometimes prescribed by doctors for medical problems, but these pills are also abused for their effects on the brain. Methamphetamine is a powerful form of amphetamines that comes in clear crystals or powder and easily dissolves in water or alcohol. It is often made in illegal laboratories with inexpensive and readily available ingredients (such as drain cleaner, battery acid, and antifreeze).

Methylphenidate (Ritalin®) is a medication prescribed for individuals (usually children) with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Numerous studies have shown its effectiveness, when used as prescribed, in the treatment of ADHD. When it is abused or not used as prescribed, however, methylphenidate can lead to many of the same problems seen with other stimulants.

Nicotine and MDMA also are considered stimulants and are covered in separate topics on this Web site.

What Are the Common Street Names?

Cocaine is generally sold on the street as a fine, white, crystalline powder, known as "coke," "C," "snow," "flake," "blow," "bump," "candy," "Charlie," "rock," and "toot." "Crack," the street name for the smokeable form of cocaine, got its name from the crackling sound made when it's smoked. A "speedball" is cocaine or crack combined with heroin or crack and heroin smoked together.

Street names for amphetamines include "speed," "bennies," "black beauties," "crosses," "hearts," "LA turnaround," "truck drivers," and "uppers."

Methamphetamine is commonly known as "speed," "meth," "chalk, and "tina." In its smokable form, it's often called "ice," "crystal," "crank," "glass," "fire," and "go fast."

Street names for methylphenidate include "rits," "vitamin R," and "west coast."

How Are They Used?

Stimulants can be taken in several ways:

• Swallowed in pill form
• "Snorted" in powder form, through the nostrils, where the drug is absorbed into the bloodstream through the nasal tissues
• Injected, using a needle and syringe, to release the drug directly into a vein
• Heated in crystal form and smoked (inhaled into the lungs).

Compared to stimulants that are swallowed or snorted, those that are injected or smoked are absorbed into the bloodstream more quickly, intensifying the effects of the drug. It is also important to note that sometimes these drugs are diluted with other toxic substances.

Cocaine is snorted or injected (called "mainlining"), or it can be rubbed onto mucous tissues, such as the gums. Street dealers generally dilute cocaine with other substances (such as cornstarch, talcum powder, or sugar); with active drugs (such as procaine, a chemical that produces local anesthesia); or with other stimulants (such as amphetamines). Crack cocaine is smoked in a glass pipe.

Amphetamines are usually swallowed in pill form. Methamphetamine is swallowed, snorted, injected, or smoked. "Ice," a smokeable form of Methamphetamine, is a large, usually clear crystal of high purity that is smoked, like crack, in a glass pipe.

How Many Teens Use Them?

A 2004 NIDA-funded study reported that the following percentages of 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-graders had tried these drugs at least once:

• Cocaine: 3.4 percent of 8th-graders, 5.4 percent of 10th-graders, and 8.1 percent of 12th-graders
• Crack: 2.4 percent of 8th-graders, 2.6 percent of 10th-graders, and 3.9 percent of 12th-graders
• Amphetamines: 7.5 percent of 8th-graders, 11.9 percent of 10th-graders, and 15.0 percent of 12th-graders
• Methamphetamine: 2.5 percent of 8th-graders, 5.2 percent of 10th-graders, and 6.2 percent of 12th-graders

Twelfth-graders regularly reported the highest rate of use for all three drugs. Conversely, eighth-graders reported a drop in use for all three drugs, with a significant drop in Methamphetamine use, from 3.9 percent in 2003 to 2.5 percent in 2004.

What Is It?

Marijuana is a mixture of the dried and shredded leaves, stems, seeds, and flowers of the hemp plant. The mixture can be green, brown, or gray. Hemp's scientific name is Cannabis sativa.

A bunch of leaves seems harmless, right? But think again. Marijuana has a chemical in it called tetrahydrocannabinol. Better known as THC. A lot of other chemicals are found in marijuana too-about 400 of them, some of which can cause lung cancer. But THC is the main active ingredient.

What Are the Common Street Names?

There are more than 200 slang terms for marijuana from city to city and from neighborhood to neighborhood. Some common names are: pot, grass, herb, weed, Mary Jane, reefer, skunk, boom, gangster, kif, chronic, and ganja.

How Is It Used?

Marijuana is used in many ways. Some users brew it as tea or mix it with food. Others smoke blunts-cigars hollowed out and filled with the drug. And sometimes marijuana is smoked through a water pipe called a bong. The most common method is smoking loose marijuana rolled into a cigarette called a joint or nail.

How Many Teens Use Marijuana?

Ever heard that lame line "everybody's doing it?" Tell that person to check the facts. As part of a 2002 NIDA-funded study, researchers asked teens if they had used marijuana or hashish (another form of marijuana) in the past month. Of all the 8th graders surveyed, only 8.3% said yes; only 17.8% of 10th graders had used the drug in the past month; and just 21.5% of 12th graders.

What Are the Common Effects?

Imagine this: You're in a ball game, playing out in left field. An easy fly ball comes your way, and you're psyched. When that ball lands in your glove your team will win, and you'll be a hero. But, you're a little off. The ball grazes your glove and hits dirt. So much for your dreams of glory.

Such loss of coordination can be caused by smoking marijuana. And that's just one of the many negative side effects. Under the influence of marijuana, you could forget your best friend's phone number, watch your grade point average drop like a stone, or get into a car accident. Even worse, high doses of marijuana use can cause anxiety and panic attacks.

Before we look at the damage marijuana can do, let's back up for a second and discuss a tricky truth. For some people, smoking marijuana makes them feel good. Within minutes of inhaling, a user begins to feel "high," or filled with pleasant sensations. A chemical in marijuana, THC, triggers brain cells to release the chemical dopamine. Dopamine creates good feelings-for a short time.

Addiction

Here's the thing: Once dopamine starts flowing, a user feels the urge to smoke marijuana again, and then again, and then again. Repeated use could lead to addiction, and addiction is a brain disease.

THC Attaches to Specific Receptors in the Brain

THC is up to no good in the brain. THC finds brain cells, or neurons, with specific kinds of receptors called cannabinoid receptors. Then, it binds to these receptors.

When it attaches to a neuron, THC interferes with normal communication between neurons. Think of it as a disruption in the phone service, caused perhaps by too many users all at once. Let's say Neuron #1 needs to tell Neuron #2 to create a new memory. If THC is in the mix, this communication is likely to fail.

Certain parts of the brain have high concentrations of cannabinoid receptors. These areas are: the hippocampus, the cerebellum, the basal ganglia, and the cerebral cortex.

THC Creates Learning and Memory Problems

The hippocampus is a part of the brain with a funny name and a big job. It's in charge of certain types of learning and memory.

Disrupting the normal functioning of the hippocampus can lead to trouble studying and learning and problems recalling recent events. The difficulty can be a lot more serious than "Did I take out the trash this morning?"

Interference with the hippocampus may also lead to lasting memory loss. Studies in rats show that taking in a lot of THC over a long period of time can damage neurons in the hippocampus. Chances are, if it happens to rats, it's happening to people who smoke marijuana.

Smoking Marijuana Can Make Driving Dangerous

The cerebellum is the section of our brain that does most of the work on balance and coordination. When THC finds its way into the cerebellum, it makes scoring a goal in soccer or hitting a home run pretty tough.

THC also does a number on the basal ganglia, another part of the brain that's involved in movement control.

These THC effects can spell disaster on the highway. Research shows that drivers on marijuana have slow reaction times, impaired judgment, and problems responding to signals and sounds on the road. In one study of 150 reckless drivers, 33 tested positive for marijuana.

Smoking Marijuana May Lead to Lung Cancer

The list of negative effects goes on and on. Smoking marijuana may increase the risk of heart attack. Smoking marijuana may cause lung cancer because it has some of the same cancer-causing substances as tobacco. Plus, marijuana smokers tend to inhale more deeply and hold their breath longer than cigarette smokers do. So more smoke enters the lungs. Puff for puff, smoking marijuana may increase the risk of cancer even more than smoking cigarettes does.

What About Medical Marijuana?

THC, the main active ingredient in marijuana, produces effects that potentially can be useful for treating a variety of medical conditions. It is the main ingredient in a pill that is currently used to treat nausea in cancer chemotherapy patients and to stimulate appetite in patients with wasting due to AIDS. Scientists are continuing to investigate other potential medical uses for cannabinoids.

However, smoking marijuana is difficult to justify medically because the amount of THC in marijuana is not always consistent. It would be difficult-if not impossible-to come up with a safe and effective use of the drug because you could never be sure how much THC you were getting. Moreover, the negative effects of marijuana smoke on the lungs will offset the helpfulness of smoked marijuana for some patients.

Finally, little is known about the many chemicals besides THC that are in marijuana, or their possible negative impact on patients with medical conditions.

References

What are the Common Effects?

Stimulants such as cocaine and methamphetamine can produce euphoric effects. Smoking or injecting these drugs cause an intense, immediate "rush" that lasts just a few minutes. Snorting or swallowing these drugs produces a high that is less intense but lasts longer.

Stimulants can cause the heart to beat faster and blood pressure and metabolism to increase. They also can cause users to become more talkative, energetic, and anxious.

Repeated use of stimulants can lead to feelings of hostility or paranoia in some users. Single high doses can produce dangerously high body temperatures and an irregular heartbeat.

Cocaine causes the body's blood vessels to become narrow, constricting the flow of blood. This forces the heart to work harder to pump blood through the body. The heart may work so hard that it temporarily loses its natural rhythm. This is called fibrillation, and it can be very dangerous because it stops the flow of blood through the body. Physical symptoms of cocaine overdose may include chest pain, nausea, blurred vision, fever, muscle spasms, convulsions, and coma.

Methamphetamine can also cause a variety of heart problems, including rapid heart rate, irregular heartbeat, and irreversible, stroke-producing damage to small blood vessels in the brain. It can also cause high blood pressure, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Methamphetamine can also increase body temperature, which can be lethal if not treated rapidly.

How Stimulants Produce Euphoria

Stimulants change the way the brain works by changing the way nerve cells communicate. Nerve cells, called neurons, send messages to each other by releasing special chemicals called neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters work by attaching to key sites on neurons called receptors. Click here (http://teens.drugabuse.gov/facts/facts_brain1.asp#communicate) for more information on how the brain communicates (neurotransmission).

There are many types of neurotransmitters, but the transmitter dopamine is the one most affected by stimulants and many other drugs. Dopamine is what makes people feel good when they do something they enjoy, like eating a piece of chocolate cake or riding a roller coaster. Stimulants cause dopamine to build up in the brain and make users feel intense pleasure and a heightened state of increased energy. But with repeated use, stimulants can decrease some of the brain's dopamine receptors, dampening users' ability to feel pleasure at all. Then users need to take more and more of the drug to experience the same pleasure.

Long-Term Effects

As with many other drugs of abuse, long-term stimulant abuse can result in addiction, a chronic, relapsing disease characterized by compulsive drug-seeking and drug use and accompanied by functional and molecular changes in the brain.

Some cocaine users report panic attacks and feelings of restlessness, irritability, and anxiety. Users may also experience a full-blown paranoid psychosis in which they lose touch with reality and hear voices that are not there (auditory hallucinations).

Use of methamphetamine over time may cause violent behavior, anxiety, confusion, and insomnia. Heavy users may also display a number of psychotic features, including paranoia, auditory hallucinations, mood disturbances, and delusions (for example, the sensation of insects creeping on the skin, called "formication"). The paranoia can result in homicidal as well as suicidal thoughts.

Some users believe that methamphetamine can increase their sex drive. However, research indicates that long-term methamphetamine use may be associated with decreased sexual functioning, at least in men.

Lethal Effects

Using cocaine or crack-whether snorted, injected, or smoked-can lead to overdose, which can cause acute emergencies with the heart or brain, sometimes resulting in sudden death. In rare instances, sudden death can occur with the first use of cocaine. Cocaine-related deaths are often a result of cardiac arrest or seizures followed by respiratory arrest.

People who abuse both cocaine and alcohol compound the danger each drug poses. NIDA-funded researchers have found that when the human liver is exposed to both cocaine and alcohol, it manufactures a third substance, cocaethylene, that intensifies cocaine's euphoric effects, possibly increasing the risk of sudden death.

Hyperthermia (elevated body temperature) and convulsions occur with methamphetamine and cocaine overdoses, and if not treated immediately, can result in death.

References