𝐃𝐫𝐮𝐠 𝐀𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐞

Shivi Forensics

ARTICLE : Drug Abuse

Created By 

Aswathy Ramesh

Volunteer 

Shivi Forensics

 

INTRODUCTION

Drug abuse is the term used to describe the recreational and nonmedical use of substances. The phrase describes the use of both legal and illicit substances, including cocaine and marijuana, as well as prescription and over-the-counter medications, in excess or for goals other than medical ones. Agents like anabolic steroids, which some athletes use to increase their strength and performance, and psychotropic, or mind-altering, chemicals that cause mood and emotional shifts are examples of commonly abused substances.

Some medications that alter mood cause people to relax or fall asleep. There are others that make you feel excited. They can all alter emotions and have an impact on the nervous system. According to research, dopamine, an organic substance that prevents nerve impulses from being transmitted, is elevated in the brain when people use addictive or often misused medications.

After the effects of such medicines wear off, users experience the same issues that previously troubled them, and the momentary sensation of well-being that these substances provide disappears. Instead of enduring the agony and difficulty of resolving the initial issues, they might use the medication again. It is considered that the users have developed a psychological dependence on the drug at that point.

Addiction is the result of excessive drug use, where the person develops a physical need on the drug. The drug user gets really sick without it. An addict develops a dual need for the drug: to prevent the physical discomfort that comes with abstinence and to relive the sensation of wellbeing it provides. Because of this physiological need, addicts focus all of their energy on obtaining more of the drug, which makes drug use a regular aspect of their lives.

Drug misuse is a severe public health issue that impacts the entire community in addition to the individual user. Every year, drug misuse causes over 40 million severe illnesses or injuries in the US. According to estimates from the World Health Organization, 230 million people took illegal drugs at least once in 2010.

 

HISTORY OF DRUG ABUSE

Throughout the 19th century, the easy access to opiates (opium and opium-related substances) in patent medicines led to widespread use and addiction, particularly among women of all social classes. In the United States, opium abuse became a problem after the Civil War, when hundreds of thousands of soldiers developed an addiction to the morphine and opium used as painkillers during the war. Laudanum, a highly addictive mixture of opium and alcohol used to ease pain, soothe frayed nerves, and induce sleep, was particularly popular in the United States and Europe.

Early in the 20th century, cocaine was used as a stimulant in many popular tonics and patent medicines; its abuse led President William Taft to declare it a national threat in 1910, and its nonmedical use was outlawed in 1914. As mood-altering drugs like barbiturates and stimulants became more accessible through both legal and illegal channels, their use increased in the 1950s, and the use of hallucinogens like marijuana also increased in the 1950s before becoming widespread in the 1960s.

 

COMMONLY ABUSED DRUGS

1.      OPIUM

The opium poppy produces a narcotic substance known as opium, which serves as the base for some of the most potent pain-relieving medications available. Opium, along with its derivatives (opiates) such as morphine and codeine, and synthetic substances that mimic opium (referred to as opioids) are used to alleviate severe pain. Furthermore, opium can be transformed into the highly addictive drug heroin. To a certain degree, the effects of opium-related drugs vary from person to person; pain-free people may simply feel lightheaded and queasy after taking them for the first time, but for most vulnerable people, a dose of an opium-related drug makes worries seem far away, and this carefree feeling may be followed by a period of stupor, which is often followed by a severe depression, which a regular abuser will want another dose of to prevent.


2.      SLEEP INDUCING DRUG

Many kinds of substances make you sleepy and intoxicated. These substances also lead to psychological and physical dependence. Barbiturates, methaqualone, ethyl alcohol, and numerous other related sedatives are included in this group. Due of its legal sale to vulnerable individuals, alcohol poses unique challenges.


3.      STIMULANTS

Amphetamines, sometimes referred to as “uppers” or “speed,” are a type of stimulants that cause wakefulness and alertness; they are used in medicine to treat depression, regulate appetite, and treat sleep disorders. In the 1990s and early 21st century, there was growing concern about the use of stimulants as performance-enhancing drugs by athletes, despite the fact that they can sometimes cause heart damage. For instance, professional cyclists used strychnine in the 19th century, and amphetamine use was linked to the deaths of several cyclists in the 1960s.



4. HALLUCINOGENS

The term “hallucinogens” refers to a broad class of drugs. Psychological side effects from these medicines include elevated sensations and dreamy illusions. However, hallucinogens also can create extreme mood swings, sensations of strangeness, altered thinking, perceptual distortions, and delusions, symptoms that resemble mental diseases like schizophrenia.

 

HISTORY OF DRUG ABUSE IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES 

China, where an opium and cocaine trade had grown in the preceding century, undertook the first significant national attempts to regulate the spread of harmful narcotics in the 19th century. The English East India Company, which kept an official monopoly on British trade in China, made enormous profits from the shipment of opium from India to China and did not want to give up its market, despite the Chinese government’s efforts to discourage its importation and use. Tension between the British and the Chinese increased when China finally outlawed this monopoly between 1839 and 1842. Meanwhile, China was receiving ever-increasing amounts of opium from foreign traders, such as those from France and the United States. Lastly, all foreign traders were forced to turn over their opium supplies for destruction by the Chinese government. The first Opium War (1839–42) broke out as a because of British objections. After losing, the Chinese were compelled to sign a number of treaties with Britain and other nations, which ultimately made it permissible for China to import opium.

 

STATISTICS OF DRUG ABUSE IN INDIA


REFERENCE

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