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: Long Term Effects:
BAC blood alcohol concentration
20-50 relaxed
50-80 euphoria
80-120 impaired (tipsy)
 drunk
 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 Cigarettes = Poison
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: Rehabilitation:
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 Nicotine Meth Cocaine Bryan Saunders Cocaine
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