Drugs and Substances

Marijuana

200

People who use marijuana may roll loose marijuana leaves into a cigarette (called a joint) or smoke it in a pipe or a water pipe, often referred to as a bong. Some people mix marijuana into foods (often called "edibles") or use it to brew a tea. Another method is to slice open a cigar and replace some or all of the tobacco with marijuana, creating what is known as a blunt. To avoid inhaling smoke, more people are vaping—using vaporizers that allow the person to inhale vapor and not smoke. Another popular method on the rise is smoking or vaping THC-rich resins extracted from the marijuana plant, a practice called dabbing. Some popular e-cigarette devices can be used to vape marijuana or extracts.

How do people use marijuana?

300

cannabis sativa

What is the Greek root of marijuana

400

NIDA's annual Monitoring the Future survey reports that among students from 8th, 10th, and 12th grades, marijuana use has remained stable over the past few years. For the three grades combined, about 24 percent of students reported past-year use in 2015. About 7 percent of 8th graders reported current (past-month) use. Among 10th graders, 15 percent reported current use, and current use for 12th graders was 21 percent.

How many teens use marijuana?

500

Yes. The symptoms are similar in type and severity to those of nicotine withdrawal—irritability, problems sleeping, anxiety, and cravings—peaking a few days after regular marijuana use has stopped. Withdrawal symptoms can make it hard for someone to stay off marijuana.

Does marijuana produce withdrawal symptoms when someone quits using it?

Meth

100

both

Does meth come as a powder or as a rock?

200

The key ingredient is ephedrine or its cousin, pseudoephedrine

What is the key ingredient in meth?

300

Methamphetamine causes the body to release large amounts of dopamine, a neurotransmitter, resulting in a prolonged sense of pleasure or euphoria for the user; however, over time, this causes severe side effects. With repeated use, meth depletes the brain's stores of dopamine and actually destroys the wiring of the dopamine receptors. This is a major reason why users become so addicted to the drug; without it they are no longer able to experience pleasure (a condition known as anhedonia), and they usually slip into a deep depression. Although dopamine receptors can grow back over time, studies have suggested that chronic meth use can cause other permanent brain damage, such as declines in reasoning, judgment and motor skills.

What are the effects of meth on the body?

400

Experts once thought cases of meth addiction were hopeless -- a high percentage would always relapse -- but today they know that recovery is possible, although it may take years of medication and behavior therapy. Because methamphetamine changes the brain's wiring by destroying its dopamine receptors, users need almost a year to allow those receptors to regrow. Until then, addicts cannot experience pleasure without the drug, and most slip into a deep depression that may cause them to relapse. This depression can be treated with psychopharmacology, and now many treatment programs include prescriptions for anti-depressants.

How does one recover from meth addiction?

500

There are 1.4 million meth users in America, and the number is rising. Although meth has generally been associated with white, male, blue-collar workers in rural areas of the western United States, with meth's spread to the East Coast there's now more diversity among users. The National Association of Counties reports that users are both high school and college students and white and blue collar-workers as well as people in their 20s and 30s who are unemployed. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported that more men than women have tried meth in their lifetimes, and vastly more whites than African-Americans, Latinos and Hispanics.

Who's using meth?

Alcohol

100

21

What is the legal drinking age?

200

18

What is the legal drinking age for citizens in Canada?

300

When there is addiction in the family, everyone is effected, and it is important to understand how each family member may be coping with unhealthy family behaviors. In addition, children of alcohol or drug addicted parents are in the highest risk group of all children to become alcohol and drug abusers themselves due to both genetic and family environment factors. So, it's important to become educated on addiction and codependency, and to talk with children honestly about the dangers of alcohol and drugs and their own risk factors.

If someone in your family was an alcoholic, should you be concerned about the family?

400

Alcoholism is not defined by what you drink, when you drink it, or even how much you drink. Whether a person drinks every day or only on weekends, drinks shots of liquor or just drinks beer or wine, what matters most is what happens when they drink. If her drinking is causing problems at home, at work, physically, financially, emotionally or legally, it is time to get help.

If someone only drinks beer, doesn’t drink every day and says they are not an alcoholic. Are they right?

500

Once absorbed into the bloodstream, the Kidneys eliminate 5% of alcohol in the urine, the Lungs exhale 5% of alcohol (detectable by breathalyzer) and the Liver breaks down the remaining 90% of alcohol. Alcohol is broken down (metabolized) by the liver at the average rate of one standard drink per hour and nothing can speed this up, including drinking coffee.

How does alcohol leave the body?

more alcohol

100

Anyone who drinks too much liquor in too short a time, with too little in their stomach, or with too little body mass gets drunk. Some people can drink more than others because of genetic factors or because they have built up their tolerance, just like any other drug user. Ironically, “holding your liquor” is actually a sign that you may have a drinking problem.

How can I have a drinking problem if I can hold my liquor?

200

Because someone is a “problem drinker” or “heavy drinker” does not mean that he or she is automatically an alcoholic. You can say that these people abuse alcohol, but alcoholism is an addiction with several definitions, and there is some controversy about how the diagnosis should be made. We say alcoholism is an addiction primarily because it contains these crucial elements: preoccupation with acquisition, compulsive use, narrowing of interests, denial, and relapse. These factors are seen in addiction to all other drugs. There is no single “correct” definition of alcoholism because the disease is so subtle in its progression. The point where heavy drinking becomes alcoholism is often unclear, but applying an overall definition of addiction—compulsive use and continued abuse in spite of adverse consequences—is a good place to begin. Any person whose alcohol use has proceeded to the point of addiction as defined above, including serious interference with functional ability, is an alcoholic and needs immediate professional help. It’s important to remember that many people who are only moderate drinkers experience some of the early symptoms of alcoholism, such as hangovers that cause absenteeism from work, interpersonal difficulties, and medical problems.

I like to drink. You could even say I’m a heavy drinker. Does that mean I’m an alcoholic?

300

Most people who are moderate drinkers report that low doses of alcohol have a pleasant effect on their ability to communicate, a stimulant effect on appetite, and an overall relaxation effect. A regular low-dose “user” of alcohol can experience a number of mental effects, ranging from sadness to anxiety, hyperactivity, and irritability, and a wide range of interpersonal problems. At higher, chronic doses—continued drinking on a regular basis—almost any psychiatric symptom can result, from paranoia to auditory hallucinations to intense prolonged insomnia. The effects on mental processes are as severe or as limited as the dose and length of use.

I’m no different when I drink than when I’m sober. Is it possible that it doesn’t affect me at all?

400

No one kind of addictive personality appears to predict alcoholism. The addictive personality does not seem to be inherited or to be present before the onset of alcoholism. However, antisocial behavior in childhood frequently leads to alcohol drinking and eventual alcoholism. It is estimated that somewhere between 50 percent and 90 percent of prisoners are alcoholic, and many of these are antisocial personalities.

Do alcoholics have “addictive personalities”?

500

A standard alcohol drink contains about 14 grams of pure alcohol (0.6 ounces): 12-ounces of Beer or Cooler 8-ounces of Malt Liquor 5-ounces of Wine 1.5-ounces or “shot” of Distilled Spirits/Liquor (e.g., rum, gin, vodka, or whiskey).

What is a “standard drink” of alcohol?

More drugs

100

Yeah

Are drugs addictive?

200

YES. For most, addiction to alcohol and drugs is a process -- not an event. Most people who use alcohol and drugs do so with an intention of only using once or “once in a while.” No one decides that they want to become addicted to alcohol and drugs. But, we are dealing with addictive drugs that directly affect the brain. It is easy for occasional use to change to frequent use or constant use -- that is addiction. The only thing we know for sure: if you don't drink alcohol and don’t do drugs, you definitely won't become addicted.

Can you get addicted even though you only do it once in a while?

300

While most marijuana smokers do not go on to use other illegal drugs, long-term studies of high school students show that few young people use other illegal drugs without first using marijuana. Using marijuana puts people in contact with people who are users and sellers of other drugs and are more likely to be exposed to and urged to try other drugs.

Does marijuana use lead to the use of other drugs?

400

Each year, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) tracks drug use trends among high school students (8th, 10th and 12th grades) through the Monitoring the Future Study (MTF). The following is a list of the most commonly abused drugs among 12th graders, starting with the most frequent: marijuana, Adderall, Vicodin, tranquilizers, cough medicine, sedatives, hallucinogens, MDMA/ecstasy, OxyContin, cocaine, salvia and Ritalin.

What drugs are the most commonly abused?

500

useful to look at all drug offenses for context. Among sentenced prisoners under state jurisdiction in 2008, 18% were sentenced for drug offenses. We know from the most recent survey of inmates in state prison that only six percent (6%) of prisoners were for drug possession offenders, and just over four percent (4.4%) were drug offenders with no prior sentences. In total, one tenth of one percent (0.1 percent) of state prisoners were marijuana possession offenders with no prior sentences. For Federal prisoners, who represent 13 percent of the total prison population, about half (51 percent) had a drug offense as the most serious offense in 2009. And Federal data show that the vast majority (99.8 percent) of Federal prisoners sentenced for drug offenses were incarcerated for drug trafficking. Many advocates of marijuana legalization point to the significant number of marijuana-related arrests, including for the sale, manufacturing, and possession of the drug, as an unnecessary burden on criminal justice system. While Federal, state, and local laws pertaining to marijuana do lead to criminal justice costs, it is important to understand how decriminalization or legalization might further exacerbate these costs. Alcohol, a legal, carefully regulated substance, provides useful context for this discussion. Arrests for alcohol-related crimes, such as violations of liquor laws and driving under the influence, totaled nearly 2.5 million in 2010 — far more than arrests for all illegal drug use, and certainly far more than arrests for marijuana-related crimes. It is therefore fair to suggest that decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana might not reduce the drug’s burden to our justice and public health systems with respect to arrests, but might increase these costs by making the drug more readily available, leading to increase use, and ultimately to more arrests for violations of laws controlling its manufacture, sale, and use.

Is the government putting people in prison for marijuana use?