Alcohol
True or false: The concentration of alcohol in the beverage consumed influences its absorption into the bloodstream.
What is true? More dilute solutions of alcohol enter the bloodstream more slowly than more highly concentrated solutions.
The effects of smoking pot can last for two days. True or False?
What is true? THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, is extremely fat-soluble and can still enter the bloodstream from the fatty tissues and have effects on the brain for up to two days after being smoked.
What popular nightclub drug is actually an animal tranquilizer?
True or false: People who take opiates for just weeks can develop significant dependence and addiction and undergo withdrawal when they stop.
What is true? Due to traditional patterns of opiate use, which can amount to several times daily, a persons tolerance can increase quickly, which relates to this quick dependence and also withdrawal once discontinued.
Who was one of the major forces in the popularization of cocaine, specifically in Europe?
Who is Sigmund Freud? Freud studied cocaine with self-experimentation. He took the drug and recorded his experiences.
True or false: Alcohol can cause brain damage.
What is true. Long-term chronic drinking can cause permanent memory loss and definite brain damage.
Marijuana hinders the formation of what?
What popular club drug causes definite brain damage in rodents and monkeys?
What is Ecstasy? Studies show dramatic damage to nerves containing the neurotransmitter serotonin that is irreversible at doses approximating those consumed by humans.
What neurotransmitter (brain chemical) is impacted by opiates?
What are endorphins? This neurotransmitter helps to control movement, moods, digestion, body temperature, and breathing.
Amphetamines impact on a persons appetite popularized it as what in the 1950s and 1960s?
What is a diet pill? Amphetamine was the first diet pill and was popular during the 50s and 60s, however, its dependence producing effects became a real problem and so non-addicting alternatives were developed.
True or false: alcohol before bed makes you sleep better.
What is false? Alcohol might make you sleepy at first, but its by-products can cause sleeplessness, so after a night of drinking you might fall asleep quickly but wake up in the middle of the night feeling agitated.
What is true? A persons heart rate increases by 20 to 30 beats per minute when smoking marijuana.
True or false: the major hallucinogens used in the developed world are almost always taken by mouth.
What is true? Most hallucinogens can be easily absorbed from the stomach or intestines which is why most are taken orally.
True or false: Poppy seeds are used to create opiates.
What is false? Opium farmers cut the developing seedpod of the opium poppy and collect the gummy fluid that oozes out of the cut which is later dried.
When taken at high doses, or after prolonged use, stimulants can cause these behaviors.
What are psychotic behaviors? Stimulants can cause psychotic-like states that resemble paranoid schizophrenia.
True or false: a glass or two of wine with your dinner is safe when you're pregnant.
What is false? Studies show that even very moderate drinking during pregnancy can permanently hinder a child's development.
True or false: Marijuana does not have the potential to cause hallucinogen-like experiences because it is not a hallucinogen.
Rapid tolerance develops to this hallucinogen.
True or false: Heroin is a chemically modified form of morphine.
What is true? Heroin is created from partially purified morphine, usually at "refineries" close to sites of opium production.
What is the cause of most stimulant overdoses?
What is failure of the cardiovascular system? The effects on the heart when using a stimulant can be so excessive they may result in a disordered heartbeat or failure of the cardiovascular system.
True or False: "Alcohol goes straight to my head!"
What is a trick question? True AND false! Alcohol is fairly evenly distributed throughout the body, a process called equilibration, however, because a substantial portion of the blood that the heart pumps goes to the brain, and because the fatty material of the brain absorbs alcohol, this is where the effects are first and predominantly felt.
Chocolate and marijuana stimulate the same receptors in the brain. How much chocolate would you have to eat to get the same effect as one joint?
What is 25 pounds?
True or false: Once begun, the trip on some hallucinogens can last for hours.
What is true? If a hallucinogen is unpleasant, there is not much to do except receive support from unimpaired companions. There is no "quick fix" to become sober.
What was the drug misinformation portrayed by the movie Pulp Fiction?
How do you treat a heroin overdose? The movie shows a heroin overdose being treated by an injection of adrenaline into the heart, which is useless and dangerous. The opiate blocking drug Naloxone reverses heroin overdoses after injection by more conventional routes.
What stimulant has been linked to prenatal problems such as premature separation of the placenta from the uterus, premature birth, low birth weight, developmental delays, and intrauterine stroke?
What is cocaine?