Discussion:
Historical Themes of Drug Use
Can you please help me with the following:
- Pick an illegal drug of particular interest (any).
- Post an explanation of this particular drug's current use pattern in the context of all five historical themes.
- Include an evaluation its psychoactive drug classification.
Five historical themes of drug use:
1. There is a basic need of human beings to cope with their environment to control their fear and pain in a hostile world as well as to give pleasure.
2. Psychoactive drugs work because they mimic natural neuro-chemicals that already exist in the brain. Manipulation of these chemicals can alter a user's mood.
3. Governments and businesses have always been involved in the drug trade, gaining control of the supply of drugs to make money in taxes or sales or to control people's behavior by limiting the supply.
4. Technological advances in refining and synthesizing psychoactive drugs have increased the potency of these substances, making them more desirable and, unfortunately, more addictive. One example is the refinement of opium into morphine and then into heroin.
5. Researchers and users discovered new ways of using drugs so that these drugs reached the brain faster and therefore had a greater impact on the central nervous system. A working physiological definition of a psychoactive drug is a drug that passes through the blood-brain barrier. Psychoactive drugs include those substances that affect the central nervous system. The Inaba text classifies drugs according to their effects: stimulants (uppers), depressants (downers), and psychedelics (all arounders). Other groups of drugs include inhalants, sports drugs (such as anabolic steroids), and psychiatric medications such as Haldol and Prozac.