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Introduction
Your body is an extremely complex and delicate balance of living tissue that interacts with itself (chemically and electrically) and with outside substances (air, food, water, drugs, poisons, and other chemicals). The body is, in effect, a complicated chemical laboratory, and it is into this fragile environment that we freely release drugs of all types, sometimes without a moment's thought. What exactly are all these drugs? And what are they doing to our bodies?
At the outset, it is important to examine the definition for the term "drug." According to Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary (Second Edition--Unabridged), a drug is defined as
(1) Any substance used as a medicine or in the preparation of medicines or chemical mixtures; some drugs are poisonous.
(2) A narcotic, especially one that is habit-forming.
However, the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 USC 321) contains a more lengthy and explicit definition that narrowly defines what a drug is. According to the FDA, drugs are
(A) Articles recognized in the official United States Pharmacopoeia, official Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States, or official National Formulary, or any supplement to any of them.
(B) Articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in man or other animals.
(C) Articles (other than food) intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals.
(D) Articles intended for use as a component of any article specified in clause (A), (B), or (C); but it does not include devices or their components, parts or accessories.
This definition of a drug may seem overly complex and belabored; however, there still may be some ambiguity about whether certain substances can be classified as drugs. Often, an otherwise non-drug item may be called a "drug" if it exhibits or is claimed to exhibit any therapeutic (healing) effects.
For our purposes, we will adopt the common notion of a drug as a chemical substance (non-food) that can affect the human body in various ways--good or bad--depending on the drug and the quantity used.
Overview of Drug Classifications
Drugs may be classified according to the physical form they take (capsules, caplets, tablets, liquids, gases), by the way they are administered (applied topically, swallowed, inhaled, injected), and by their chemical structure. Pharmacologists, medical scientists who study drugs, prefer to group drugs by their effects on the body. A few of these groupings are the following:
(1) Drugs that fight bacteria
(2) Drugs that fight infectious disease
(3) Drugs that affect the cardiovascular system
(4) Drugs that affect the immune system
(5) Drugs that affect the brain and central nervous system
Of these classifications, we will be mostly concerned with group number five. These substances represent some of the most common and widely used (and abused) drugs in existence, such as alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, marijuana, heroin, morphine, cocaine, LSD, Valium, and many others.
This vast grouping of drugs can itself be broken down into five major subgroups:
(1) Analgesics
(2) Anesthetics
(3) Hallucinogens
(4) Stimulants
(5) Depressants
Analgesics are drugs that relieve pain without causing unconsciousness. There are two kinds: narcotics and non-narcotics. Both relieve pain, but the narcotics also cause drowsiness and a feeling of well-being. Aspirin is an example of a non-narcotic analgesic. Examples of narcotic analgesics include codeine, heroin, and morphine.
Anesthetics are drugs that eliminate sensation. They can be general anesthetics, which cause outright unconsciousness, or local anesthetics, which deaden only a specific part of the body. Examples of general anesthetics include halothane and thiopental. Common local anesthetics are lidocaine and procaine.
Hallucinogens are drugs that cause a person to hallucinate, that is to see or hear something that does not really exist. Also called psychedelic drugs, these substances give the user a distorted, unreal perception of themselves and their surroundings. Examples include LSD, marijuana, mescaline, and PCP.
Stimulants are drugs that overcome sleepiness and tiredness by stimulating the nervous system (making it more active). Initially the user feels invigorated, with an increase in physical and mental energy. But he later feels tired and uneasy as the effects wear off. Common examples of stimulants include caffeine (found in coffee, tea, chocolate, and some soft drinks) and cocaine (powdered or crack). Synthetic (man-made) stimulants are called amphetamines and are commonly referred to as speed or uppers.
Depressants are drugs that alleviate tension and worry by depressing the nervous system (making it less active). Depressants produce the opposite effects of stimulants. They include tranquilizers, sedatives and alcohol. Tranquilizers have a calming effect that can be used to treat extreme fears and worries. More powerful than tranquilizers, sedatives reduce tension as well but can also induce sleepiness and are frequently given for insomnia. Barbiturates (also called downers) are a widely used class of synthetic depressants. Alcohol, the most commonly used/abused drug in the world, is the drug found in alcoholic drinks. Like all depressant drugs, it decreases the activity of the nervous system, relaxing the user and causing drowsiness.
Classifying Drugs Legally
The United States Congress has set up a classification system by which drugs are grouped according to their abuse potential and potency. The Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 set up the drug schedules that we use today:
Schedule I drugs have a high potential for abuse and have no currently acceptable medical use in the United States. This includes heroin, marijuana, mescaline, LSD, and many others. Although these drugs are sometimes used for research by medical personnel (by permission of the Drug Enforcement Administration), these drugs are strictly illegal.
Schedule II drugs also have a high potential for abuse with an acute danger of causing physical or behavioral dependence. This schedule includes opium, morphine, codeine, methadone, meperidine, cocaine, and others.
Schedule III drugs also have a high potential for abuse and dependence and psychological addiction; however, they create less physical addiction.
Schedule IV drugs have a low potential for abuse and cause limited physical or psychological dependence.
Schedule V drugs offer even less potential for abuse than Schedule IV drugs do and may even be dispensed without a prescription in certain cases.
We live in a world of mood-altering substances: uppers, downers, alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, and others. Drugs that act on us physiologically and psychologically are all around us and very much a part of our lives.
Our purpose here is not to lecture, but instead to enlighten, elucidate, and inform.
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