User talk:Julitakra/sandbox

Terminology

The word “drugs” can be applied to almost any substance that can modify one more of the functions of a living organism. Drug use refers to the taking of a drug, either by swallowing, smoking, injecting or any other way of getting the drug into the blood stream. It may almost include insufflation.In most cases people who use addictive drugs do not become addicted to them. People who have experimented with marijuana, cocaine, opiates, and other drugs only a minority become addicted to the drug. Drugs act as on neurons, and everyone's neurons function in the same way. For example heroin binds to mu opioid receptor sites in humans and if experimenting with heroin can lead to heroin addiction in one person, and heroin functions in pretty much the same way in everyone's nervous system, this prompts the question why doesn't everyone become a heroin addict? These observations reveal a well-established psychopharmacological principle. The behavioral effects of drugs vary in function of the setting and the individual.

What is an Addict?

According to most clinicians and researchers, an addict is someone for who sobriety is a tenuous and temporary state; addicts almost always resume drug use, even if free of drugs for years. Addiction researchers Charles P. O’Brien and A. Thomas McLellan note that most addicts relapse and that cure is an unrealistic hope and that addictive disorders should be considered in the category with other disorders that require long terms treatments. They group addiction with other long- term conditions like arthritis, asthma, and diabetes.

Dealing with the problem

In 1914 the United States Congress passed a law that authorized the federal government to regulate the distribution of opiates and cocaine. The U.S. policy regarding addictive drugs and addiction has involved both the judicial system and the country’s health institutes. The judicial system prosecutes drug users and dealers, and often sends them to jail. The medical system treats drug users and sends them to clinics and hospitals. The Drug Enforcement Agency, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse are highly respected and well established; that two such different bureaucracies have responsibility, for addictive drugs suggests that there is something amiss in the Americans response to addiction. Americans typically do not advocate incarceration and medical care for the same actives, Addiction is the only psychiatric syndrome whose symptoms are considered an illegal activity and addictive drug use is the only illegal activity that is also that focus on highly ambitious research and treatment programs.

Addiction versus Choice

For example if one of the options were an addictive drug, the principles that resulted in a smooth running household would now lead to excessive drug use. Addictions depends on general principles of choice, the unique behavioral effects of addictive drugs, and individual and environments factors that affect decision-making. Many argue that humans activity learn actions that are not elicited are contingent on circumstances and history. Humans and other living creatures largely depend on actions that are shaped more by experience than by DNA. So in this effect most behaviors are by choice.

Health

Many health problems may occur from frequent drug user. Many argue that the biggest problem associated with drug use is the problem of health. Health problems such as dependency and risk of inflection or even death. Man drug users administer their drugs by intravenous injection and at least some of them depose of their used equipment in inappropriate ways. Used syringes can be found on the streets and can be washed up on beaches or riverbanks. There is some evidence that HIV infection in the UK is in part spread through transmission by the shared syringes of drug users. Hepatitis B can be also spread through sharing equipment, which carries the risk that the disease might be transmitted to the non-drug using population. Economic and social costs to society are also problems of drug use. These include costs to the health service, work related costs, state benefits, and the costs of community care. (http://site.ebrary.com/lib/mccc/reader.action?docID=10161331&ppg=18)

Drug Prevention

After a hiatus in the 1980’s drug use, including tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use, among youth was again on the rise. The increase appearing since 1991, has been attributed to poor implementation of prevention programs, a decrease in perceived risk and consequences of use, high demand for use, and increases in perceived social norms and acceptance of use, with access to drugs remaining high and unchanged. Drug abuse prevention aimed at individuals typically means those programs and strategies that initiate from and re-radiate outward in impact from an individual’s changing his or her own drug use behavior. In the field of drug use prevention, which includes tobacco, marijuana, and other drugs, the differences in these strategies can be aligned with demand or supply reduction. The majority of interventions aimed at individuals are focused on changing their demand for drugs by changing their attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors concerning drug use. The most effective prevention programs aimed at individuals are those that focus on counteracting social influences to use drugs. These programs address person level factors of resistance skills, appraisal of drug use situations and models and situation level factors of perceived social norms and avoidance of drug-using groups and drug use opportunities. The magnitude and longevity of program effectiveness is depend upon the extent to which intervention acknowledges and involves the interaction of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and environmental change. In personality research, these interactions have been expressed as an s simultaneous series of transitions that affect the ecology of an individual’s personality. (http://site.ebrary.com/lib/mccc/reader.action?docID=10329630&ppg=26)

Tolerance and Dependency While tolerance and physical depended may share some mechanism, there appear to be significant difference between the se processes. Not all individuals who exhibit tolerance to a drug are physically depend on it and some individuals who are physically depended on a drug may not display tolerance. Physical dependence on drugs occurs when central nervous system cells require the presence of that drug to function normally. When that drug intake is discontinued, there are clear signs of withdrawal. (http://site.ebrary.com/lib/mccc/reader.action?docID=10329630&ppg=26).