The figures of the National Report of the Russian Federation on the situation with drugs in 2017 show an increase in their consumption. At the same time, experts note that the big problem is that people who use drugs from time to time are not considered addicted. Moreover, they claim that in addition to the well-known illegal drugs, such as heroin, cocaine or cannabis, we consume daily medicines and products, such as coffee, chocolate or tobacco, which also affect our behavior.
Substances and consumers
Experts also say that reducing the age at which drug use begins has an even greater effect on brain development and consequences that will not keep you waiting for an individual or society as a whole. More than half of those surveyed by the National Drug Agency in a sample of 400 people are cannabis users, about one fifth are heroin users, and more than one tenth are new drug users. So which of these are legal drugs?
Consumption and dependence
Nearly half of the respondents also practice consumer drugs, especially ecstasy, cocaine and SNPP. The most common route of administration is smoking and then injection. Cheaper drugs are generally used because they are easier to obtain. And legal drug trafficking is much wider than illegal. Consumers believe that cheaper drugs are less harmful than, for example, heroin. This confidence also implies that the risk will be minimal with rare and irregular consumption of cheap drugs.
But any doctor will tell you that once you try a drug, you can become addicted. People take drugs out of curiosity, either because of pressure from others, low self-esteem, a desire to create a social image, or simply because of loneliness. The lower the age of the person trying, the more serious the consequences become and the risk of becoming addicted increases. In turn, the authorities themselves understand, although they don’t speak out loud, but the real situation with drug use in any country remains unknown. The risks of this situation are obvious. In truth, it is not known how many people use drugs, but at the European level hemp is the most consumed drug, and the most harmful is alcohol, followed by heroin and cocaine.
Legal or illegal
Health risks are high anyway. For example, from alcohol you can get cirrhosis or mental health problems, and from heroin, especially in case of an overdose, just die. But we know that from a medical point of view, alcoholic beverages are a substance that changes the mental, psychophysical and behavioral nature of a person. Note that in this definition there is not a word about whether the drug is legal or not. Thus, among the legal drugs that society uses, there is alcohol, and tobacco and coffee, as well as Coca Cola and chocolate. Coffee and chocolate, for example, are considered legitimate stimulant drugs, while ecstasy is an illegal drug, but with the same stimulating effect, experts explain.
Legal drugs - salt and spice appeared several years ago, and since then it has been a new trend in all civilized countries among young people. Today, it is more like a drug explosion in some generations of the last century.
Drug combinations
Spice gives marijuana effect. And they were in the legal field for a long time only because they were not on the list of prohibited drugs. Each state forms this register for itself, and often without supporting it with a medical justification for the “narcotics” of a particular drug.
Unfortunately, drug addicts only tell newcomers about "travels" deep into themselves and laughter from drugs. In doing so, they lose sight of headaches, disorientation, and other effects like these. And also death, overdose, deep dependence and all the rest.
Right away, someone will say that these ethnobotanical plants are much better and safer, and he will be right. But among many plants in this world, there are those that break your body. Plants used for poisoning or for light chemical industry purposes, for example. Combinations of such herbal drugs can be far more dangerous than even cheap chemical drugs.
When you do not know what you smoke and drink, what are the consequences of this?
Addicts use it because it's cool, it's fashionable, it's revolutionary. But in the same way, it can be fashionable to kill people, rush onto the road in front of cars, jump from the roof of the 9th floor. Would you do that?
Medicines are designed to help, not harm a person. But people often use drugs from the pharmacy as an enhancer for the main drug, which leads to an increase in the number of overdoses and deaths.
Drug analogues
We no longer care about what we consume or what we do. And we are about to break the last barriers, and in a few years a man with a top-secret prescription will appear, and the drugs will become legal again. And no matter how much has been said about them, written and explained, legal drugs in Russia and other countries will live.
Even if you are not a nerd or a specialist in drugs, you can independently figure out the recipes for preparing natural teas with a psychotropic effect and have the same effect that people get from conventional drugs.
Similar results
Drugs are natural or synthetic substances used by consumers to influence the psyche, as stimulants, or as sedatives for mental activity. They change sensations and perceptions, attention, thoughts, imagination, will. And also cause disturbances in the entire emotional life and behavior.
The World Health Organization defines these drugs in the form of a solid, liquid or gas, the use of which is a habit and directly affects the brain and nervous system, changing feelings, mood and thinking, perception and consciousness, changing the image of surrounding reality.
Drugs are substances that suppress the nerve centers, causing physical and mental inertia, and after prolonged exposure to the body lead to addiction and the need to increase doses.
There are several classifications of drugs, depending on the criterion in question. In terms of effects on the central nervous system, drugs are classified as follows.
- Psycholeptics (or central nervous system inhibitors):
- opiates (opium, morphine, heroin, codeine);
- tranquilizers, anxiolytics-benzodiazepines;
- barbiturates (sleeping pills);
- solvents, volatile gases;
- alcohol.
- Psychoanaleptics (or stimulants of the central nervous system):
- cocaine;
- amphetamines;
- caffeine (coffee, tea, Coca-Cola);
- nicotine from tobacco.
- Psychodysleptics (cause changes in the central nervous system):
- derivatives of cannabis (hashish, marijuana);
- hallucinogens (“exotic” plants and fungi, such as mescaline, psilocybin, as well as LSD and ecstasy);
- anticholinergics (block the action of certain receptors).
Classification and law
One of the criteria for grouping and classifying drugs is the legal aspect, which determines which drugs are legal. In countries around the world, they relate differently to the turnover of psychostimulants. It all depends on where the drugs are legal. But, almost everywhere you will find legal drugs such as alcohol, caffeine, nicotine.
The risk category for drug use includes: disruptive foods or hallucinogens that change consciousness (marijuana, LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, DMT, ecstasy, phencyclidine, peyote).
High risk drugs are legally confirmed:
- depressant products (anesthetics) - drugs that inhibit the activity of the central nervous system (hemp, opium, morphine, morphine derivatives, heroin, methadone, pethidine, codeine, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, benzodiazepines, etc.);
- stimulating products - drugs that stimulate the activity of the central nervous system (cocaine, crack, cat, amphetamines, ephedrine, theobromine).
In addition, depending on the route of administration, drugs can be classified as: injectable, swallowed, swallowed, chewed, smoked and inhaled. Some may even be administered as suppositories.