VICE AND DRUG EDUCATION AND CONTROL NOTES

compiled by

LEAH JEAN PAOLA B. ADAN, RCRIM

LESSON 1: INTRODUCTION

Terms And Drug Abuse Jargons

Drug Education - It is the study of the origin of drugs, their causes and effects, and
legal implications for the purpose of changing people’s attitudes and practices towards
drug abuse and its related vices.

Important Terms Defined under RA 9165 (Comprehensive Drug Act of 2002):

Administer
Any act of introducing any dangerous drug into the body of any person, with or without
his/her knowledge, by injection, inhalation, ingestion or other means, or of committing
any act of indispensable assistance to a person in administering a dangerous drug to
himself/herself unless administered by a duly licensed practitioner for purposes of
medication.
Chemical Diversion
The sale, distribution, supply or transport of legitimately imported, in –transit,
manufactured or procured controlled precursors and essential chemicals, in diluted,
mixtures or in concentrated form, to any person or entity engaged in the manufacture
of any dangerous drug, and shall include packaging, repackaging, labeling, relabeling
or concealment of such transaction through fraud, destruction of documents,
fraudulent use of permits, misdeclaration, use of front companies or mail fraud.
Clandestine Laboratory
Any facility used for the illegal manufacture of any dangerous drug and/or controlled
precursor and essential chemical.
Confirmatory Test
An analytical test using a device, tool or equipment with a different chemical or physical
principle that is more specific which will validate and confirm the result of the screening
test.
Controlled Delivery
The investigative technique of allowing an unlawful or suspect consignment of any
dangerous drug and/or controlled precursor and essential chemical, equipment or
paraphernalia, or property believed to be derived directly or indirectly from any offense,
to pass into, through or out of the country under the supervision of an authorized
officer, with a view to gathering evidence to identify any person involved in any
dangerous drugs related offense, or to facilitate prosecution of that offense.
Cultivate or Culture
Any act of knowingly planting, growing, raising, or permitting the planting, growing or
raising of any plant which is the source of a dangerous drug.

VICE AND DRUG EDUCATION AND CONTROL NOTES: LESSON 1 │ 1

Dangerous Drugs
Include those listed in the Schedules annexed to the 1961 Single Convention on
Narcotics Drugs, as amended by the 1972 Protocol, and in the Schedules annexed to
the 1971 Single Convention on Psychotropic Substances as enumerated in the
attached annex which is an integral part of this Act.
Deliver
Any act of knowingly passing a dangerous drug to another, personally or otherwise,
and by any means, with or without consideration.
Den, Dive or Resort
A place where any dangerous drug and/or controlled precursor and essential chemical
is administered, delivered, stored for illegal purposes, distributed, sold or used in any
form.
Dispense
Any act of giving away, selling or distributing medicine or any dangerous drug with or
without the use of prescription.
Drug Abuse
It is the illegal, wrongful, or improper use of any drugs.
Drug Dependence
As based on the World Health Organization definition, it is a cluster of physiological,
behavioral and cognitive phenomena of variable intensity, in which the use of
psychoactive drug takes on a high priority thereby involving, among others, a strong
desire or a sense of compulsion to take the substance and the difficulties in controlling
substance-taking behavior in terms of its onset, termination, or levels of use.
Physical Dependence
An adaptive state cause by repeated drug use that reveals itself by development of
intense physical symptoms when the drug is stopped (withdrawal syndrome)
Psychological Dependence
An attachment to drug use which arises from a drug ability to satisfy some emotional
or personality needs of an individual.
Drug Syndicate
Any organized group of two (2) or more persons forming or joining together with the
intention of committing any offense prescribed under this Act.
Employee of Den, Dive or Resort
The caretaker, helper, watchman, lookout, and other persons working in the den, dive
or resort, employed by the maintainer, owner and/or operator where any dangerous
drug and/or controlled precursor and essential chemical is administered, delivered,
distributed, sold or used, with or without compensation, in connection with the
operation thereof.
Financier
Any person who pays for, raises or supplies money for or underwrites any of the illegal
activities prescribed under this Act.

VICE AND DRUG EDUCATION AND CONTROL NOTES: LESSON 1 │ 2

Illegal Trafficking
The illegal cultivation, culture, delivery, administration, dispensation, manufacture,
sale, trading, transportation, distribution, importation, exportation and possession of
any dangerous drug and/or controlled precursor and essential chemical.
Instrument
Anything that is used in or intended to be used in any manner in the commission of
illegal drug trafficking or related offenses.
Laboratory Equipment
The paraphernalia, apparatus, materials or appliances when used, intended for use or
designed for use in the manufacture of any dangerous drug and/or controlled
precursor and essential chemical, such as reaction vessel, preparative/purifying
equipment, fermentors, separatory funnel, flask, heating mantle, gas generator, or
their substitute.
Manufacture
The production, preparation, compounding or processing of any dangerous drug
and/or controlled precursor and essential chemical, either directly or indirectly or by
extraction from substances of natural origin, or independently by means of chemical
synthesis or by a combination of extraction and chemical synthesis, and shall include
any packaging or repackaging of such substances, design or configuration of its form,
or labeling or relabeling of its container; except that such terms do not include the
preparation, compounding, packaging or labeling of a drug or other substances by a
duly authorized practitioner as an incident to his/her administration or dispensation of
such drug or substance in the course of his/her professional practice including
research, teaching and chemical analysis of dangerous drugs or such substances that
are not intended for sale or for any other purpose.
Cannabis or commonly known as “Marijuana” or “Indian Hemp” or by Its Other
Name
Embrace every kind, class, genus, or specie of the plant Cannabis sativa L. including,
but not limited to, Cannabis Americana, hashish, bhang, guaza, churrus and ganjab,
and embraces every kind, class and character of marijuana, whether dried or fresh
and flowering, flowering or fruiting tops, or any part or portion of the plant and seeds
thereof, and all its geographic varieties, whether as a reefer, resin, extract, tincture or
in any form whatsoever.
Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) or Commonly Known as “Ecstasy”,
or by Its Any Other Name
Refers to the drug having such chemical composition, including any of its isomers or
derivatives in any form.
Opium
Refers to the coagulated juice of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L.) and
embraces every kind, class and character of opium, whether crude or prepared; the
ashes or refuse of the same; narcotic preparations thereof or there from; morphine or
any alkaloid of opium; preparations in which opium, morphine or any alkaloid of opium
enters as an ingredient; opium poppy; opium poppy straw; and leaves or wrappings of
opium leaves, whether prepared for use or not.
VICE AND DRUG EDUCATION AND CONTROL NOTES: LESSON 1 │ 3
Opium Poppy
Refers to any part of the plant of the species Papaver somniferum L., Papaver
setigerum DC, Papaver orientale, Papaver bracteatum and Papaver rhoeas, which
includes the seeds, straws, branches, leaves or any part thereof, or substance derived
therefrom, even for floral, decorative and culinary purposes.
Methamphetamine Hydrochloride or commonly known as “Shabu”, “Ice”,
“Meth”, or by its any other name
Refers to drug having such chemical composition including any of its isomers or
derivatives in any form.
Person
Any entity, natural or juridical, including among others, a corporation, partnership, trust
or estate, joint stock company, association, syndicate, joint venture or other
unincorporated organization or group capable of acquiring rights or entering into
obligations.
Practitioner
Any person who is a licensed physician, dentist, chemist, medical technologist, nurse,
midwife, veterinarian or pharmacist in the Philippines.
Planting of Evidence
The willful act by person of maliciously and surreptitiously inserting, placing, adding or
attaching directly or indirectly, through any overt or covert act, whatever quantity of
any dangerous drug and/or controlled precursor and essential chemical in the person,
house, effect or in, the immediate vicinity of an innocent individual for the purpose of
implicating, incriminating or imputing the commission of any violation of this Act.
Protector or Coddler
Any person who knowingly and willfully consents to the unlawful acts provided for in
this Act and uses his/her influence, power or position in shielding, harboring, screening
or facilitating the escape of any person he/she knows, or has reasonable grounds to
believe on or suspects, has violated the provisions of this Act in order to prevent the
arrest, prosecution and conviction of the violator.
Pusher
Any person who sells, trades, administers, dispenses, delivers or gives away to
another, on any terms whatsoever, or distributes, dispatches in transit or transport
dangerous drugs or who acts as s broker in any such transactions, in violation of this
Act.
Screening Test
A rapid test performed to establish potential/presumptive positive result.
Sell
Any act of giving away any dangerous drug and/or controlled precursor and essential
chemical whether for money or any other consideration.
Trading
Transactions involving the illegal trafficking of dangerous drugs and/or controlled
precursors and essential chemical using electronic devices such as, but not limited to,
text messages, email, mobile or landlines, two-way radios, internet, instant

VICE AND DRUG EDUCATION AND CONTROL NOTES: LESSON 1 │ 4

messengers and chat rooms or acting as a broker in any of such transaction whether
for money or any other consideration in violation of this Act.
Use
Any act of injecting, intravenously or intramuscularly, of consuming, either by chewing,
smoking, sniffing, eating, swallowing, drinking or otherwise introducing into the
physiological system of the body, and of the dangerous drugs.

Drug Abuse Jargons:

A Bag - refers to a pocket of drug.
Acid - the slang term for Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD).
Acid Head - refers to LSD user.
A Fix - refers to one injection of opiate.
A Hit - the slang for injection of drugs.
Coke - street term for cocaine.
Cold Turkey - refers to withdrawal effects of opiate use.
Downer - the street slang for depressant,
Drop - the taking of drugs through the mouth.
Flashback - refers to a drug use after stoppage.
Head - refers to a drug user.
High - term used to describe that a person is under the influence of drugs.
Joint- refers to a marijuana cigarette.
Juni- the slang term for heroin.
Junkie - refers to an opiate addict.
Mainline/To shoot - The injection of a drug into the vein.
On-the-Nod/Nodding- refers to a suspended sleep.
Opiate - the slang term for narcotics.
Overdose - the term used when death occurred due to the excessive use of drugs.
Roach - refers to butt end of a joint.
Rush - the beginning of a high.
Skin Popping - to inject a drug under a skin.
Speed - refers to amphetamine
Speed Freaks - refers to amphetamine addict.
Stoned - the intoxicating effect of a drug.
Trip - the reaction that is caused by drugs.
Track - refers to scars on the skin caused by injection of drugs.
Uppers - street slang for amphetamine.
Work - refers to apparatus for injecting a drug.

VICE AND DRUG EDUCATION AND CONTROL NOTES: LESSON 1 │ 5

 Nature and Physiology of Drugs

NATURE OF DRUGS
DRUGS – is a substance used as a medicine or in making medicines, which affects
the body and mind and have potential to abuse. Without an advice or prescription from
a physician, drugs can be harmful.

Two forms of drugs:

1. Natural drugs – those natural plant leaves, flowering tops, resin, hashish,
opium, and marijuana.
2. Synthetic/ Artificial drug – are those produce by clandestine laboratories
which include those drug that are controlled by law because they are used in
the medical practice.
THE PRESCRIPTIVE DRUGS – These are drugs requiring written authorization from
a doctor to allow a purchase.
THE OVER THE COUNTER DRUGS (OTC) – The OTC are non prescriptive medicine,
which may be purchased from any pharmacy or drugstore without written authorization
from a doctor.
“SELF-MEDICATION SYNDROME” – The self-medication syndrome is found in
users and would be users of drugs whose sources of information are people or
literature other than doctors, pharmacist and health workers. They take drugs without
the consulting the doctor.

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF DRUGS

Amount of drug in dose:
1. Minimal dose – the amount needed to treat or heat, that is, the smallest amount
of a drug that will produce a therapeutic effect.
2. Maximal dose – the largest amount of a drug that will produce a desired
therapeutic effect, without any accompanying symptoms of toxicity.
3. Toxic dose – the amount of drug that produces untoward effect of symptoms
of poisoning.
4. Abusive dose – the amount needed to produce the side effects and action
desired by an individual who improperly uses it.
5. Lethal dose – the amount of drug that will cause death.

METHOD OF DRUG ADMINISTRATION

1. Oral – this is the safest most convenient and economical route whenever
possible.
2. Injection – this form of drug administration offers a faster response than the
oral method.
3. Inhalation – this route makes use of gaseous and volatile drugs, which are
inhaled and absorbed rapidly through the mucous of the respiratory.
4. Topical – this refers to the application of drugs directly to body site such as the
skin and the mucous membrane.
VICE AND DRUG EDUCATION AND CONTROL NOTES: LESSON 1 │ 6
 5. Iontophoresis – the introduction of drugs into the deeper layers of the skin by
the used of special type of eclectic current for local effect.

Toxicology – is commonly known as the science of poisons, their effects and

antidotes.
1. Overdose – when too much of drug is taken into the physiological system of
the human body, there may be an over extension of its effects.
2. Allergy – some drugs cause the release of histamine giving rise to allergic
symptoms such as dermatitis, swelling, fall in blood pressure, suffocation and
death.
3. Idiosyncrasy – it refers to the individual reaction to drug, food, etc. for
unexplained reason.
4. Poisonous Property – drugs are chemicals and some of them have the
property of being general protoplasmic poison.
5. Side Effect – some drugs are not receptors for one organ but receptors of other
organ as well.

OTHER MEDICAL USES OF DRUGS

1. Analgesic – are drugs that relieve pain.
2. Antibiotics – are drugs that combat or control infectious organisms.
3. Antipyretics – those that can lower body temperature or fever due to infection.
4. Antihistamines – those that control or combat allergic reactions.
5. Contraceptives – drugs that prevent the meeting of the egg cell and sperm cell
or prevent the ovary from releasing egg cells.
6. Decongestant – those that relieve congestion of the nasal passage.
7. Expectorants – those that can ease the expulsion of mucus and phlegm from
the lungs and the throat.
8. Laxatives – those that stimulate defection and encourage bowel movement.
9. Sedatives and Tranquilizers – are those can calm and quite the nerves and
relieve anxiety without causing depression and clouding of the mind.
10. Vitamins – those substances necessary for normal growth and development
and proper functioning of the body.

10 MOST ABUSED DRUGS

o Shabu
o Menthodes (cough/cold preparation)
o Marijuana
o Rugby (inhalant)
o Phydol (cough/cold preparation)
o Diazepam (minor tranquilizer)
o Pseudoflex (cough/cold preparation)
o Hycodia (cough preparation)
o Cotrex D (cough/cold preparation)
o Mercadol (cough/cold preparation)
VICE AND DRUG EDUCATION AND CONTROL NOTES: LESSON 1 │ 7
 HISTORY OF DRUGS

The use of chemical substances that alter physiological and psychological

functions dates back to the old stone age.
Egyptian relics from 3500 BC depict the use of opium as an analgesic, or
painkiller.
The Incas of South America were known to have used cocaine at least 5000
years ago.
Cannabis, the hemp plant from which marijuana and hashish are derived, also
has a 5000 years history.
Since antiquity, people have cultivated a variety of drugs for religious,
medicinal and social purposes. Modern drug abuse began with the use of drugs for
medicinal purposes.
By the 19th century, the two components of opium, which were derived from
the opium poppy, were identified and given the names, morphine and codeine.
Ignorant of the addictive properties of these drugs, physicians used them to treat a
wide variety of human illnesses. So great was their popularity that they found the way
into almost all patient medication used for pain relief and were even incorporated in
soothing syrups for babies.
During World War I and II, the use of injectable morphine to ease the pain
of battle casualties was extensive that morphine addiction among veterans is to be
known as the soldier’s disease. By the time to medical profession and the public
recognized how addictive morphine was, its use had reached epidemic propositions.
Then in 1898, the Bayer Drug Company in Germany introduced a new opiate,
supposedly a non-addictive substitute for morphine and codeine. It came to under the
trade name “heroin” yet it proved to be more addictive than morphine.
When cocaine, which was isolated from the coca leave in 1869, appeared on
the international drug scene, it was used for medical purposes. Its popularity spread
and soon it was used in other products, a variety of gratonics, and the most famous of
all, Coca-Cola which was made with coca until 1903.
Abuse of marijuana began to arouse public concern during the 1930’s in other
foreign countries. Because marijuana use was associated with groups outside the
social mainstream - petty criminals, jazz musicians, bohemian – a public outcry for its
regulation arouse. Despite the law, the popularity of marijuana continued such as
Valium and Librium, LSD, amphetamines, and many others, the public became
increasingly aware of the dangers of drug abuse.
Egyptians; narcotics from 4000 B.C.; and medicinal use of marijuana has been
dated to 2737 BC in China.
As time went by, “Home Remedies” were discovered and used to alleviate
aches, pains and other ailments. Most of these preparations were herbs, roots,
mushrooms or fungi. They had to be eaten, drunk, rubbed on the skin, or inhaled to
achieve the desired effect.
One of the oldest records of such medicinal recommendations is found in the
writing of the Chinese scholar-emperor Shen Nung who lived in 2735 BC. He
VICE AND DRUG EDUCATION AND CONTROL NOTES: LESSON 1 │ 8
compiled a book about herbs, a forerunner of the medieval pharmacopoeias that listed
all the then known medications. He was able to judge the value of some Chinese
herbs. For example, he found that Ch’ang Shan was helpful in treating fevers. Such
fevers were, and still are caused by malaria parasites.
Pre-Columbian Mexicans used many substances from tobacco to mind-
expanding plants in their medicinal collections. The most fascinating among these
substances are sacred mushrooms, used in religious ceremonies to induce altered
states of mind, not just drunkenness.
As the centuries unrolled and new civilizations appeared, cultural, artistic, and
medical developments shifted towards the new center of power. A reversal of the
traditional search for botanical drugs occurred in Greece in the fourth century BC,
when Hippocrates (estimated dates, 460-377 BC), the “Father of Medicine” became
interest in inorganic salts as medications. Hippocrates authority lasted throughout the
Middle Ages and reminded alchemists and medical experimenters of the potential of
inorganic drugs.
South American Indians, especially those in the Peruvian Andes mountains
made several early discoveries of drug bearing plants. Two is these plants contain
alkaloids of worldwide importance that have become a modern drug. They are
cocaine, and quinine. Cocaine’s potential for addiction was known and used with
sinister intent by South American Indian chiefs hundreds of years ago.
Sigmund Freud, the Austrian psychoanalyst (1859-1939) treated many deeply
disturbed cocaine addicts. In the course of his practice, he noted the numbing effect
of the drug. He called this effect to the attention of the clinical pharmacologist who
introduced cocaine as a local anesthetic into surgical procedures.
During the American Civil War, morphine was used freely, and wounded
veterans returned home with their kits of morphine and hypodermic needles. Cocaine
and heroin were sold as patent medicines in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and
marketed as treatment for a wide variety of ailments. Recreational use of opium was
once common in Asia and from there spread to the West, peaking in the 19th century.
Opium dens flourished. By the early 1900s there were an estimated 250,000 addicts
in the United States.
Historians credited that Marijuana (Cannabis Sativa) is the world’s oldest
cultivated plant started by the Incas of Peru. Peruvian and Mexican

VICE AND DRUG EDUCATION AND CONTROL NOTES: LESSON 1 │ 9