DRUG AWARENESS

What Are Drugs?

 What are drugs?
• A drug is something that affects your body. Drugs must be
able to pass through the body and into the brain; interferes
with brain’s neurotransmitters
• Not all drugs are illegal.
• Drugs like cannabis, ecstasy and cocaine are illegal. Other
drugs which are against the law include speed, heroin, LSD
and magic mushrooms.
• Many are legal like alcohol, headache tablets, cigarettes
and glue (inhalents).
• In certain countries legal drugs can only be given out by
doctors. Usually doctors give you a prescription to take to
the pharmacy.
 Myth Busting
• Drug addiction is voluntary
• Drugs that are legal are helpful, illegal drugs are harmful
• Marijuana is not bad for you
• Combining drugs is not harmful
• Addicts can not recover
• Once detoxification ends, if the addict does not return to
drugs, changes in the pathways of the brain will return
to their normal state
• Driving is not affected by the influence of drugs
 Types of Drugs
3 Main Types:
1. Depressants slow down, or depress, the functions of the central nervous
system . In moderate doses, depressants can make you feel relaxed. In larger
doses, depressants can cause unconsciousness by reducing breathing and
heart rate. A person's speech may become slurred and their movements
sluggish and uncoordinated.

These can include:

• alcohol;
• opiates and opioids (heroin) , morphine, codeine, methadone and
buprenorphine;
• cannabis or marijuana;
• minor tranquillizers diazepam such as Valium, oxazepam (Serepax);
• some solvents and inhalants such as vapors from petrol, glue, chrome paint
and lighter fluid.
 Cannibas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHecR1u2tqk
• Cannibas can cause health problems both physical and mental
• Tetrahydrocannibinal (THC) is its main active ingredient
• Some use cannibas for medical purposes; e.g. multiple sclerosis or glaucoma
• Use at a young age is linked to increased mental health problems such as
schizophrenia; psychiatric hospitalization may be necessary if heavily used
• Lowers motivation and lose interest in things
• Co-ordination and reactions slow down
• Effects asthma
• Can increase the heart rate and cause someone to have high blood pressure
• Might have hallucinations
• A small number of people that use cannabis go on to other drugs
• Use dates back to the Chinese in 2,700 b.c.
• Can be addictive; long term users become dependant
 Types of Drugs
2. Stimulants speed up or stimulate the central nervous system and can
make the users feel more awake, alert or confident. Stimulants increase
heart rate, body temperature and blood pressure. Other physical
effects include reduced appetite, dilated pupils, talkativeness, agitation
and sleep disturbance.

Types Include:
• Caffeine
• Nicotine in tobacco is a stimulant, despite smokers using it to relax
• Ephedrine, used in medicines for bronchitis, hay fever, asthma
• Amphetamines and methamphetamines, also known as 'speed', 'ice' and
'crystal meth'
• Cocaine, also known as 'coke' and 'snow';
• slimming tablets: e.g. Duromine and Tenuate;
 Effects of Excessive Caffeine
• Stimulates your heart, respiratory system, and central nervous system.
• Makes your blood more `sludgy' by raising the level of fatty acids in the
blood and raises blood pressure
• Causes your stomach to produce more acid, irritates the stomach lining
• Stimulates the cortex of your brain heightening the intensity of mental
activity; temporary feeling of alertness. Those with high levels of anxiety
heightened alertness can produce unpleasant effects.
• Affects the length/quality of sleep. Heavy caffeine users suffer from
sleep-deprivation because their nervous system is too stimulated to
allow them deep, restful or prolonged sleep.
• Caffeine addiction which involves nervousness, irritability, agitation,
headaches or ringing in the ears.
• Causes blood sugar, or blood glucose, to be released from storage
through the effects of the adrenal hormones. Requires your pancreas to
over-work.
Where do we get our caffeine?
 Some Effects of Smoking
• One in two lifetime smokers will die from their habit. Half of these deaths will occur in
middle age.
• Tobacco smoke also contributes to a number of cancers.
• The mixture of nicotine and carbon monoxide in each cigarette you smoke temporarily
increases your heart rate and blood pressure, straining your heart and blood vessels. This
can cause heart attacks and stroke. It slows your blood flow, cutting off oxygen to your feet
and hands. Some smokers end up having their limbs amputated.
• Tar coats your lungs like soot in a chimney and causes cancer. A 20-a-day smoker breathes
in up to a full cup (210 g) of tar in a year.
• Changing to low-tar cigarettes does not help because smokers usually take deeper puffs and
hold the smoke in for longer, dragging the tar deeper into their lungs.
• Carbon monoxide robs your muscles, brain and body tissue of oxygen, making your whole
body and especially your heart work harder. Over time, your airways swell up and let less air
into your lungs.
• Lung cancer from smoking is caused by the tar in tobacco smoke. Men who smoke are ten
times more likely to die from lung cancer than non-smokers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po4zRM-5CE4
 What can meth do to you??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jH1zql_fQI&feature=related
 Types of Drugs
3. Hallucinogenic drugs distort the user's perceptions of reality. The main
physical effects are dilation of pupils, loss of appetite, increased activity,
talking or laughing, jaw clenching, sweating and sometimes stomach
cramps or nausea. Drug effects can include a sense of emotional and
psychological euphoria and well-being. Visual, auditory and tactile
hallucinations may occur, causing users to see or hear things that do not
actually exist.

These drugs include:

• LSD, also known as 'trips', 'acid' and 'microdots';
• magic mushrooms (psilocybin), also known as 'mushies’ or ‘shrooms’;
• ecstasy (MDMA/methylenedioxymethamphetamine), also known as 'E',
'XTC' and 'Eccies', produces a combination of hallucinogenic and stimulant
effects; and
• Ketamine, also known as 'K' and 'Special K'.
Why Do People Use Drugs?
 Why Do People Use Illegal Drugs?
• to fit in with a group of friends
• they might be curious
• just bored.
• Often to help the person escape from reality for a while. 
• If a person is sad or upset, a drug can - temporarily - make
the person feel better or forget about problems. But this
escape lasts only until the drug wears off.

Drugs don't solve problems and using them often causes other
problems on top of the ones the person had in the first
place.
 Drug Addiction
Addiction is a chronic, often relapsing brain disease that causes compulsive
drug seeking and use despite harmful consequences to the individual
who is addicted and to those around them.

Drug addiction is a brain disease because the abuse of drugs leads to

changes in the structure and function of the brain.

No single factor can predict whether or not a person will become addicted
to drugs. Risk for addiction is influenced by a person’s biology, social
environment, and age or stage of development. The more risk factors an
individual has, the greater the chance that taking drugs can lead to
addiction.

Addiction and the Adolescent Brain

http://www.bscs.org/curriculumdevelopment/middle/othersupplemental/drugabusepreview.html
 Signs Someone is Using Drugs
• lose interest in school
• change friends (to hang out with kids who use drugs)
• become moody, negative, cranky or worried all the time
• ask to be left alone a lot
• have trouble concentrating
• sleep a lot (maybe even in class)
• get in fights
• have red or puffy eyes
• lose or gain weight
• cough a lot
• have a runny nose all of the time
 What You Can Do To Help
• The best thing to do is to tell an adult that you trust; a
parent, other relative, teacher, coach, or school
counselor. 
• The person might need professional help to stop using
drugs. A grown-up can help the person find the
treatment he or she needs to stop using drugs.
• Kids can also help others is by choosing not to try
or use drugs. It's a good way for friends to stick
together.
• Understanding drugs and why they are dangerous is
another good step for a kid to take.