Psychoactive Substances

It is well-known that meditation and hypnosis are used to modify the level of consciousness and besides these techniques, medicines are also used for the same purpose. From ancient times, people have been using drugs in order to stimulate or relax their organisms, to induce or prevent sleep, to amplify ordinary perceptions or to produce hallucinations. The concept of drugs can be used for indicating any kind of substances, besides foods, which chemically modify the functioning of the organism.

Another term used in this domain is psychoactive substance and it refers to those substances which affect the behavior, the consciousness and the disposition. This category does not only contain illegal substances, such as heroin or cocaine but also legal ones such as sedatives, stimulating substances, and familiar substances (alcohol, nicotine, caffeine). The fact that a substance is considered or not to be illegal does not reflect the risks and the dangers associated with its using. For example, caffeine is totally accepted and its using hasn't been regulated in any way; there have been introduced for a nicotine a few regulations, but these are minimum. In the present, nicotine is not even under the Food and Drug Administration's jurisdiction. Alcohol is subject to serious regulations but it is still legal. Nevertheless, it can be easily sustained that from these substances, nicotine is the most dangerous because annually it is responsible for more the 360000 deaths.

Furthermore, the prevalence and the abuse of illegal substance had grown substantially in the last 4 decades. People who were teenagers in the '60s and also recent generations are much more inclined to try illegal drugs such as marijuana, cocaine or heroin than their parents or grandparents. The great majority of people who try using drugs, usually do it before the age of 20. A big part of the usage of psychoactive substances have an experimental character. Usually, teenagers who drink or do drugs only want to do it casually and they plan on giving up as they advance in their lifespan. Though, some substances have such intense addictive effects on the brain that even though they try them experimentally they feel a strong impulse of trying them again and only few resist the temptation. In addition, some individuals have a greater vulnerability for physical and psychological addiction and even though they try only a small quantity of substance they are in great danger. So you never know just how much of this drug will get you hooked for good! Think twice before...when you can still think!

There are a series of substances which affect consciousness and behavior by submitting the brain to biochemical influences. These substances are: sedatives (alcohol, Nembutal, minor tranquilizers such as Valium), narcotics (codeine, heroin, morphine), stimulating substances (amphetamines, cocaine, nicotine, caffeine), hallucinogens (LSD, PCP), cannabis (marijuana).

Drug addiction has three key characteristics. The first one is tolerance and it means that for a continuous usage the individual must take bigger quantities of drug in order to obtain the same effect. The second characteristic is the abstinence syndrome. If the usage of drugs is interrupted the person has physical and psychological unpleasant reactions. The third one is compulsive usage and it refers to the fact that the individual takes a higher quantity of drug than he initially intended and this further leads to the impossibility to control the symptoms.

There must be made a difference between drug addiction and drug abuse. Drug addiction presents all the symptoms presented above or at least one of them and drug abuse refers to the continuous usage of drugs in spite of the very severe consequences and the person is not addicted to that specific substance. For example, a person who excessively drinks alcohol leading to repeated accidents, marital problems or missing from work, without any sign of addiction, can be referred to as a person who makes alcohol abuse.

In conclusion, the last decades can be also described by the severe usage of drugs. Drugs can be found in different forms and they are used to modify the level of consciousness which further leads to behavioral and dispositional changes. These psychoactive substances can be legal or illegal, but this status does not say which of them are more dangerous. A significant example shows that nicotine, which is legal, has much more serious effect than marijuana, which is illegal. Drugs can have positive effects, such as mental arousal, but put in balance, the negative effects weight much more and have most severe consequences.