personal growth paper

UppersDownersAllArounders-8thEdition-CH1.pptx

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1.1 - Mayans smoking cigars: Throughout history most cultures have been attracted to ingesting psychoactive substances that alter their mood by manipulating brain chemistry.

1.2 - The classification of drugs is determined by many factors; from the chemical and molecular structure to the genus and family of plants, their psychoactive effects, and even down to the risk benefit ratio it has on individuals and society.

1.3 - Uppers (stimulants) are classified by their primary physiological effects starting with an increase in stimulation to the central nervous system. This produces an increase in alertness, blood pressure, heart rate, and energized muscles; but the effects of uppers also include insomnia and decreased appetite.

1.4 - Downers (depressants) are classified by their physiological effects which include the depression of the central nervous system which slows heart rate and respiration while relaxing muscles, decreasing coordination and the sense of pain.

1.5 - All Arounders are a class of drugs that mostly don’t have dominant physical effects because they are known to produce mental effects which can include visual hallucinations and a separation from special and temporal norms.

1.6 - There are many chemicals not meant for human consumption that have a variety of mental effects not easily classified. Some are toxic like inhalants, others like steroids have an addictive component because of the users attachment to muscle mass or winning sporting contests, while psych meds are not psychologically reinforcing they can cause tissue dependence. Compulsive behaviors such as gambling, overeating, on-line game playing, sex, or shopping create an altered state which produces a huge boost of dopamine not unlike cocaine.

1.7 - Throughout history people have used drugs for many reasons.

1.8 - Harsh climates often give reason for its inhabitants to use drugs. Coca use is often prevalent in high altitude villages over 10,000 feet. Khat is used by desert people to keep their minds focused in excessive heat. Alcohol is often used to adjust to stressful situations. All are ways in which drugs are used to cope with the environment.

1.9 - Both brain chemistry and the structural differences in the brain help determine our sensitivity to environmental stressors, drugs, and inheritable characteristics.

1.10 – Historically governments have attempted to monopolize and financially exploit the drug trade. Spain exclusively controlled the growing of the coca leaf and made it available to silver miners, Britain fought China for the right to sell opium in what the Brits called the War for Free Trade but what the world calls the Opium Wars. All countries now tax the sale of alcohol and cigarettes.

1.11 - In the 8th century methods of distilling alcohol were developed. The 19th century brought many refinements including morphine from opium and cocaine from coca. The 20th century opened the door to synthesizing drugs from chemicals.

1.12 - New methods of rapid onset delivery include the pipe first used for tobacco then opium and the syringe developed in the 1850s. More recent developments have been smokeable cocaine and methamphetamine, vaping of nicotine and THC in marijuana, also new methods for making butane hash oil.

1.13 – Many ancient cultures were centered around crops that helped support their culture. Opium in the middle east, coca leaf in Peru, and cannabis in India were all examples of this. Ancient Egyptian medical texts list opium poppy seeds as a food, small concentrations of opium as a medicine and greater concentrations of it as a poison.

1.14 - Ingestion of psychoactive substance comes in a variety of methods, some ancient and others modern. Whether the drug passes through the stomach or the lungs it enters the blood stream and then directed to the blood brain barrier.

1.15 – Europeans found drugs from other continents to have psychoactive effects. They were then popularized and financially exploited by governments to produce revenue.

1.16 - The 19th century was the age of commercialization and advertising. Cocaine laced drinks, patent medicines containing morphine, alcohol and cannabis were available over the counter. Hypodermic injection kits with cocaine and heroin were available through the Sears catalogue.

1.17 - The idea behind refinement is to take a plant that contains a small amount of a drug and separate it from all the other plant materials concentrating the drug. Examples are the refinement of morphine from opium poppies or cocaine from the coca leaf. This concentration makes the drug more toxic as well as more euphoric than the ingestion of its original plant form.

1.18 - Opiates are drugs that come from the opium poppy after refinement. Opioids are drugs that are synthesized in a lab and copy the chemical structure of the molecules.

1.19 - At the beginning of the 20th Century the US government was dependent on the tax revenue from alcohol, opium and tobacco. A series of laws meant to protect consumers from toxic substances was put in place because the unregulated use of drugs was found to do more harm than the tax revenue did good.

1.20 - From the middle of the 1850s a movement began to developed in the US to prohibit the production and distribution of alcohol. In 1920 it went into effect. Although prohibition did spawn a spree of criminal activity from bootlegging and smuggling it also brought down the rates of domestic violence and admissions of to hospitals for alcoholism.

1.21 - The costs of prohibition were very high in terms of legal costs and defiance of the law. Eventually Congress passed an amendment to the Constitution and alcohol was again legally available.

1.22 - In the 1930s Alcoholics Anonymous, a self help group, was formed and has since spread around the world. During the same time frame prohibition minded people looking for a new cause found a means to make marijuana illegal though the Marijuana Tax Act. This was followed up with a massive propaganda campaign. Meanwhile in Europe Dr. Albert Hoffman was experimenting with the chemical compounds to unlock the secrets of mental illness. Dr. Hoffman discovered LSD.

1.23 - The 1960s were an era of upheaval. Young people disillusioned with what society was telling them looked to psychedelic drugs for answers to questions that their parents did not consider.

1.24 - A new era of prohibition was ushered in by the Nixon administration. Nixon made his War on Drugs campaign a center piece of his administration.

1.25 - In the late 1970 and the 80s a new era of stimulant abuse was fueled by the crack and ice phenomena. Both were more powerful forms of the drug causing greater compulsive use patters in users.

1.26 - Due to the discoveries of endorphins and other neurotransmitters in the mid 1970s a new age of scientific discovery was launched. Along with more research on the brain came a plethora of imagining techniques in the 1990’s leading to new discoveries about the relationships between mental illness, neurotransmitters and drugs.

1.27 – Opiate abuse accelerated during the US Civil War and the Vietnam War.