June 26th has been dedicated as International Day Against Drug Abuse an information spread across for awareness campaign by Narcotics Control Bureau, Tamil Nadu with the motto of the campaign being “Get High On Life, Not On Drugs!” NCBR SMS Campaign!
Drugs are abused by individuals either at their own will or by others resulting in victimization. These days modernisation and lifestyle changes creeping into the society in the form of night clubs as an instance has led to free traffic of drugs. When I happened to make my trip abroad I was both warned and happened to read in our orientation books and programmes to avoid going to night clubs for the probability of use of drugs to make people stay awake and energize to dance for longer hours is high. These drugs are either mixed in the drinks or thrown as powder in the air. Besides, girls who used to visit these night clubs used to share their experiences of how men tend to lose control and misbehave in many ways and take advantage while dancing with them and how boys accompanying them come to their rescue… in the end they were happy at the adventure they had! I have also read in papers that drugs are used in Indian night clubs as well and recently I happened to read an article on drugs being abused by college students in Sivagangai District! The next day I happened to find a used needle barrel at the campus of my workplace in a primary student’s hand to my despair, which on enquiry I happened to be picked by that student’s sibling in KG….though I have sense that needle maybe used for practical, I have the common sense and still remember the difficulty that we had when we wanted one from the medical shop because we are school students (and managed to get one for the reputation my school had) and we were thought of how to dispose…!
All this led me to decide on to share my part of knowledge on using these kind of drugs… why not there were and are many tele-serials and cinemas telecasted to contribute to their campaign against the use and abuse of drugs.
Why Drugs?
Why talk about drug abuse? Drugs are used to modify the state of mind and mood to create problems causing displacement at place of work or study and at home as a result of which inter-personal relationships diminishes, depreciated health and violation of law will result. The reasons are simple: loss of ability to think and take decisions and make judgements because of blurred vision and other related effects of drug abuse.
Before getting into the depths of drug abuse and drugs prevalent in the community and in party clubs, some of the terminologies that needs to be understood are as follows:
1. Tolerance: Tolerance is the need for higher dosage of drugs when the lower dosage of drug that previously effective becomes ineffective.
2. Dependence: Dependence is the inability of a person to manage without taking a drug specifically when withdrawal symptoms instigates the affected individual to depend on the drug to manage the withdrawal effects.
3. Abuse: Abusers overuse the drug and are addicted to drugs. They tend to hide their addiction, deny substance-related problems and under-report their problems.
4. Addiction: Addiction is abusing drugs without physical dependence on the drug.
COMMONLY ABUSED DRUGS:
Alcohol, nicotine, marijuana, opiates (heroin and Talwin), psychostimulants (cocaine), sedative-hypnotics (benzodiazepines and barbiturates), hallucinogens (LSD), phencyclidine (PCP), designer drugs (ecstasy and meow) and inhalants.
MEDICAL AND MENTAL ILLNESSES:
The overall effects of abusing drugs leads to medical and mental illnesses like anxiety, depression, insomnia, phobias, emotional and behavioural problems.
CANNABIS Respiratory disorders, pulmonary cardiac arrest, decreased sperm count and motility and menstrual abnormalities.
STIMULANTS Sudden death, cardiac arrhythmias, fibrillation, infarction, hypersensitive crisis, physical exhaustion.
OPIATES Increased risk of TB, generalized malnutrition.
What I have understood from the awareness sessions given to us on drugs and from personal readings in pamphlets at various counselling centers is that the effect of drug abuse is more severe and opposing on health when you try to control drug abuse symptoms from affecting you with your mind or by nature if the drug abused is not being acceptable by your body. In other words, trying to control neuro alterations in the brain and the implications thereof on physical and pscyhological effects either by the course of nature or with your mind.
In the next section to follow we will see more of the symptoms associated with different types of drug abuse……
In the next section to follow we will see more of the symptoms associated with different types of drug abuse……
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