There is no drug on this planet that causes happiness or tranquility, or an increase or improvement in intelligence or personal skills. Drugs do not produce Geniuses or Artists or better Men or better Women; they only destroy them.
Rogelio Aguirre Bortoni.
drugs-knowledge-and-non-addictionThe preparation of this brochure, on the subject of drugs, is situated in the context of the National Program… and is based on the work being carried out in the country by the Party, the Government and different social sectors to eliminate this scourge. that affects so many people in the world, especially threatening young people.
The purpose of this text is to provide information compiled from different bibliographies on drugs, it is intended primarily for students and teachers at the Municipal University Venue of Morón, although it can also be used in other sectors, such as health teams, counselors and all those people interested in the subject.
The text includes the history of drugs, their classification according to medical and legal criteria, the damage they cause to the human body and the current situation in Cuba. It is part of a series of activities carried out by a group of specialists aimed at different fronts such as the Center for the Prevention of Sexually Transmitted Infections and HIV / AIDS, actions focused on the eradication of Tobacco, among others, and we hope to contribute to the strengthening and improvement of these as they are directly related to our subject, while motivating the appearance of innovative initiatives that allow greater results in the work in an integral way.
MSc. Mirelis Miranda Abreu.
DEVELOPING
Toxic or drugs are natural or synthetic substances, medical and non-medical, legal or illegal, that when consumed produce some effect on psychic functions and also determine tolerance and dependence as well as physical, mental, social and spiritual damage (González, Ricardo- 2000) produce a stimulating or exciting, oppressing or inhibiting effect, as well as distorting, hallucinating or disturbing reality, damagingly affecting this in the organism and economy of Man, becoming dependent both from a psychological and biological point of view.
Psychologically withdrawal symptoms consisting of anxiety, sadness, moodiness and others appear and biologically it is expressed by bodily symptoms such as diarrhea, vomiting, fevers, pain, tremors, hypertension etc.
This same author classifies them as follows:
- Legal: tobacco, coffee, alcohol, cola, tea.Illegal: marijuana, cocaine, heroin, chamisco, LSD, mushrooms, ICE, ecstasy, etc.Medical: sleeping medications.Non-medical: angel powder or PCP.
According to its action it classifies them in:
- Stimulants: caffeine, cola, cocoa. Depressants: alcohol, morphine, heroin. Distorting or hallucinating: LSD, some mushrooms, marijuana.
Ricardo González argues that the hardness of the drug is in the potential to enslave the consumer in a short time and this is a characteristic of all illegal drugs, it refers to the fact that while alcohol takes approximately five years to lead to the slavery, illegal drugs with a single consumption is enough to reach addiction; He says that of ten people who use alcohol, only one will become an alcoholic, while of ten people who use illegal drugs, four or five will become drug addicts.
Hard drugs are stimulating, depressing, narcotic or hallucinogenic substances or medicinal preparations that are strongly addictive like heroin and cocaine.
It recognizes as a soft drug, the one that is not addictive or in a low degree as the varieties of Indian hemp (also called marijuana or cannabis) (Arias, Francisco-2001)
This same author argues that tolerance is the increase in the amount of the product necessary to obtain the same results, the consumer will always need more to achieve the desired initial effect. "It is the progressive need for increasing doses to obtain the specific effects drug ”(Rodríguez, July-2003).
This same author refers to dependency as to the degree of slavery that they cause both from a psychological and biological point of view, that is, it is the need for the toxic or drug to feel its effects, "is the set of physiological, cognitive symptoms, and behavioral factors that indicate that the subject has lost control over the use of a substance and continues to consume it despite the adverse consequences, in addition to prioritizing the use of a psychoactive substance over other behaviors considered as more important "(Rodríguez, Julio -2003)
He says that there are three types of dependency, physical, psychological and social.
- Physical dependence sees it as the state of physiological adaptation of an organism that requires a drug to continue its normal functioning. Psychological dependence is the emotional and compulsive need of an individual to consume drugs. Social dependency is the need to consume a drugs as a manifestation of belonging to a certain social group.
As there is dependency, the person has become an addict and although there are various types of addictions, Professor Dionisio Zaldívar Pérez of the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Havana states in an interview for the newspaper Trabajadores that different addictions have two elements in common, the loss of control, before the activity or substance in question and the illusion of finding in the substance or activity the element that will take him away from pain and gives him satisfaction and happiness, says that when characterizing an addict, he must be seen as a subject subject to a substance, as an individual who has chosen to live according to a system of life where drug use prevails.
In this same interview C. Makken specialist in the subject states that "addiction is an active belief in a commitment to a negative lifestyle."
Addiction is the repeated abandonment of oneself and of one's values in favor of addictive devotion and its gradual power, and this process goes through three stages; inner change, change in lifestyle and brokenness of life.
Among the legal drugs we find alcohol one of the most harmful to man and today's society as well as being considered as a caretaker.
Several thousand years before Christ, alcohol was the first drug that made people speak of abuse, a term that means anything from moral or legal disapproval of drug use to concern about the behavior that it causes or the alarm that inspire the damage it causes to whoever takes it (Blum, Richard H.-1968).
Its use by man is supposed to date back to the dawn of humanity, when our most remote ancestors had the experience of drinking the liquid resulting from the collection of rainwater in some irregularity of the trunk of a tree, after having fallen into said natural deposit some detached fruit that would later undergo the fermentation process. Primitive man reproduced this phenomenon and obtained the preparation, although it was from the Neolithic period that the use of suitable containers was possible thanks to the development of pottery.
Initially it was ingested for religious purposes, then consumption became collective on festivities and on special occasions and finally when its use depended on personal decision, it reached greater potential.
Since the time of the Egyptians, wine and beer have been known since then Hippocrates, a Greek doctor, spoke of alcoholic madness. Rhamses, an Arab chemist in 800 AD, discovered distillation. Until then, twelve or fourteen degrees of alcohol were not exceeded, thus giving rise to distilled beverages, also called strong or spirits such as brandy, rum, cognac and others.
Magems Huss, a Swedish doctor who lived at the time when his country was the largest alcohol consumer in the world in 1849, was the initiator of the term alcoholism, which was considered a disease after it was discovered as “all alcohol consumption that caused harm to who ingests it, to society or to one and the other ”(González, Ricardo-2000).
Almost all the societies that man has known have resorted to one if not several psychotropic drugs including alcohol. Small societies or tribes that appear to be stable or well integrated have been observed to use these drugs with no apparent ill effects. In these environments this use is religious or medical, but also ceremonial. (Blum, Richard H-1968).
He further argues that despite these formal ends even in the smallest tribes the individual seems to enjoy the use of the drug and discover that it can alleviate their anguish and facilitate their disposition to society. But use within a tribe is almost always controlled by custom and by the presence of others.
As societies become more complex, especially when an agricultural group becomes urban or a small tribe experiences the shock of contact with new cultures that the conquest has brought to its doors, changes in the use of drugs are accused, to the effect of them and the idea of what they mean as well as new behaviors within the group
For people who use legal drugs, especially alcohol, which affects behavior, the risk of consuming illegal substances is higher. This epidemiological reality has determined that alcohol has been designated as a goal drug
Therefore it must be kept in mind that there is a marked danger in alcoholics of becoming addicts.
Porter drugs are a group of substances in which some open the doors to the others, that is, they facilitate the way or the entrance to the next vice or addiction, for example a smoker is more prone to alcohol consumption than a non-smoker and a consumer of Alcohol is more at risk of using illegal drugs than a non-alcoholic person.
The fact that alcohol is a legal drug does not mean, according to Dr. José A. de la Osa, that it is not harmful to health, it is the most harmful known to date on our planet –consumed irresponsibly- since it also bodily harm determine other psychological, social, cultural and spiritual
According to this specialist, what establishes the category of legal or illegal is the frequency with which they produce dependency on consumers, the intensity of that dependency, the severity of withdrawal symptoms and the potentiality to produce tolerance.
He also raises the need to prevent them from entering our lifestyle at all costs, arguing that the problem begins with the grandmother who naively teaches us to drink coffee, the parents who ask us to light a cigarette for them and those who think that to be Men must teach their children to drink.
There are also beliefs or myths that underpin alcohol consumption as food, an error, since it only provides empty calories and has no nutritional value for growth or health maintenance according to Dr. Juan Emilio Sandoval, who also argues that it irritates the walls of the digestive tract., depletes the reserves of certain vitamins and interferes with the absorption of true foods.
It is not a stimulant, on the contrary, a depressant of the nervous system, by acting on the areas of the brain that control judgment, reasoning, understanding and other high intellectual functions that regulate human consciousness, causing disorders in language, control and coordination of movements. It is also not good for fighting the cold, it does not improve sexuality and it does not increase energy.
The repercussion of the excessive use of alcohol contributes to the progressive reduction of moral values, the interaction with environments and people where marginality is expressed, dissocial behaviors and the poly consumption of legal and illegal drugs that evolve into a deterioration that is often irreversible as it increases., as well as the passive acceptance of drug slavery.
In the world there is an increase in the abuse of addictive substances of the most varied type, which affect the quality of daily life in many nations. They promote crime, violence, public insecurity, family dysfunction, school dropout, poverty and marginality, among other elements. It breeds corruption, social instability, ungovernability. They generate immeasurable expenses in health care services for addicts and victims of this scourge, which affect their physical and mental health, in addition to those derived from other aspects for their confrontation in various sectors of each state. (Barriento, Guillermo Dr.-2003).
Among the illegal or hard drugs we find opium produced by the opium poppy, "legend has it that the opium poppy was born in the same place where the eyelids of the Buddha fell when they were cut off so as not to be overcome by sleep" (Granier-Doyeux, Marcel -1968).
The knowledge of the pharmacological properties of opium is much older, dating back to 3000 and 4000 BC When mention was made in some Sumerian tablets, in ancient times the Syrians, Egyptians and Greeks left faith of its existence.
In the Odyssey, Homer relates that the beautiful Helen of Troy made Telemachus drink a filter called Nepenthes, a concoction to relieve pain and misfortune.
In the 13th century BC, the first written mention of the poppy appears in the surroundings of Corinth, the Greek town of Makoné.
Other authors such as Aristotle, Virgil, Pliny the Elder already speak of opium poppy and opium in their works and Herodotus historian and medical Hippocrates make mention of Opium poppy and Opium for therapeutic purposes.
There are several versions of the entry of opium to India J.Bensussan in 1946 stated that it had been through the province of Siud probably in the 8th century following the Arab invasion, Greek specialists have maintained that the route of entry has been through the armies of Alexander the Great but it was really in the XV century coinciding with the kingdom of Akbor the great; This has been verified when consulting the first references to poppy cultivation.
Opium derived from opium poppy was highly valued for its medicinal properties to calm physical pain, but with excessive use it became a strong poison, and the habit of smoking it arose approximately in the 17th century according to Marcel Granier.
China also received a visit from opium to stay through two different routes, one east through Java and Formosa and the other west through India, but its spread is set in the first "opium war" (Granier-Doyeux, Marcel- 1968) between 1839-1842 fought by Great Britain and China, for the latter the spread of opium became a true plague until 1906, the year in which the empire progressively prohibited the cultivation of opium poppy and the use of opium.
Only three years later, the International Opium Commission made up of 13 countries met in Shanghai, this being the first act of defense carried out internationally. However as a plague it spread throughout Asia and the West.
Opium can be drunk, eaten, injected, but the most widely used form is smoking. Its prolonged abuse leads the smoker to a final period of stupidity, extreme thinness and sometimes death, diminishes work capacity, physical decline and economic crisis.
An opium alkaloid is morphine, and heroin is a semi-synthetic derivative that, combined with cocaine, is a particularly toxic mixture often used in the USA.
All drugs aim to escape from the society established according to Karl Evang in the UNESCO Courier 1968, who argues other reasons such as: getting rid of social conventions, systematizing alienation and resigning thanks to methods that characterize the modern era.
However, when Marcel Granier Doyeux said in the aforementioned publication, “any campaign against that ancient evil of the new world must take into account the need to act on a social and economic level, improve and expand the education and instruction of these populations, as well as raising the level of health, improving food and working conditions, providing hygienic measures and fighting superstition. " He also says from as remote a date as 1968 that it is necessary to indulge in intense information work to root out such a harmful habit. The hemp of the Indies, marijuana, hashish, is another type of drug that when smoked in harmless doses there are few registered harmful effects.In Asia, hemp is used in traditional medicine and it is classified along with other varieties of mushrooms as hallucinogens.
What is marijuana? Are there different types of marijuana?
Marijuana is a mixture of the dried and chopped leaves, stems, seeds, and flowers of the plant known as hemp (Cannabis sativa), and can be green, brown, or gray in color. Other terms that people use for marijuana are: mota, grass, mafú, grass, maría, monte, moy etc. In the United States, there are more than 200 street names to describe marijuana.
Seedless, hashish, and hash oil are the most potent variations of marijuana.
In all its forms, marijuana affects the mind. That is, it alters the normal function of the brain because it contains THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocanabinol), its main active chemical ingredient called. Additionally, the marijuana plant contains an additional 400 additional chemicals.
The effects of marijuana depend on the amount of THC it contains. The potency of marijuana (THC content) has continued to increase since the 1970s.
THC in marijuana is rapidly absorbed by the fatty tissues of various organs in the body. Usually, THC residues (metabolites) can be found on regular urine tests up to several days after the person smoked marijuana. However, for those who have smoked a lot of marijuana for a long time (chronic smokers), traces of the substance can be found even several weeks after they smoked it.
What are the short-term effects of marijuana use?
Among the short-term effects are:
- memory and learning problems, distorted perception (visual, auditory, touch, and time), difficulty thinking clearly and solving problems, loss of motor coordination; and acceleration of the heart.
These effects are even more serious when marijuana is mixed with other drugs. On many occasions, the person does not even know what drugs may have been added to marijuana.
How does marijuana affect school, sports, and other activities?
Marijuana affects memory, judgment, and perception. It can adversely affect your performance in school, sports, clubs, as well as your relationships with your friends. If you are high on marijuana, you are more likely to make mistakes that could embarrass and even hurt you. If you smoke marijuana too often, you may start to lose interest in your personal appearance and how you are doing in school or in your job.
Athletes do not achieve the same performance because THC affects their reflexes, movements, and coordination. Also, since marijuana can affect judgment and how decisions are made, people who use it may forget about protecting themselves during sexual acts. This causes them to expose themselves to sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV, which is the virus that causes AIDS.
What are the long-term effects of marijuana?
To date, regular use of marijuana has been found to be a factor in certain cancers, and in problems of the respiratory and immune systems.
- Cancer - It is difficult to know for sure whether regular use of marijuana causes cancer. However, it is known that marijuana contains some and even more of the same chemicals as tobacco, which are responsible for causing cancer. Studies show that a person who smokes five marijuana cigarettes a day is probably consuming the same amount of these cancer-causing chemicals as a person who smokes a pack of cigarettes a day. Lungs and Airways - People who smoke marijuana They frequently develop the same respiratory problems as people who smoke cigarettes. They have a persistent cough, a wheezing, and tend to have more colds than non-smokers. These people are also at increased risk for lung infections such as pneumonia.Immune System - Animal studies have found that THC can harm cells and tissues in the body that help protect against disease. When immune cells weaken, you are more likely to get sick.
How does it affect the brain?
Some studies show that when marijuana has been smoked in large quantities for years, the drug damages mental functions. Heavy or daily use of marijuana affects parts of the brain that control memory, attention, and learning. In order for a person to learn and perform simple tasks, they need to have a normal capacity for short-term memory.
Smoking marijuana results in some brain changes similar to those caused by cocaine, heroin, and alcohol. Scientists are still learning about the different ways that marijuana can affect the brain.
Can people become addicted to it?
Long-term use of marijuana can lead to addiction in some people. That is, they cannot control their desire to obtain and use marijuana, even though it negatively affects their relationship with the family, their school performance, and their recreational activities.
According to a study, the use of marijuana by teens who already have antisocial problems can quickly lead to addiction.
Also, some people who frequently use large amounts of marijuana may develop a "tolerance" to its effects. This means that increasing amounts of marijuana are needed to obtain the same effects as previously obtained in smaller amounts.
Covered in perpetual snow and the god decided to isolate yungas from the capital raised on the shores of the Sacred Lake (Titicaca on the Peruvian-Bolivarian border). Deprived of all communication with the supreme chiefs and segregated from their main sources of supply, these populations are condemned to a nomadic life and to the torments of hunger and thirst.
Then they discovered the virtues of the coca leaf, proving that with their chewing they gained new strength, overcame fatigue and could reach Tiahuanaco without suffering from soroche, the anguish of rarefied air (Granier-Doyeux, Marcel-1968)
Cocaine, a drug derived from the coca plant and generally has the appearance of a white powder. Cocaine powder is often inhaled through the nose or can be dissolved in water and injected into the veins. The common terms to describe it in Spanish are «talc», «snow» and «coca». In English it is called «coke», «snow», «blow», «lady» and «flake».
Cocaine is also used in the form of small crystals that are smoked. These are known as "crack" because of the crunchy sound they make when heated. In Spanish it is known as "crack" or "cooked" cocaine. In English it is known as «rock» or «freebase».
Cocaine can:
- Cause intense anxiety which means that the user needs to use more drugs and more frequently in order to feel the same pleasure that he felt in the first uses. Eventually, the user may also need the drug more often just to feel normal or to avoid feeling irritable or depressed. Reduce blood vessels, requiring the heart to work and beat harder. Cause muscle spasms, chest pain, and seizures. Heart or Stroke. Cocaine can speed up the heartbeat and cause an irregular rhythm, and that can lead to sudden death.
LSD
LSD, a psychotropic, or hallucinogenic substance is usually consumed at parties or leisure places, not generally regularly, it is difficult to detect a relative, its shape is that of a small seal or cardboard.
LSD-25 represents a degree of danger to the health of both the individual and society. Its effect goes through four stages, megalomania, hopelessness, paranoia and confusion.
Steroids
There are several types of steroids, they can be capsules or pills, or an injectable liquid, of course it is easier to find them in boys obsessed with their body.
Anabolic steroids »is the family name of synthetic substances related to male sex hormones (androgens). They cause skeletal muscle growth (anabolic effects), the development of male sexual characteristics (androgenic effects) and also have some other effects. The term "anabolic steroid" will be used in this report due to its familiarity, although the correct term for these compounds is "anabolic-androgenic" steroids.
Anabolic steroids were developed in the late 1930s primarily to treat hypogonadism, a condition in which the testes do not produce enough testosterone for normal growth, development, and sexual function. The primary medical uses of these compounds are to treat late puberty, some types of impotence, and body wasting caused by AIDS infection or other diseases.
During the 1930s, scientists discovered that anabolic steroids could facilitate the growth of skeletal muscle in laboratory animals, leading to the use of these compounds first by bodybuilders and weight lifters, and later by athletes in other sports. Steroid abuse has become so widespread in athletics that it affects the outcome of sports competitions.
Over 100 different anabolic steroids have been developed, but a prescription is required to legally use them in the United States. Most of the illegally used steroids come from contraband from other countries, are illegally obtained from American pharmacies, or are synthesized in clandestine laboratories.
Supplements such as dehydroepiandrosterone (DEA) and androstenedione (whose street name is "Andro") can be purchased over the counter in the United States through many commercial sources including health food stores. They are often called dietary supplements, even though they are not food products. Users often take them because they believe they have anabolic effects.
Steroid supplements can be converted to testosterone (an important male sex hormone) or a similar compound in the body. It is not known whether such a conversion produces sufficient amounts of testosterone to promote muscle growth or whether the supplements themselves promote such growth. Little is known about the side effects of steroid supplements, but it is believed that if large amounts of these compounds substantially increase testosterone levels in the body, then they are also likely to produce the same side effects as anabolic steroids.
Anabolic steroid abuse has been associated with a wide variety of adverse side effects, ranging from some that are physically unattractive, such as acne and breast development in men, to others that are life-threatening, such as heart attacks and liver cancer. Most of these effects are reversible if the abuser stops taking the drugs, but some are permanent.
Most of the data on the long-term effects of anabolic steroids in humans comes from case reports rather than formal epidemiological studies. From the case reports, the incidence of life-threatening effects appears to be low, but all serious adverse effects may not be recognized or reported. Animal study data appear to support this possibility. One study found that when male mice are exposed to steroids for a fifth of their lives in doses similar to those taken by human athletes, the result is a high percentage of premature deaths.
Steroid abuse disrupts the normal production of hormones in the body causing both reversible and irreversible changes. Reversible changes include reduced sperm production and shrinkage of the testicles (testicular atrophy). Irreversible changes include male pattern baldness (androgenic alopecia) and breast development (gynecomastia). In a study of male bodybuilders, more than half had testicular atrophy and more than half had gynecomastia. Gynecomastia is believed to occur due to disruption of the normal hormonal balance.
In the female body, anabolic steroids cause masculinization. Breast size and body fat decrease, the skin becomes rough, the clitoris enlarges, and the voice deepens. Women may experience excessive growth of body hair but lose hair. With continued use of steroids, some of these effects become irreversible.
Increasing levels of testosterone and other sex hormones generally cause the rapid growth that occurs during puberty and adolescence. Later, when these hormones reach certain levels, they signal the bones to stop growing, fixing the person at their maximum height. When a child or teen takes anabolic steroids, the artificially high levels that result from sex hormones can signal the bones to stop growing earlier than they normally would.
Steroid abuse has been associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD), including heart attacks and stroke, even in athletes under the age of 30. Steroids contribute to the development of cardiovascular disease, in part because they alter the levels of lipoproteins that carry cholesterol in the blood. Steroids, particularly oral steroids, increase the level of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and decrease the level of high-density lipoprotein (HDL). High LDL and low HDL levels increase the risk of arteriosclerosis, a condition in which lipoid substances are deposited inside the arteries, altering blood flow. If the blood does not reach the heart, the result may be a heart attack. If blood does not reach the brain, the result may be a stroke.
Steroids also increase the risk of blood clots forming in the blood vessels, which can interrupt blood flow, injuring the heart muscle so that it does not pump blood efficiently.
Steroid abuse has been associated with liver tumors and a rare condition called hepatic peliosis, in which blood-filled cysts form in the liver. Sometimes both tumors and cysts can burst causing internal bleeding.
Steroid abuse can lead to acne and cysts, as well as oily hair and skin.
Many abusers who inject anabolic steroids use non-sterile injection techniques or share contaminated needles with other abusers. Additionally, some steroid preparations are illegally manufactured under non-sterile conditions. These factors put steroid abusers at risk for life-threatening viral infections like AIDS and hepatitis B and C. Abusers can also develop infective endocarditis, a bacterial disease that causes life-threatening inflammation of the inner lining of the heart.. In addition, bacterial infections can cause pain and abscesses at the injection sites.
What effects do anabolic steroids have on behavior?
Reports of some cases and studies indicate that anabolic steroids, especially in high doses, increase irritability and aggression. Some steroid abusers report that they have committed aggressive acts such as physical altercations, armed robbery, or use of force to obtain something. Some abusers also report that they have committed property crimes such as shoplifting, damage or destruction to someone else's property, trespassing or a building. Abusers who have committed acts of aggression or property crimes generally report that they engage in these behaviors more often when they are using steroids than when they have not taken drugs.
Anabolic steroids have been reported to cause other behavioral effects as well, including euphoria, increased energy, sexual arousal, mood swings, distraction, forgetfulness, and confusion. In studies in which researchers administered high-dose steroids to volunteers, a minority of them developed behavioral symptoms so extreme that they were unable to function at work or in society. In some cases, the conduct of the volunteers made them a threat to themselves and to others.
Are anabolic steroids addictive?
An undetermined percentage of steroid abusers become addicted to the drug, as evidenced by continued use of steroids despite physical problems, negative effects on social relationships, or nervousness and irritability. They also waste a lot of time and money getting drugs and suffering withdrawal symptoms such as mood swings, fatigue, restlessness, loss of appetite, insomnia, decreased sex drive, and a desire to take more. steroids. The most dangerous symptom of withdrawal syndrome is depression because it sometimes leads to suicide attempts. Without treatment, some of the depressive symptoms associated with anabolic steroid withdrawal may last a year or more after the abuser has stopped using the drugs.
Amphetamines
There are several types of amphetamines and these can be seen in different ways, many come in pills or capsules, although they are also consumed as powder or glass. Some images that identify them.
Amphetamines are sympathomimemic or adrenergic amines, with a structural chemical formula similar to adrenaline. The two most widely used amphetamines, from which the most modern drugs in this group are derived, are: 1st, d-amphetamine sulfate or d-phenyl-isopropylamine (dexedrine).
The dextrorotatory compound (dexedrine or d-benzedrine) is twice as active as the racemic compound (benzedrine) and four times more active than the levorotatory. Pharmacologically, as a compound with a chemical structure similar to adrenaline, moves away from it to approach amphetamines, these increase its stimulating activity of the Central Nervous System and decrease its activity on the periphery of the organism (Neurovegetative System).
Among the most widely used psychostimulant amphetamine preparations, amphetamine, phentermine, chlorphentermine and methamphetamine stand out.. A number of compounds have also emerged, belonging to the group of non-amphetamine heterocyclic amines, obtained from piperdinacetic acid, such as methylphenidate and pripadol. Other heterocyclic amines are facetoteran and phenmentrazine.
They are the most widely used CNS-stimulating drugs. They are relatively recent drugs, since their precursor Ephedrine was isolated in Beijing in 1926, although the plant from which it comes (Catha Edulis) had been used since ancient times in the treatment of asthma. Since the 1960s, advertising has once again boosted the consumption of amphetamines (or related substances, such as pemoline) due to its appetite-inhibiting (anorectic) properties that allow it to maintain a figure according to the «beauty canons of this time ", paying the high price of generating an addiction
The consumption and course patterns for amphetamine dependence are similar to those for cocaine dependence because the two substances are powerful stimulants of the central nervous system, with similar psychoactive and sympathomimetic effects. However, amphetamines have a more lasting effect than cocaine, and are therefore less frequently self-administered. As with cocaine dependence, its use can be chronic or episodic, with "speed runs" punctuated by brief drug-free periods. Violent or aggressive behavior is associated with amphetamine dependence, especially when smoking in large doses (eg, "ice") or administered intravenously. As in the case of cocaine, intense but temporary anxiety is common,as well as paranoid ideation and psychotic episodes similar to those of paranoid-type schizophrenia, especially when high doses are consumed. Tolerance to amphetamines occurs, and this involves a progressive and substantial increase in doses, but some subjects with amphetamine dependence show reverse tolerance (sensitization). In these cases, small doses can produce marked stimulating effects and other adverse mental and neurological effects.In these cases, small doses can produce marked stimulating effects and other adverse mental and neurological effects.In these cases, small doses can produce marked stimulating effects and other adverse mental and neurological effects.
In most cases legal problems arise as a result of behavior during amphetamine poisoning (especially aggressive behavior), as a result of obtaining the drug on the illegal market due to drug possession or use. Occasionally, individuals with amphetamine abuse will engage in illegal actions (eg, amphetamine manufacture, theft) to obtain the drug; however, this behavior is more common among dependent subjects. It may be the case that individuals continue to use the substance despite being aware that its continued use leads to family discussions while intoxicated or represents a bad example for children and other close relatives. When these problems are accompanied by demonstrations of tolerance,Abstinence or compulsive behavior should preferably be considered as a diagnosis of amphetamine dependence rather than amphetamine abuse.
The essential characteristic of amphetamine poisoning is the presence of clinically significant maladaptive psychological or behavioral changes that appear during or shortly after the consumption of amphetamine or substances of similar action (Criterion A and B). Amphetamine poisoning generally begins with a sense of well-being ("high"), followed by the appearance of euphoria, a feeling of more vigor, a tendency to social contact, hyperactivity, restlessness, hypervigilance, interpersonal sensitivity, loquacity, anxiety, tension, state. alert, grandiosity, stereotypical and repetitive behavior, anger, rage, violence and impaired judgment. In the case of chronic poisoning, there may be emotional numbness along with fatigue or sadness and social withdrawal.These psychological and behavioral changes are accompanied by two or more of the following signs and symptoms: tachycardia or bradycardia; pupillary dilation; elevation or decrease in blood pressure; sweating or chills; nausea or vomiting; demonstrable weight loss; psychomotor agitation or delay; muscle weakness, respiratory depression, chest pains or cardiac arrhythmias, and confusion, seizures, dyskinesias, dystonia, or coma (Criterion C). Amphetamine poisoning, both acute and chronic, is frequently associated with impaired work or social activity. The symptoms are not due to medical illness nor are they better explained by the presence of another mental disorder (Criterion D).The magnitude and manifestations of psychological and behavioral changes depend on the dose consumed and the individual characteristics of the person using it (eg, tolerance, degree of absorption, chronicity of use). Changes associated with poisoning begin no later than 1 hour after substance use and sometimes within seconds, depending on the specific drug and method of administration.
The use of the drug in Cuba dates back to the aboriginal culture that it used in the mahogany rite, a ceremony in which the behíque, doctor or sorcerer very close to the cacique absorbed the dust through a Y-shaped wooden or bone inhaler, action that was repeated by the cacique and all the assistants (Arias, Francisco-2001). This powder was obtained from the pilgrim Pitademia of great hallucinogenic power, native to South America, this practice disappears with the extermination in a short time of the aborigines.
It is not until 1902 when the drug is mentioned again with the presence of opium, according to the aforementioned author, it is unknown since when and how it was introduced, this source points to the Chinatown of Havana as a place where smokers of this drug who were considered until 1919 as health offenders because drug addiction was not considered a crime only as of July 25, 1919, which was published in the Official Gazette of July 28 of that same year and established the division between licit and illicit drugs. Already at this time, substances of this type were available in all pharmacies and drug stores.
This freedom and the high consumption that already existed in the United States, a country that had intervened in Cuba, brought protests from those who thought that the prevailing freedom would cause problems.
In the first half of the 20th century, although they were not predominant, there was talk of the use of morphine, cocaine and heroin.
Later in the 30s, marijuana, a herb in the jargon of the vicious of Cuba and crazy herb in the United States, came from Mexico and cultivated in our country under the approval of corrupt rulers and politicians and the wealth interests of the mafia that wanted to turn Cuba into the "Caribbean Tourism Mecca" (Arias, Francisco.-2001).
Since January 1959, at the fifth dawn of that year, the National Revolutionary Police was created as the first measure to combat and face the blots that threatened the stability of the country. Since then, it has been a prioritized objective of the Government and the Party to fight tirelessly everything related to drugs and to guide about the danger it represents, for this it has had the collaboration of the Ministries of the Interior, Public Health, Education, Education Superior and Foreign Relations, in addition to the Organs of Justice, the General Customs of the Republic and the Directorate of Border Guard Troops, as well as political and mass organizations. They fight tirelessly to eliminate that destructive scourge of man and his social environment.The situation created in relation to drugs began in the years of the Media Republic, the incipient work of those combatants who were developing networks of spontaneous agents and collaborators who came to penetrate the most complex neighborhoods and centers of the capital was decisive together with the work of the Ministry of Public Health.
From this moment on, it has been tried to use the country as a base and route for drug trafficking. Places close to our coasts are used because its limits constitute routes for abundant commercial, tourist and fishing navigation throughout the year; that is, as obligatory channels for communication between the American continent and the latter with the rest of the world in drug launch operations from the 1970s, sponsored by the Central Intelligence Agency and the drug unions of Cubans residing in The United States, among others, who have tried at all times to involve the country in this illegal traffic, just to cite an example in 1999 at the end of the first semester, landed on the north coast at 4359 Kg. and ended the year with 8074 Kg. of drugs engaged in the confrontation through different channels.
Four major drug trafficking operations by sea from Jamaica to the United States were frustrated, 7.4 kg of cocaine packed in a shipment of detergent was found in a warehouse, and two people were detained at the José Martí airport bound for Europe.
As of this moment, the damage that this illegal traffic causes to the people, fundamentally to the youth, is evidenced, although not alarmingly, this was expressed by our Commander in Chief Fidel Castro in the act for the 40th anniversary of the constitution of the National Revolutionary Police. When he pointed out that there was presence of cocaine and marijuana in certain recreation centers and public places for retail sale, the transfer to the capital of 100 kg of cocaine was also detected, he said that until November 30, 60 minors had participated both in consumption and employment and that 1216 arrests for possession and internal trafficking were registered.
There he made mention of the severe measures that the Council of State would impose on those who commit the infamous affront, the monstrous crime against our country and humanity of using the territory of Cuba for international drug trafficking, capital punishment! (Rodríguez, July-2003).
Thus, it is demonstrated that the country does not escape this phenomenon and that, according to Julio Rodríguez and Carlos González, there is an incipient market for the sale and consumption of drugs that could increase if it is not fought, as the country opens up every time more to commerce, tourism, the exchange of visitors and economic relations with the exterior. (Rodríguez, July-2003).
He affirms that our country will not admit anything that threatens the security, health, ethics, dignity and values that have been created, that we have all the forces and means to effectively combat this phenomenon and to educate, guide and attend to those who have fallen prey to that evil.
Preventing drug abuse, an activity of which we have few references before 1959, has become a priority in the fight against this scourge, which is why plans, programs, strategies have been created between nations, only that its success is guaranteed for the coordinated and unified work of institutions, organizations and individuals with responsibilities in this work.
"If someone wants to increase their well-being and enjoyment, instead of resorting to substances as destructive as drugs, they must remember that there is a natural substance in our own body called endorphin that increases with physical exercise and increases what the poets call happiness; and the doctors, health. " (Taken from the Health Section of the Trabajadores newspaper).
GLOSSARY
Alkaloid: Group of weakly alkaline compounds that contain nitrogen, and are mostly of plant origin; they have a moderate molecular complexity that produces various physiological effects in the body.
Addiction: Repeated use of a drug can create addiction, that is, the compulsive need to consume that drug regularly without being able to moderate or suppress it. Most drugs produce physical and psychological dependence.
Hallucinating: Hallucinogenic drugs disturb the central nervous system, affecting the neurochemical functioning of the brain, which produces alterations in the perception of reality with sensory disorders and hallucinations.
Absorption: Action to absorb.
Anxiety: Anticipated fear of future danger, the origin of which is unknown or not recognized. The central feature of anxiety is intense mental discomfort, the subject's feeling that he will not be able to control future events. The person tends to focus only on the present and approach tasks one by one. Physical symptoms are muscle tension, sweat on the palms of the hands, upset stomach, shortness of breath, feeling of impending fainting, and tachycardia.
Abstinence: A term applied to organized efforts to promote abstinence from the consumption of alcoholic beverages.
Behique: Priest and healer among the Taíno Indians.
Calories: A unit of thermal energy equivalent to the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree centigrade.
Behavior: the individual's way of being and the set of actions that he carries out to adapt to his environment. Behavior is the response to a motivation in which psychological, physiological and motor components are involved. The behavior of an individual, considered in a certain space and time, is called 'behavior'.
Corruption: Action and effect of corrupting. - Alteration or vice in a book or writing. -- Addiction or abuse introduced into non-material things.
Dependency: Compulsive need for a substance such as alcohol, tobacco or drugs, to experience its effects or calm the discomfort caused by its deprivation. Drug dependence.
Depressor: That depresses.
Disóciales: Individual not qualified to live in a society or who lives on the margins of it. It is an imprecise denomination with a strongly derogatory moral connotation, which designates a behavior that deviates from social norms
Distorting: That causes distortion.
Drugs: Natural or synthetic chemical substance with effects on the central nervous system, which is consumed to obtain an alteration of the mood that is pleasant and can produce tolerance and addiction phenomena .
Goalkeeper Drug: Are those legal drugs that open the way or incite the consumption of other drugs.
Psychedelic drugs: a term used during the 1960s to refer to substances that produced changes in perception or mood.
Enslave: Make someone a slave, reduce him to slavery. - Have someone very subject and intensely busy.
Stimulant: That stimulates. U. tcs - said of one thing: that enlivens the vital tone.
Exciter: That produces excitation.
Euphoria: In the usual language, general well-being related to a manifest creative joy and a spirit of initiative. In psychology, it is an excessively high disposition of mind, not justifiable through objective conditions. May appear after drug ingestion and alcohol abuse
Inhibitor: What inhibits.
Ungovernability: That you cannot govern.
Intoxication: Clinical picture that appears as a consequence of the consumption of contaminated food and the consumption of toxic substances.
Legal: Prescribed by law and in accordance with it. - Belonging or relating to law or law.
Marginality: Situation of marginalization or isolation of a person or community. Lack of integration of a person or group in the accepted common social norms.
Memory process of storage and retrieval of information in the brain, basic in learning and thinking.
Death: Cessation or end of life. - In traditional thought, separation of body and soul.
Harmful: Harmful, pernicious, harmful.
Drug trafficking: Trade in toxic drugs in large quantities.
Oppressor: That oppresses.
Perception: process by which consciousness integrates sensory stimuli on objects, events or situations and transforms them into useful experience.
Psychotropic, ca: said of a psychoactive substance: that produces generally intense effects, to the point of causing profound changes in personality.
Drug trafficking: a crime consisting of facilitating or promoting the illegal consumption of certain narcotic and addictive substances that threaten public health for profit, although this definition may vary according to the different criminal laws of each State.
Tolerance: Attitude and behavior, individual, characterized by the conscious permissiveness towards a certain amount of toxic substances.
Sumerian tablets: pottery pieces inscribed with cuneiform writing. Its fundamental administrative, economic and legal topics, including inventories, promissory notes, receipts, sales deeds, marriage contracts, wills and legal sentences. They are inscriptions that refer to hundreds of names of people, divinities, places and products, and constitute the most important source of material for the study of Sumerian society and its economy.
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