>From: "Peter McWilliams" <peter@mcwilliams.com>
>Subject: All drugs are bad
>Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2000 16:17:31 -0800
>X-Mozilla-Status: 8001
>X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000
>
>More NIDA-inspired "all drugs are equally bad" crap published, of course, by
>the Washington Post. This isn't drug education; it's terrors for children,
>and even children aren't listening. One thing the article proves: If alcohol
>is legal, all drugs should be legal.
>
>Enjoy,
>
>Peter
>
>
>Pubdate: Wed, 12 Jan 2000
>Source: Washington Post (DC)
>Copyright: 2000 The Washington Post Company
>Address: 1150 15th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20071
>Feedback: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
>Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
>Author: Sally Squires, Washington Post Staff Writer
>
>THE DOPE ON DRUGS
>
>How The Most Popular Substances Affect Your Brain, Body And Behavior
>
>With names such as ecstasy, clarity, roofies, bidis, yellow sunshine and
>pina colada, they sound intoxicating and exotic. And they are. To many
>people, drugs seem to offer possibilities of making life better, more
>interesting, more exciting, more varied, less painful. Sometimes they do,
>for a while anyway. No one would take them if they didn't make people feel,
>if not good, at least very different.
>
>But we now know that their short- and long-term effects are more dangerous
>than experts had thought even 10 years ago.
>
>As scientists continue to unravel the mysteries of the brain, one thing is
>becoming crystal clear: Merely dabbling in drugs can cause severe, and
>often irreversible, damage to brain cells and the nervous system in general.
>
>Thanks to sophisticated new imaging techniques such as functional magnetic
>resonance (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET scans), scientists
>can view the brain today in real time. Genetics research has enabled
>researchers to identify and clone the tiny sections of brain cells, called
>receptors, that respond to virtually every drug of abuse.
>
>On the eve of a new millennium, scientists "know more about how drugs act
>in the brain than we do about anything else in the brain," says Alan
>Leshner, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
>
>Most of the picture isn't pretty. Despite widely varying chemical
>structures, drugs of abuse typically ignite a biochemical cascade in the
>brain that almost always lights up reward or pleasure circuits, often by
>affecting the messenger chemicals, called neurotransmitters, that help
>transmit signals from one brain cell to another.
>
>"Some of these changes may well be benign," Leshner says. "Some are not.
>But you use a drug, and you have changed your brain in big or little ways."
>
>Nerve cells, like all cells, are equipped with several kinds of entry
>gates, called receptors, most of which protrude out of the cell's outer
>skin, or membrane.
>
>Each receptor is designed to respond when it comes in contact with a
>neurotransmitter molecule of a certain shape, which fits the receptor's
>structure like a key in a lock. Drugs work because they fit those locks in
>nearly the same way that natural neurotransitters do.
>
>Many receptors trigger a channel to open and cause a brief rush of
>chemicals into the cell. If they're the right kind of chemicals, they can
>prompt the cell to "fire" -- that is, make it more likely to send a signal
>to its neighbor.
>
>Those are called excitatory responses. Other compounds make cells less
>prone to fire; they are called inhibitory. Depressant drugs such as alcohol
>cause that kind of response.
>
>Some receptors are inside the cell. When activated, they cause changes in
>the way a cell does its internal housekeeping.
>
>Just as a key may fit in a lock but still not turn, some drugs merely plug
>a receptor, preventing the natural neurotransmitter from docking there.
>Other drugs act almost exactly like the natural compound, commanding the
>receptor channel to open and flood the cell's interior with various kinds
>of chemicals from outside.
>
>So if drugs don't actually do much that isn't already done by naturally
>occurring compounds, why is everybody so worried about them? There are
>several answers, all rather grim.
>
>For one thing, drugs can hit your brain in concentrations far greater than
>neurotransmitters ever would. Moreover, drugs can change the chemistry of
>your brain cells in temporary and permanent ways.
>
>Some of them kill neurons outright or maim them so that they'll never work
>correctly. Others alter the nerve cells for days or weeks at a time -- long
>after the user may desperately wish to be straight -- often producing
>extremely painful withdrawal symptoms.
>
>Why, then, do we do it? Attraction to drugs sort of runs in the family.
>It's surprisingly common in the animal world.
>
>Many species will go out of their way to get intoxicated. House cats love
>to get high on catnip. Elephants in the wild will stop what they're doing
>to get drunk on fermented fruits. Some birds delight in eating berries that
>make them so stoned they can't fly straight.
>
>But we are the only species that can understand what we're doing to
>ourselves.
>
>For information, see NIDA's web site at http://www.nida.nih.gov.
>
>Club Drugs
>
>Typically found at all-night "raves" and "trances," so-called "club drugs"
>also are popular at some dance clubs and bars. Although they have
>benign-sounding names, many contain a potent and dangerous mix of
>compounds. They often come from home laboratories and frequently are laced
>with chemical contaminants that increase the risk of overdose.
>
>Because many of these drugs are colorless, tasteless and odorless, they
>have been slipped into beverages and taken by unsuspecting individuals. In
>recent years, their use has been linked with an increasing number of date
>rapes and other sexual assaults.
>
>Although they share the common informal designation as "club drugs," these
>compounds belong to at least three distinct categories.
>
>1. Tranquilizers and sedatives. Rohypnol -- also known as roofies, rophies,
>roche and forget-me pill -- is a member of the same well-known class of
>tranquilizers that includes Valium, Halcion and Xanax. All principally
>affect GABA receptors, with results ranging from sedation to coma.
>
>Rohypnol usually is produced in pill form but sometimes is ground up and
>snorted. It is legal in many countries as a treatment for insomnia and as a
>sedative or presurgery anesthetic but has not been approved for
>prescription use by the Food and Drug Administration for use in the United
>States.
>
>Rophypnol affects areas of the brain involved in memory processing and
>produces a condition called "retrograde amnesia" that is similar to a
>blackout -- users often can't remember events that occurred while under the
>drug's influence. The drug also lowers blood pressure and can produce
>gastrointestinal problems, urinary retention and impaired vision.
>
>A similarly abused drug is GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyrate), variously known as
>grievous bodily harm, G, Georgia home boy and liquid ecstasy. It can be a
>clear liquid or a white powder and produced in tablet or capsule form.
>
>GHB is an extremely powerful and fast-acting central nervous system
>depressant. For reasons not well understood, it once had a reputation on
>the steroid black market as a muscle-builder, fat-reducer and
>antidepressant. It hasn't been shown to do any of those things.
>
>It does produce sedative effects 10 to 30 minutes after being taken. At low
>doses, it can relieve anxiety and cause drowsiness, sometimes accompanied
>by nausea, vomiting and headache. But at higher doses, GHB produces sleep
>and sometimes coma.
>
>Like any broadly active sedative, it can slow breathing and heart rate to
>dangerously low levels, especially if combined with alcohol. Like Rohypnol,
>GHB frequently produces amnesia and often is implicated in date rape.
>
>2. Psychedelic stimulants. Ecstasy -- also called clarity, XTC, adam or
>lover's speed -- contains MDMA, a compound very similar to methamphetamines
>[see article at lower left]. But it also can cause hallucinations
>equivalent to those induced by mescaline, the active ingredient in peyote
>mushrooms.
>
>The parent compound of MDMA destroys serotonin-producing brain cells, and
>MDMA may do the same, at the long-term expense of thought and memory. MDMA
>itself damages neurons that respond to dopamine.
>
>MDMA typically results in sweating, anxiety, increased heart rate and blood
>pressure. Muscle seizures are not uncommon, and users may employ an infant
>pacifier or other device to lessen the effects of involuntary jaw clenching.
>
>3. Psychedelic anesthetics. Ketamine, sold legally to veterinarians for
>anesthesia, often is called special K, K, vitamin K and cat valiums.
>
>It is chemically similar to PCP (phencyclidine), originally developed as an
>anesthetic but abandoned when it was seen to cause hallucinations and
>psychotic states.
>
>Taken in liquid form or as a powder often snorted or smoked with marijuana
>or tobacco -- and in some places injected into muscle tissue -- Ketamine
>and PCP bind to a kind of receptor that was not identified until the 1990s.
>
>They affect the function of several neurotransmitters, particularly one
>called NMDA, and produce a characteristic stupor similar to extreme
>drunkenness. Panic, rage and paranoia are typical.
>
>Ketamine increases blood pressure and can cause potentially fatal breathing
>problems.
>
>At low doses, it impairs attention, learning ability and memory. At higher
>doses, it can cause degraded motor function, delirium and amnesia.
>
>Methamphetamines
>
>Also known as speed, uppers, meth, copilots, crank, crystal meth, fire,
>chalk and ice, these drugs are powerful stimulants that cause the heart to
>race, increase blood pressure and boost the body's metabolism.
>
>People taking methamphetamines often become talkative, feel anxious and may
>experience a sense of exhilaration or euphoria. But this so-called "rush"
>or "flash" lasts only a few minutes. These powerful stimulants are highly
>addictive and have been showing up in recent years as part of the club
>scene.
>
>Brain changes. Methamphetamines work in the brain on the so-called
>"pleasure circuit." They are chemically similar to two powerful
>neurotransmitters, dopamine and norepinephrine, causing their release in
>key areas of the brain, including the nucleus accumbens, which affects
>emotions; the prefrontal cortex, which plays a critical role in working
>memory; and the striatum, an area of the brain involved in movement.
>
>Methamphetamines elicit pleasure through a complex chain reaction around
>and inside nerve cells. The drugs pass easily through nerve cell membranes,
>taken up by transporter molecules that normally would carry dopamine or
>norepinephrine through the cell wall.
>
>Inside the nerve cell, methamphetamine then enters holding tanks called
>vesicles that contain dopamine and norepinephrine. This, in turn, prompts
>release of more dopamine and norepinephrine. Normally, enzymes would break
>down the overflow of neurotransmitters, but methamphetamine blocks this
>reaction.
>
>Transporter molecules then remove the excess dopamine and norepine-phrine,
>dumping them into the synapse, or space between nerve cells. As the levels
>of dopamine increase, so do feelings of pleasure and euphoria.
>Norepinephrine appears to be responsible for feelings of alertness and
>thwarts fatigue.
>
>Other physical effects. Methamphetamines raise blood pressure and can cause
>dangerous irregular heartbeats, chest pain, shortness of breath, nausea,
>vomiting and diarrhea. They also can increase body temperature to fatal
>levels, particularly during overdoses.
>
>Biggest risks. Brain hemorrhage can cause permanent paralysis and speech
>loss or be fatal. Laboratory research in animals also suggests that even a
>single, high dose of methamphetamine can destroy as much as one-half of
>nerve cells producing dopamine in the brain. A similar destruction, not
>caused by drugs, is involved in Parkinson's disease, a progressive,
>debilitating neurological condition.
>
>Inhalants
>
>The name says it all: Inhalants are chemical fumes that are sniffed or
>inhaled. They provide one of the swiftest ways for drugs to reach the brain
>because they enter the bloodstream directly through the lungs.
>
>Also known as chemical vapors, these substances are found in a wide range
>of common products. They have been used at least once by an estimated 21
>percent of eighth-graders, according to the National Institute on Drug
>Abuse.
>
>The chemicals found in inhalants are as varied as their use. Cigarette
>lighters and refills contain the gas butane.
>
>Paint thinner may have toluene, turpentine, ethyl acetate or mineral
>spirits. Fingernail polish remover contains acetone, as does rubber cement.
>
>Pressurized cans of hair spray, computer cleaner and whipped cream contain
>fluorinated hydrocarbons.
>
>Medical anesthetic gases contain ether, chloroform, halothane and nitrous
>oxide, also known as laughing gas.
>
>Brain changes. Some inhalants act somewhat like surgical anesthetics,
>suppressing nerve action in a way not clearly understood and causing
>various degrees of stupor. Some produce structural changes in brain cells.
>
>These often affect the cerebral cortex, the cerebellum and the brain stem.
>As a result, chronic inhalant users often move slowly and clumsily because
>of loss of coordination.
>
>The frontal cortex, a region of the brain that helps to solve complex
>problems, also is affected by inhalants, as is the hippocampus, a part of
>the brain involved in memory retention. Inhalants rob the brain of oxygen,
>reducing nerve cell activity and killing some cells. That, in turn, can
>affect thinking, memory and ability to learn.
>
>Other physical effects. Permanent hearing loss, especially from inhaling
>toluene found in paint sprays, glues and dewaxers, is a big risk for
>inhalant users. Irreversible damage to nerves throughout the body, a
>condition called polyneuropathy, is common. Among the most vulnerable
>nerves are those in the back and legs.
>
>Inhalants chemically attach to fatty tissues, especially the white myelin
>sheaths that protectively coat nerve axons, somewhat like the insulation on
>electrical wires, and speed nerve conduction. Inhalants damage the myelin
>and destroy it. Some of these changes are temporary, but others can produce
>long-lasting damage.
>
>Elsewhere in the body, inhalants can cause a chemically induced hepatitis
>(inflammation of the liver), liver failure and muscle weakness.
>
>They also sometimes interfere with blood cell production, which can result
>in the life-threatening condition known as aplastic anemia.
>
>Biggest risks. "Sudden sniffing death" occurs when inhaled vapors replace
>oxygen in the lungs and the brain. Inhalants also can interfere with the
>normal heart rhythm and lead to cardiac arrest.
>
>Marijuana
>
>Pot, weed, grass, ganja, M.J. or whatever -- it's the most commonly used
>illicit drug in the United States. Marijuana is the dried leaves and
>flowers of the hemp plant, also known as Cannabis sativa. Delta-9
>tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the leading active ingredient in marijuana,
>but it includes more than 400 other compounds.
>
>Marijuana is gaining popularity among youth after nearly a decade of
>decline, although rates still haven't reached levels seen in the 1970s and
>1980s.
>
>In 1999, 22 percent of eighth-graders had tried marijuana, compared with
>just 10 percent in 1991, according to the Monitoring the Future Study,
>sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Among high school
>seniors, Monitoring the Future found that nearly 50 percent had tried
>marijuana in 1999, compared with 37 percent in 1991.
>
>The drug is mostly smoked in hand-rolled "joints" but also can be smoked
>from pipes, bongs or hollowed-out cigars. Some people also use marijuana to
>brew tea, or they include it in foods, such as brownies or cookies.
>
>Brain changes. For a long time, nobody knew what THC was doing in the brain
>because there didn't seem to be a receptor for it. Only in the last 10
>years did scientists finally find the receptor and isolate a naturally
>occurring brain chemical called anandamide that binds to it.
>
>THC also binds to the anandamide receptor and suppresses activity in the
>hippocampus, an area of the brain pivotal for learning, memory and
>emotions. Studies show that learned behaviors deteriorate with marijuana
>use. That translates to problems with attention, memory and learning -- 
all
>of which are impaired among college students who use marijuana heavily,
>even after they have stopped using the drug for 24 hours.
>
>On average, it takes at least 30 hours for the body to clear even half of
>the THC from a single use. Those who begin using marijuana before college
>show lower achievement and are more likely to engage in more deliquent
>behavior and aggressiveness than non-users.
>
>There also are lots of anandamide receptors in the basal ganglia and
>cerebellum, both of which are involved in movement control, and in the
>cerebral cortex, where the "high" probably is generated.
>
>Other physical effects. In the lung, marijuana produces many of the same
>health effects as tobacco smoke -- daily coughs, phlegm, chronic bronchitis
>and increased susceptibility to chest colds. Long-term marijuana use
>damages lungs.
>
>Since marijuana smokers inhale deeply and hold the smoke in their lungs for
>long periods of time, they also appear to be exposed to three to five times
>the levels of carbon monoxide as tobacco smokers. Marijuana increases heart
>rate and raises blood pressure.
>
>Like nearly all drugs, marijuana doesn't mix with pregnancy. Use of
>marijuana by expectant mothers raises the risk of delivering a baby who has
>a low birth weight and is at increased risk for various health problems.
>
>Nursing mothers who smoke marijuana pass THC to their babies through breast
>milk and risk damaging their infant's motor development. Children who
>breathe passive marijuana smoke display more temper tantrums, thumb sucking
>and anger than youngsters not exposed.
>
>Biggest short-term risks. Marijuana users are as uncoordinated as drunks on
>standard driving tests, and more than 120,000 people seek treatment each
>year for marijuana addiction, according to NIDA.
>
>Alcohol and Cigarettes
>
>Often dismissed as "just alcohol" or "just cigarettes," these substances
>contain powerful drugs that are very harmful to brain and body.
>
>Both are widely used. A 1999 survey conducted by the National Institute on
>Drug Abuse found that more than half of all eighth-graders and 80 percent
>of high school seniors had imbibed alcohol at least once, despite the legal
>drinking age of 21 years.
>
>The same study showed that 44 percent of eighth-graders and two-thirds of
>high school seniors had smoked at least once. About 14 percent of
>eighth-graders and roughly one in four high school seniors also have used
>smokeless tobacco.
>
>Brain changes. Some of the brain's messenger chemicals excite nerve cells;
>others dull or inhibit them. Among other activities, alcohol affects the
>most powerful of the inhibitory systems -- those involving the
>neurotransmitter GABA -- and that results in a general depression of many
>kinds of nerve response.
>
>Too much alcohol floods neurons and changes gene function of the cells,
>which in turn appears to alter receptors and results in intoxication,
>brain-cell death and, if repeated, dependence and alcoholism.
>
>Nicotine, the active ingredient in tobacco, reaches the brain just eight
>seconds after being inhaled and is both a stimulant and a sedative.
>Chemically similar to a powerful neurotransmitter called acetylcholine,
>nicotine activates areas of the brain in feeling pleasure and reward. It
>does so by boosting production of dopamine, another powerful
>neurotransmitter, in a part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens.
>
>Chewed or smoked, nicotine is addictive, like heroin or cocaine -- one
>reason that those who begin smoking before age 21 have the hardest time
>quitting.
>
>Other physical effects. Heavy alcohol use delays puberty and can slow bone
>growth in laboratory animals, leading scientists to suspect that it could
>do the same in humans. Elsewhere in the body, alcohol can deplete B
>vitamins important for neurological function and optimal use of peripheral
>nerves in fingers and toes.
>
>In the liver, chronic alcohol abuse over time causes degeneration, swelling
>and scarring of the liver (called cirrhosis) and can lead to liver failure.
>Light drinking may provide some moderate protection against heart disease,
>but the exact dose is dicey.
>
>A recent study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that
>even social drinking increased free radicals, harmful substances linked to
>development of premature heart disease, stroke, cirrhosis and many other
>disorders.
>
>Nicotine increases heart rate and blood pressure. It also alters breathing
>patterns and damages the lungs. In very high concentrations, nicotine is a
>poison. In fact, just one drop of purified nicotine on the tongue is deadly.
>
>Biggest short-term risks are addiction to alcohol and nicotine and death
>from binge drinking.
>
>Long-term smokers are more likely than nonsmokers to develop lung cancer
>(caused by smoke, not nicotine) and other tumors. Emphysema, difficulty in
>breathing caused by destruction of air pockets in the lungs, also is a
>major risk for smokers.
>
>Women who smoke undergo menopause sooner than nonsmokers and suffer the
>effects of aging, including wrinkled skin, earlier than their nonsmoking
>counterparts. Alcoholics face a high risk of liver disease. Alcoholics who
>smoke are particularly vulnerable to cancer of the throat, mouth and
>esophagus.
>
>IT'S ALL IN YOUR HEAD
>
>Unlike many substances, drugs can seep through blood vessels in the brain
>and reach nerve cells, or neurons.
>
>Brain areas most affected by drugs
>
>Limbic system
>
>1. Striatum
>
>Nucleus accumbens
>
>Caudate nucleus
>
>Thalamus
>
>Hippocampus
>
>Ventral tegmental area
>
>Cerebellum
>
>Brain stem
>
>Cerebral cortex
>
>Frontal cortex
>
>Prefrontal cortex
>
>Fooling receptors
>
>A receptor designed to respond to a natural neurotransmitter can be either
>blocked or activated by drug molecules that have a similar, but not
>identical, shape.
>
>Anatomy of a neuron
>
>Neurons gather incoming messages -- both excitatory and inhibitory -- from
>their neighbors across narrow gaps between cells called synapses. When a
>cell "fires," it sends a signal down its axon. Tiny pouches called vesicles
>spray neurotransmitters across the synapse, which then affect receptors on
>the receiving cell.
>
>Five important
>
>neurotransmitters . . .
>
>Serotonin
>
>Widespread substance that affects mood, appetite, sexual activity,
>aggression, body temperature and sleep.
>
>Norepinephrine
>
>Regulates blood pressure and prompts extreme arousal, "fight or flight"
>response, mental focus and pain reduction.
>
>Dopamine
>
>A key compound that is an important part of the brain's "reward" system,
>causing feelings of wellbeing.
>
>GABA
>
>The brain's major inhibiting compound, involved in muscle relaxation,
>sleep, diminished emotional reaction and sedation.
>
>Acetylcholine
>
>Involved in muscle action all over the body; in the brain affects arousal,
>attention, learning, mood and sleep.
>
>. . . and drugs that interfere with them
>
>Ecstasy (MDMA)
>
>Damages or destroys serotonin neurons, alters balance and action of
>norepinephrine and dopamine.
>
>Methamphetamines
>
>Increase concentrations of norepinephrine and dopamine in nucleus
>accumbens, caudate nucleus and prefontal cortex, among other structures.
>
>Alcohol, Tranquilizers
>
>Alcohol increases activity of GABA, inhibits release of acetylcholine and
>excites dopamine neurons in ventral tegmental area activity. Benzodiazepine
>tranquilizers, such as Rohypnol, boost GABA activity in cerebellum, brain
>stem and spinal cord.
>
>Psychedelics
>
>Activate some serotonin receptors on post-synaptic cells, change balance
>and action of norepinephrine and dopamine.
>
>Ketamine
>
>Affects special PCP receptors, inhibiting two key neurotransmitters (NMDA
>and glutamate) and stifling neural activity.
>
>SOURCES: A Primer of Drug Action, 7th Edition by Robert M. Julien (W.H.
>Freeman, 1995); Drugs and the Brain by Solomon H. Snyder (Scientific
>American Library, 1996); NIDA
>
>
>================================================================
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