what is drug abuse?

To meet the dangers of drug-taking effectively, we must get rid of some old misconceptions, some of them downright fantasies. "Dope fiend" is one such fantasy. Most drug abusers are not made “fiendish" by their habit. On the contrary, a great many are deadened and enervated, deprived of personality and will, all but buried alive in a chemical tomb.

Even the World Health Organization has had to change its thinking. Not long ago it used the terms drug addiction (generally referring to the illegal narcotics) and drug habituation (having in mind almost all other drugs). That was in 1950.

In 1964 WHO found it necessary to discard addiction and habituation. It now calls the whole problem drug dependence. This condition results, the international experts say, "from repeated administration of a drug on a periodic or continuous basis." Many kinds of drugs may play a part.

The implication is that anyone who is dependent on any drug for any purpose not determined to be necessary by a physician is in trouble. This description also fits the current term drug abuser.

THE ABUSABLE DRUGS

The list of abusable drugs begins with narcotics and includes sedatives and stimulants of many kinds. It also extends to "mindchanging" chemicals, alcohol, and all the materials affecting the mental processes that man has discovered or invented through the centuries. Items may be as commonplace as caffeine, the active ingredient in coffee, or as bizarre as the glue little boys buy to construct toy airplanes.

The term addiction is still used by many to mean a physical, as well as a psychological, need for a drug. The user feels this need as a compulsion. He tends to take more and more to get the effect he wants. Without the drug, he must suffer the physical agonies called withdrawal symptoms. In continuing to take the drug, he harms himself and causes those around him to suffer.

Most, but not all, of the abusable drugs are physically "addictive." But all are addictive, that is dependence inducing, in the psychological and emotional senses. They are capable of creating dependency that may not be physical, but is nonetheless real.

Drug "abuse" occurs when a drug is taken-often in excess-by an individual to influence his body and mind for no sound medical or scientific reason.

what are the narcotics?

Technically a narcotic is a drug that produces sleep or stupor. The medical man recognizes certain narcotic drugs as among his most useful weapons against suffering.

However, the federal government, in its law enforcement, includes as a narcotic a drug that is not a sedative or a depressant: cocaine. It is a dangerous stimulant that excites the nervous system and tends to keep the user awake. Obtained from coca leaves, "C" or "snow" is a white powder at one time used medically as a local anesthetic. But the World Health Organization now considers the medical use of the drug obsolete. Addicts either sniff it or inject it into their veins (very often in combination with heroin). It produces, almost immediately, feelings of pleasure, strength, and superiority. This state lasts only a short time and is followed by depression and nervous apprehension that can be relieved only by taking another "shot."

Chief among the illegal depressants are the narcotic drug opium and its derivatives. Opium is a dark brown or black, sticky gum obtained from poppies grown mainly in India, China, Turkey, Iran, and Yugoslavia. In its original form it is usually smoked in a special pipe, but it is sometimes

eaten. Medically, opium and its derivatives are used to relieve pain and to produce sleep. Abusers take it to produce a dreamy, pleasant stupor.

American addicts seldom take opium itself. A good-sized illicit traffic brings them its chief derivatives, morphine and heroin. (Morphine is also legally sold by prescription, under strict regulations.) These opiates are powders, sold illicitly by "pushers,' mainly in flat packets ("decks")

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or capsules ("caps"). Both are powerfully addictive in the physical, as well as the psychological, sense.

Heroin is considered worse than morphine, although at one time-like many another new painkiller-it was thought to be a non-addicting substitute for morphine. Today it is not used medically at all in this country and rarely elsewhere. Its manufacture and sale were prohibited by federal law at the time of the first World War. Even its possession is illegal. But it is still the opiate most frequently used by American narcotic addicts. It is taken either by sniffing through the nose ("snorting") or by injection with a needle into a vein ("mainlining").

other opiates

Codeine, Dilaudid, and oxycodone are a few of several other opium derivatives sometimes prescribed by physicians to relieve pain. (Codeine is an ingredient in some cough medicines that may be sold without prescription, although federal law requires that the name and address of the buyer be obtained.) Codeine cough medicines, other forms of codeine, and some drug products legally containing small amounts of opiates are occasionally used by addicts, generally as a substitute for more powerful narcotics that may be temporarily unavailable.

There are several drugs manufactured synthetically in chemical laboratories Demerol and methadone are two that have the same sleep-inducing and pain-relieving qualities as those which characterize morphine.

When first introduced on the medical market these synthetic drugs, too, were hailed as being non-addictive, but further study proved otherwise.

the "happy weed"

Marijuana, the leaf of the Indian hemp plant Cannabis sativa, is also not technically a narcotic (it is a hallucinogen) but is treated as a narcotic by the law. It is smoked most often in the form of cigarettes ("reefers," "sticks," "weeds") and sometimes in pipes. "Pot" is one of its common nicknames. The use of this drug is relatively new in the United States compared to India and other Eastern lands, where it has been eaten for centuries under the name hashish. To an onlooker, it seems to have much the same

effect as alcohol; the user acts silly, giggles, and seems proud of himself while behaving ridiculously.

Marijuana reached its first real popularity in this country among jazz musicians of the twenties, who believed it made them play "hotter." Actually, musicianship declines under the influence of the drug, according to scientific tests. Its use has now spread more widely and among far different groups (housewives and teenagers), until it is second only to alcohol in popularity as a means of escaping reality.

Part of the reason for the spread of marijuana can be found in its relative cheapness as well as in the fact that it seems to have no permanent effect on the body and abstinence produces no withdrawal symptoms. Nonetheless, its use may prove harmful. It creates a faulty time sense and loss of judgment that may be fatal in such instances as driving cars, and creates a sense of achievement when there has been no achievement. In many cases the kind of persons who experiment with marijuana will turn to heroin for a bigger kick or bang.

The growth and sale of marijuana are forbidden by federal and most state laws. Much of that sold on the illicit market is smuggled in from Mexico, although the plant it comes from grows wild in the United States and also has been cultivated here illegally.

WHAT ARE "THE DANGEROUS DRUGS"?

All the abusable drugs are dangerous, narcotics high among them. But the term dangerous drugs has recently come to be applied especially to two groups not listed as narcotics under the narcotic laws. These are the barbiturates (which are sleep-inducing sedatives) and the amphetamines (which are stimulants). Some would also include certain tranquilizers. All three are deceptively dangerous because of their rich value as medical tools. To help men overcome a host of ills, doctors prescribe millions of legal doses every day. In this way, the dangerous drugs come within the experience of far more Americans than do heroin and other narcotics. Barbiturates, which are derived from barbituric acid, are considered more of a threat to their abusers than even the illegal narcotics. They are the basic ingredients of many of the sedatives and sleeping pills or capsules normally sold on prescription. (Non

prescription sleeping pills are quite different and are not involved in our discussion.) Barbiturates are familiar to nearly all of us under the names phenobarbital (Luminal), pentobarbital (Nembutal), Veronal, Seconal, and others. They are of incalculable value in the treatment of illness and the management of insomnia. But, abused as they are today on a mass scale, they have become a major drug menace.

Billions of doses of barbiturates are produced each year by close to a thousand companies, enough to furnish a couple of dozen sleeping pills or more to every man, woman, and child in the nation. No doubt many of these are put to legitimate use. (They are safe when given under medical supervision in normal doses; the body can easily handle small amounts.) But it is believed that as much as half of each year's production (as with the amphetamines) finds its way through illegal channels into the hands of abusers. Nor is there much doubt that a portion of the legally circulated half is being abused, as well.

An excess of barbiturates can paralyze the breathing center in the brain and cause death. Each year some 3,000 persons in this