Decision Making: Drugs

1. Decision Making: Drugs

2. Decision Making Process • 1. Identify the decision being made. • 2. Determine and examine information. • 3. Find possible alternatives • 4. Weight the consequences of each decision • 5. Choose the best option and act on it • 6. Examine the results

3. Alcohol • Alcohol is a depressant drug • Acts on the brain as an anesthetic, putting it “to sleep”. • Slow the heart and lowers blood pressure • Reduces inhibitions, self-control, and judgement

4. Alcohol use • The consumption of alcohol for social or religious purposes without demonstrating the characteristics of alcohol abuse or alcoholism

5. Alcohol Abuse • Continues use of alcohol despite the development of social, legal, or health problems • It is important to note that any alcohol use by underage youth is considered to be alcohol abuse

6. Characteristics of alcohol abuse • Failing to fulfill major work, school, or home responsibilities • Drinking in situations that are potentially dangerous, such as driving a car or operating heavy machinery • Experiencing repeated alcohol-related legal problems, such as being arrested for driving while intoxicated.

7. Consequences • Alcohol is associated with a number of serious social ills • Car accidents • On the job accidents • Domestic abuse • Date rape • Assault

8. In the US alcohol is a significant factor in • 68% of manslaughter cases • 62% of assault offenders • 54% of murders • 48% of robberies • 44% of burglaries

9. Alcoholism • A chorionic disease involving a strong need to drink, in the inability to stop drinking, the occurrence of withdrawal symptoms, and tolerance. • Often progressive

10. Characteristics of alcoholism • Cravings (a strong compulsion to drink) • Impaired control over drinking use and abuse despite consequences • Failure to acknowledge the problem • Tolerance or need for larger amounts of alcohol to feel intoxicated • Physical dependence symptoms • Shakes • Sweating • Anger • Headaches

11. Alcohol Use vs Alcohol Abuse • http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=alcohol+use+vs+abuse+video&mid=3D6A4CB307F0B3DCAC773D6A4CB307F0B3DCAC77&view=detail&FORM=VIRE6&adlt=strict

12. Alcohol Use by Pregnant Women • Alcohol consumed by a pregnant woman passes from her bloodstream into her unborn baby’s bloodstream • Babies may suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome if mother consumes alcohol while pregnant • Mental handicaps • Slower physical growth

13. Binge drinking • 5 or more drinks on a single occasion for men generally within 2/3 hours • 4 or more drinks on a single occasion for women within 2/3 hours.

14. Drinking Games • 2 dangers: • 1. losing track of how much alcohol has been consumed • 2. become part of a “normal” drinking pattern

15. Alcohol Poisoning • A condition in which a toxic amount of alcohol has been drunk, especially in short amount of time. • Symptoms: • Vomiting • Mental confusion, stuper, coma • Seizures • Slow breathing • Irregular breathing • Hypothermia • Call 911 if any of these symptoms are present

16. Sam Spady • http://pauljohnsonfilms.com/film_spady_view. • php

17. 2 glasses doesn’t always equal 2 drinks • A red cup full of beer is a lot different than a red cup full of alcohol spiked party punch.

18. Alcohol affects everyone differently • Gender • Weight • Food consumption • Speed of consumption

19. Tobacco • In consumption it most commonly appears in the forms of smoking, chewing, snuffing, or dipping tobacco. • Because of the addictive properties of nicotine, tolerance and dependence develop. • Up to 1/3 of the population use tobacco products.

21. The World Health Organization estimates that tobacco caused 5.4 million deaths in 2004and 100 million deaths over the course of the 20th century. • Smoking rates in the United States have dropped by half from 1965 to 2006, falling from 42% to 20.8% in adults

24. Smoking • Smoking accounts for at least 30 percent of all cancer deaths and 87 percent of lung cancer deaths. • Smokers are up to 60 percent more likely to develop stomach cancer than nonsmokers. • Chemicals can even seep from the bloodstream into your bone marrow, where developing white blood cells can be affected, raising a smokers odds of getting leukemia.

25. Drugs • Drug Abuse: illegal or excessive drug use: deliberate use of an illegal drug or of too much of a prescribed drug • There are 4 stages of Drug Use

26. Stage 1: Misuse • Misuse: Misuse is characterized as infrequent use for the purpose of intoxication. • The misuser’s are those who do not have a pattern of weekend or weekday use, but use on social occasions such as Dances, work functions, “Spring Break”, weddings, Supper Bowl Sunday, “420″, Halloween, Graduation, New Year’s, Etc. • If consequences occur for these individuals because of their drug use, they quit. • They don’t try to manipulate drug tests, or lie to cover up their use, they just simply quit. • These individuals do not yet have an emotional relationship to intoxication.

27. Stage 2: Substance Abuse • Substance Abuse: Substance Abuse is characterized by a pattern of use such as weekends or during the week. • It is also using despite negative consequences. • Using despite negative consequences is the result of a pathological relationship to intoxication. The pathological relationship is an emotional illness.

28. Stage 3:The emotional illness • The drug use distorts the user’s emotions. • Values change: As the relationship to intoxication increases, it becomes more important than work, family, school, straight friends, sports or other activities • The user protects their relationship to intoxication from anyone or system that tries to intervene.

29. The final stage of use is Addiction. • The symptoms of addiction are: preoccupation, using despite negative consequences and loss of control. Preoccupation occurs when the user is preoccupied with getting drugs, paying for drugs, and protecting drugs. • Using despite consequences occurs when a person experiences a consequence from their chemical use and they continue to use despite that. • Addiction is a Progressive Disease which only gets worse over time

30. Marijuana • How is Marijuana Abused? • Marijuana is usually smoked as a cigarette (joint) or in a pipe. It is also smoked in blunts, which are cigars that have been emptied of tobacco and refilled with a mixture of marijuana and tobacco. This mode of delivery combines marijuana's active ingredients with nicotine and other harmful chemicals. Marijuana can also be mixed in food or brewed as a tea. As a more concentrated, resinous form, it is called hashish; and as a sticky black liquid, hash oil. Marijuana smoke has a pungent and distinctive, usually sweet-and-sour odor.

31. Marijuana • How does it effect the brain? • When someone smokes marijuana, THC rapidly passes from the lungs into the bloodstream, which carries the chemical to the brain and other organs throughout the body. • marijuana intoxication can cause distorted perceptions, impaired coordination, difficulty with thinking and problem solving, and problems with learning and memory. • Research has shown that, in chronic users, marijuana's adverse impact on learning and memory can last for days or weeks after the acute effects of the drug wear off.

32. Addiction? • Estimates from research suggest that about 9 percent of users become addicted to marijuana; this number increases among those who start young (to about 17 percent) and among daily users (25-50 percent).

33. Urine Tests • Most researchers agree that urine tests for marijuana can detect the presence of the drug in the body for up to 13 days. • However, there is anecdotal evidence that the length of time that marijuana remains in the body is affected by how often the person smokes, how much he smokes and how long he has been smoking. Regular smokers have reported positive drug test results after 45 days since last use and heavy smokers have reported positive tests 90 days after quitting.

34. Medical Use? • http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000881 • 16 states (including Colorado have legalized marijuana for medical use).

35. HALLUCINOGENS • The term hallucinogen refers to a variety of substances capable of inducing profound altered states of consciousness. Also known as phantastica, psychedelics, entheogens, and psychointegrators, these substances have a long history of use in societies throughout the world. • Under the influence of hallucinogens, people see images, hear sounds, and feel sensations that seem real but are not. Some hallucinogens also produce rapid, intense emotional swings.

36. The “major” hallucinogens are LSD, mescaline, psilocybin (found in “magic mushrooms”), and the tryptamine derivatives (found in ayahuasca). • These substances alter sensory perception and produce changes in a person’s body image and awareness of space and time, but they do not cloud consciousness and have little impact upon memory.

37. LSD • LSD (d-lysergic acid diethylamide) is one of the most potent mood-changing chemicals. It was discovered in 1938 and is manufactured from lysergic acid, which is found in ergot, a fungus that grows on rye and other grains. • sold in tablets, capsules, and, occasionally, liquid form; thus, it is usually taken orally.

38. Peyote • Peyote is a small, spineless cactus in which the principal active ingredient is mescaline. This plant has been used by natives in northern Mexico and the southwestern United States as a part of religious ceremonies. Mescaline can also be produced through chemical synthesis. • The top of the peyote cactus, also referred to as the crown, consists of disc-shaped buttons that are cut from the roots and dried. These buttons are generally chewed or soaked in water to produce an intoxicating liquid.

39. Psilocybin • Psilocybin (4-phosphoryloxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine) is obtained from certain types of mushrooms that are indigenous to tropical and subtropical regions of South America, Mexico, and the United States. These mushrooms typically contain less than 0.5 percent psilocybin plus trace amounts of psilocin, another hallucinogenic substance. • white crystalline powder that is readily soluble in water or alcohol.

40. PCP • PCP (phencyclidine) was developed in the 1950s as an intravenous anesthetic. Its use has since been discontinued due to serious adverse effects. • white crystalline powder that is readily soluble in water or alcohol.

41. What happens? • At high doses, blood pressure, pulse rate, and respiration drop. This may be accompanied by nausea, vomiting, blurred vision, flicking up and down of the eyes, drooling, loss of balance, and dizziness. PCP abusers are often brought to emergency rooms because of overdose or because of the drug’s severe untoward psychological effects. While intoxicated, PCP abusers may become violent or suicidal and are therefore dangerous to themselves and others.

42. Cocaine • Short-term: • Cocaine is a powerful nervous system stimulant.Its effects can last from 15–30 minutes to an hour, depending on the route of administration. • Cocaine increases alertness, feelings of well-being and euphoria, energy and motor activity, feelings of competence and sexuality. Athletic performance may be enhanced in sports where sustained attention and endurance is required. Anxiety, paranoia and restlessness are also frequent. • Long-term:

43. Cocaine: Long Term • With excessive dosage, tremors, convulsions and increased body temperature are observed • Chronic cocaine intake causes brain cells to adapt functionally to strong imbalances of transmitter levels in order to compensate extremes. • Cocaine dependence (or addiction) is psychological dependency on the regular use of cocaine. Cocaine dependency may result in physiological damage, lethargy, psychosis, depression, akathisia, and fatal overdose

44. Meth • http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meth/

45. Juvenile Drug Use • http://www.adsgc.org/subabuse.htm 1. Experimentation 2. Regular Use 3. Risky Use 4.Dependence 5. Addiction