Exam 1 Flashcards
Psychoactive drugs
Substances that affect the function of the brain and are sometimes illegal to use and possess.
Depressants
Slow down the central nervous system (Alcohol, Morphine, codeine, methadone, oxycodone, barbiturates and tranquilizers)
Abuse
Implies the misuse of certain substances. Moral, not really scientific.
Addiction
Chronic, relapsing brain disease that is characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, despite consequences.
Influences on legality off drugs.
It’s all socially derived. Nicotine and Coke are biologically the same but not socially.
Normally there is no pharmacological difference
Drug most associated with violent crime.
Herion
Goldstein’s Tripartite model of crime and drugs.
Pharmacological, Economic compulsive, lifestyle
Pharmacological Crime
Offenses that are psychopharmacology induced, that is, the result of a response to the intoxicating effects of a drug.
Economic Compulsive
Crime driven by a need to buy drugs
Lifestyle
Drug use as a part of a pattern of criminal behaviors not driven by or the result of drug use.
What Goldstein fails to consider
Drug users who are draw into drug culture by the excitement it can entice.
Schedule 1 Drugs
Most potential for abuse and dependence (Heroin, LSD, Weed, Ecstasy, methaqualone, peyote_
Schedule 2 Drugs
High Potential (Vicodin, cocaine, meth, methadone, meperidine, oxycodone, fentanyl, Dexedrine, Adderall, Ritalin)
Schedule 3 Drugs
Moderate (Tylenol with codeine, ketamine, anabolic steroids, testosterone.
Schedule 4 Drugs
Low (Xanax, Soma, Darvon, Darvocet, Valium, Ativan, Alwin, Ambien, Tramadol)
Schedule 5 Drugs
Lowest (less that 200mg of codeine, Lomotil, otofen, lyfric, parapectollin)
Social cost of alcohol abuse compared to illegal drugs/
Alcohol is much more social than other drugs.
Prohibition
banned alcohol in 1919, 18th amendment. Everyone freaked out and crime was BIG.
Temperance
Bunch of nancies wanted to get rid of alcohol. Intertwined with Nativism and was often a reaction to minority groups as well.
Influence of demographics on opinion and drug use policy.
“What we think about addiction very much depends on who is addicted”
You can see with the Irish xenophobia how alcohol was looked at.
China and the Opium Wars
Southern African American Cocaine epidemic and the war on drugs
Crack with African Americans
Coke with the rich and upper class
State laws against marijuana are often part of a reaction to Mexican immigration
Systematic oppression and demographics negatively affected by legislation.
Tolerance
Progressive increase in the ability of the body to adapt to the effects of a drug that is used at regular and frequent use.
Reverse Tolerance
Use of a specific drug for a long period of time results in increased sensitivity as a result of the body’s dwindling ability to process the substance.
Why are adolescents more vulnerable to drug abuse than adults?
Part of the brain where planning, reasoning and impulse control occur is immature.
What is the significance of the blood brain barrier?
The Blood-Brain barrier keeps out substances from the brain, but allows psychoactive agents and anesthetics to pass through.
Central Nervous System
The brain and complex wiring surrounding the spinal cord.
It receives information from the internal and external environment that has been translated into elector chemical messengers—neurotransmitters.
Neurons
Brain cells.
Working bees of the brain arranged in chains that send information from the brain to the body in the form of electricity.
Neurotransmitters
Chemicals that transmit messages between neurons.
Agonists
Increase the activity of one or more neurotransmitters
Antagonists
Decrease the activity of one or more neurotransmitters.
MAOS (monoamine oxidases)
Control the neurotransmitters and do reuptake
Polydrug use
Using one or more drugs.
Additive
Two Drugs that have similar actions are ingested, and the effect is cumulative (1+1=2)
Synergistic
Two drugs that have similar actions are ingested, but the effect of their joint action is more than cumulative (1+1=3)
Potentiating
Two drugs have different actions, but when they are taken together, one enhances the effects of the other (1+1=4)
Antagonistic
Two or more drugs are taken together, and one counteracts the effects of the other(s) (1+1=0)
Homeostasis
A State of equilibrium achieved through self-adjusting characteristics of the body.
