Substance abuse and the law: Psychedelic pharmacology Flashcards
What have been the different UK drug policies?
Misuse of drugs act
Misuse of drugs regulation
Temporary class drug orders
Psychoactive substances
Tell me about the misuse of drugs act
- Pre 1916 drug use was hardly controlled
- Drugs were used by troops in the first world war started to grow concern
o Department stores, including Harrods, sold kits containing syringes, needles and tubes of cocaine and heroin
o Promoted as a present for friends on the frontline, to make life in the trenches more bearable and alleviate the horrors of war - From 1926 non-medical drug distribution and use was criminalised…
- …but these drugs were available to ‘addicts’ through doctors
The misuse of drugs act came into effect in 1971, what does it do?
How can drugs be classed?
By name or structural features
What are the different nature of offences, the mode of prosecution and the punishment for different drug classes?
Tell me about the misuse of drugs regulations
- Drugs can have schedules e.g., class A schedule 1 which is LSD and MDMA
- Schedule 2 and 3: illegal to possess without prescription. Drugs here are seen to have some medical use but are dangerous as can be addictive
- Difference between schedule 2 and 3 is the amounts in which you can be given
- Liquid cocaine can be used as a local anaesthetic especially with nasal surgery, this is because it is a vasoconstrictor (hence is schedule 2)
- Schedule 4: not the same prescription or safe custody requirements
- Schedule 5: no requirements, can contain those at a high schedule but if at lower concentrations then not as restricted i.e., co-codamol which has some codeine, paracetamol
- The scheduling of tramadol was changed in 2014 from Sch. 4 to 3
Tell me about the temporary class drug orders
Tell me about the psychoactive substances act
Can ‘Hippy crack’ (nitrous oxide) be classed an NPS?
o When you take it: vasodilator, opens smooth muscle and causes rush of blood to head, makes people feel lightheaded and drunk
o Is NO psychoactive? Unknown, has effects but doesn’t necessarily act on receptors
PSA: influence of China
Tell me about the drug driving legislation
Difference between decriminalisation vs legalisation
Decriminalisation in Portugal
- Portugal changed how drug use was dealt with due to their 2001 HIV crisis
- Commonly misconstrued that all drugs are legal- they are illegal, but personal possession is an administrative offence rather than criminal (possession with intent to distribute is still prosecuted)
- Seen as a health problem with those found in possession of illegal drugs managed by the ‘commission for the dissuasion of drug addiction’
- Focus is on harm reduction, treatment, and rehabilitation
Decriminalisation of cannabis in the UN
- Cannabis class B under the misuse of drugs act 1971 (moved from class C in 2009)
- 1st November 2018: some cannabis-derived medicinal products moved from misuse of Drugs regulations 2001 schedule 1 to schedule 2
Two high profile cases put enormous public pressure on the government
Session overview and Desired learning objective
Why do prisoners take synthetic cannabinoids?
Psychoactive effects
Cannabinoids are odourless and not easy to detect its also more potent
How do the prisoners obtain these drugs?
The NPS are liquid, and the letters are soaked in this drug outside of the prison, dried and then it is smuggled or posted into the prison
They prisoners will then smoke them
Why is it a problem?
Leads to violence, injury
Strain on NHS
The NPS are more potent so can lead to overdose
How are these drugs detected?
NPS trained dogs
Then qualified using UPLC-MS/TOF
What are possible solutions to the problem?
Screen all letters etc before given to inmates to prevent drugs getting into prisons. Cost? Time?
Only allow electronic communication (e.g., email?). does that exclude some from communications? Problems?
More frequent drug screens and harsher punishments to deter drug use?
Let them have cannabis?
What is a psychedelic?
- ψυχη psyche, ‘soul, mind’
- δηλειν delein, ‘to manifest’
- Induce experiences quantitatively different from ordinary consciousness
o Meditation
o Dreaming
o Trance
o Religious ecstasy - “Closing your eyes transports you to this other world, as real as any other, where sound becomes light and light becomes colour and colour turns into geometry… I am either dreaming awake or I am dead.”
What is the traditional use of psychedelics (Entheogens)?
Give two examples of traditional use plants for psychedelics
- Psychedelics have a long history of use in medicine and religion
-
Peyote cactus- eaten
Lophophora williamsii - Ayahuasca plant- up nose
- MAOI + Ayahuasca plant= liquid form which can be drunk for psychedelic effects
What are the three main classes of drug and the examples?
