Stimulants

 

WHAT ARE THEY?

Answer: They are a class of drugs that:

  • Elevate Mood
  • Increase feelings of well-being
  • Increase energy and alertness.

These drugs often produce a feeling of euphoria in users.

 

Stimulants include:

  • Cocaine
  • Crack Cocaine
  • Amphetamines
  • Methamphetamine
  • Methylphenidate(Ritalin )
  • Nicotine
  • MDMA(3-4 methylenedoioxyMethamphetamine, AKA Ecstasy).

COMMON EFFECTS OF STIMULANTS:

  • Stimulants such as cocaine and methamphetamine can produce euphoric effects. Smoking/injecting these drugs cause an intense, immediate "rush" that lasts just a few minutes. Snorting/swallowing these drugs produces a high that is less intense but lasts longer.
  • Stimulants can cause the heart to beat faster and blood pressure and metabolism to increase. They can also cause users to become more talkative, energetic, and anxious.
  • Repeated use of stimulants can lead to feelings of hositlity or paranoia in some users. Single high doses can produce dangerously high body temperatures and an irregular heartbeat.
  • Cocaine causes the body's blood vessels to become narrow constricting the flow of blood. This forces the heart to work harder to pump blood through the body. The heart may work so hard that it temporarily loses its natural rhythm. This is called fibrillation, and it can be very dangerous because it stops the flow of blood through the body.
  • Physical symptoms of cocaine overdose include: chest pain, nausea, blurred vision, fever, muscle spasms, convulsions, and coma.
  • Methamphetamine can also cause a variety of heart problems, including rapid heart rate, irregular heartbeat, and irreversible stroke-producing damage to small blood vessels in the brain. It can also cause high blood pressure, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Meth can also increase body temperature, which can be lethal if not treated rapidly.

STIMULANTS AND EUPHORIA

Stimulants change the way the brain works by changing the way nerve cells communicate. Nerve cells, called neurons, send messages to each other by releasing special chemicals called neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters work by attaching to key sites on nuerons called receptors.

There are many types of neurotransmitters, but the transmitter dopamine is the one most affected by stimulants and many other drugs. Dopamine is what makes people feel good when they do something they enjoy, like eating a piece of chocolate cake or riding a roller coaster. Stimulants cause dopamine to build up in the brain and make users feel instense pleasure and a heightened state of increased energy. But with repeated use, stimulants can decrease some of the brain's dopamine receptors, dampening users' ability to feel pleasure at all. Then users need to take more and more of the drug to experience the same pleasure.

 

LONG TERM EFFECTS OF STIMULANTS:

  • Functional and molecular changes in the brain
  • Addiction(chronic, relapsing disease)--compulsive drug-seeking and drug use

LONG TERM EFFECTS OF COCAINE USERS:

  • Panic Attacks
  • Feeling of Restlessness
  • Irritability
  • Anxiety
  • Paranoid
  • Psychosis(losing touch with reality)
  • Auditory Hallucinations(hearing voices that aren't there)

LONG TERM EFFECTS OF METHAMPHETAMINE:

  • Violent Behavior
  • Anxiety
  • Confusion
  • Insomnia
  • Paranoia
  • Auditory Hallucinations
  • Mood Disturbances
  • Delusions(i.e. the sensation of insects creeping on the skin, called "formication").
  • The paranoia can result in homicidal as well as suicidal thoughts

LETHAL EFFECTS OF STIMULANTS:

*Cocaine/Crack(whether snorted, injected, or smoked*

  • Using can result in overdose, which can cause acute emergencies with the heart/brain, sometimes resulting in SUDDEN DEATH!
  • In rare instancies, SUDDEN DEATH can occur with the FIRST USE of cocaine.
  • Cocaine-related deaths are often a result of CARIDAC ARREST or SEIZURES followed by RESPIRATORY ARREST.

*Cocaine & Alcohol*

  • NIDA-funded researchers have found that when the human liver is exposed to both cocaine and alcohol, it manufactures a third substance, cocaethylence, that intesifies cocaine's euphoric effects, possible increasing the risk of SUDDEN DEATH.

*BOTH Cocaine & Methamphetamine OVERDOESES can include:*

  • Hyperthermia(elevated body temperature)
  • Convulsions
  • IF these aren't TREATED IMMEDIATELY, they CAN result in DEATH! 

COMMON STREET NAMES FOR STIMULANTS:

*Cocaine*

  • "Coke"--fine, white, crystalline powder
  • "C"
  • "snow"
  • "flake"
  • "blow"
  • "bump"
  • "candy"
  • "Charlie"
  • "rock"
  • "toot"
  • Crack--the streetname for smokeable form of cocaine, got its name from the crackling sound made when its smoked.
  • "speedball"--is cocaine/crack combined with heroin or crack and heroin smoked togehter

*Amphetamines*

  • "speed"
  • "bennies"
  • "black beauties"
  • "crosses"
  • "hearts"
  • "LA turnaround"
  • "truck drivers"
  • "uppers"

*Methamphetamine*

  • "speed"
  • "meth"
  • "chalk"
  • "tina"
  • "ice"--te smokeable form of methamphetamine
  • "crystal"
  • "crank"
  • "glass"
  • "fire"
  • "go fast"

*Methylphenidate*

  • "rits"
  • "vitamin R"
  • "west coast"

HOW ARE STIMULANTS USED?

  • Swallowed in pill form
  • "Snorted" in powder form, through the nostrils, where the drug is absorbed into the bloodstream throuh the nasal tissues
  • Injected, using a needle and syringe, to release the drug directly into a vein
  • Heated in crystal form and smoked(inhaled into the lungs)

FAST FACTS

  • Stimulants that are injected or smoked are absorbed into the bloodstream more quickly than if they are swallowed or snorted.
  • Cocaine is snorted or injected (called "mainlining"), or it can be rubbed onto mucous tissues(such as the gums. Street dealers generally dilute cocaine with other substance(such as cornstarch, talcum powder, or sugar); with active drugs(such as procaine, a chemical that produces local anesthesia); or with other stimulants(such as amphetamines). Crack cocaine is smoked in a glass pipe.
  • Amphetamines are usually swallowed in pill form
  • "Ice," a smokeable form of Methamphetamine, is a large, usually clear crystal of high purity that is smoked, like crack, in a glass pipe.

STATISTICS

According to a study that NIDA-funded in 2004 the following was reported of 8th-, 10th-, and 12th- graders hd tried these drugs at least once:

  • Cocaine: 3.4% of 8th-graders, 5.4% of 10th graders, and 8.1 % of 12th graders
  • Crack: 2.4% of 8th graders, 2.6% of 10th graders, 3.9% of 12th graders
  • Amphetamines: 7.5% of 8th graders, 11.9% of 10th graders, 15.0% of 12th graders
  • Methamphetamine: 2.5% of 8th graders, 5.2% of 10th graders, 6.2% of 12th graders
  • Twelfth-graders regularly reported the highest rate of use for all three drugs. Concersely, eighth-graders reported a drop in use for all three drugs, with a significant drop in Methamphetamine use, from 3.9% in 2003 to 2.5% in 2004.

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