Introduction

Drug addiction isn’t about just cocaine, heroin, or other illegal drugs. Anyone can get addicted to alcohol, nicotine, sleep and anti- anxiety medications, and other legal substances. One can also get addicted to prescription or illegally obtained narcotic pain medications, or opioids. Differing explanations of drug abuse are used in public health, medical, and criminal justice perspectives. In some cases, criminal oranti-social behavioroccurs when person is under influence of drug, and long-term personality changes in persons may also occur.^[1] Drug addiction is chronic disease categorized by drug seeking and use that is compulsive, or hard to control, despite harmful consequences. Brain changes that occur over time with drug use challenge an addicted person’s self-control and interfere with their capacity to resist intense cravings to take drugs. India too is caught in this vicious circle of drug abuse, and numbers of drug addicts are increasing day by day. According to UN report, One million heroin addicts are registered in India, and unofficially there are as many as five million.^[2] Drug abuse leads to drug addiction with development of tolerance and craving. Tolerance refers to condition where user needs more and more of drug to feel same effect. Few drugs produce only psychological dependence while others produce both physical and psychological dependency. When physical and psychological dependence develops, person’s body becomes totally dependent on drug. If prolonged use, body becomes so used to working under effect of drug, which it is able to function normally only if drug is present in body. After person becomes dependent, if intake of drugs is suddenly stopped, withdrawal symptoms occur. Withdrawal is response of body towards sudden stopping drug. To avoid unpleasant withdrawal symptoms person must keep on abusing drug. The individual is thus forced to continue drug abuse even if ones know that drug is destroying his/her body.^[3] Undoubtedly, prevention and treatment are two main intervention approaches that have been commonly adopted to tackle substance abuse. There are 2 types of drugs- 1. Legal drugs 2. Illegal drugs.

Legal drugs

Legal drugs are subject to authoritarian regulations, quality control, and are prescribed by healthcare experts.

as well as cancers of the oral cavity, esophagus, larynx, pharynx, liver, colon, and rectum.^[8,9] Alcohol ingestion is associated with increased possibility of drowningand injuries from violence, falls, and motor vehicle crashes.^[10] It is also associated with an increased risk of female breast cancer, oropharyngeal cancer, esophageal cancer (especially in individuals who inherit an insufficiency in an enzyme involved in alcohol digestion), and injurious medication interactions.^[11]

Tobacco

The category of product smoked is most commonly cigarettes, but can also include cigarillos, cigars, pipes or water pipes. ‘Smokeless’ tobacco is also popular in some place of the world. This typically includes using tobacco preparations for chewing, sniffing into the nose or placing as a wad in the mouth between the cheeks and gums.^[12] Short term effects of tobacco are increased blood pressure, increased breathing, and increased heart rate. Tobacco smokes possess biologically significant concentrations of known carcinogens as well as various other toxic chemicals. Some of these, including a number of tobacco-specific nitrosamines (particularly NNK and NNN) are constituents of tobacco, largely as a result of the way it is processed, while others such as benzopyrine result from burning of tobacco.^[13] The nicotine in tobacco smoke may cause a small part of the increase in cardiovascular disease but none or almost none of the increase in risk of respiratory disease or cancer.^[14] Cigarette smoking is a precursor for transitional cell carcinomas of the bladder, ureter, and renal pelvis.^[15] Oropharyngeal and hypopharyngeal cancer have also been reported to be initiated by cigarette smoking.^[16] In a year more than 7 million deaths are occurred by cigarette use, and 1.2 million are non-smokers exposed to cigarette smoke.^[17] Smoking in both women and men reduces fertility.^[18]

Heroin

This illegal drug is the natural version of artificial preparation opioid narcotics. Heroin is a powerful opioid that can cause drowsiness, nausea, slowed heart rate, and other physical effects. Taking heroin often may lead to physical dependence, which can cause symptoms of withdrawal. Short-term effects of heroin on body are calmness, heaviness of arms and legs, drowsiness, dry mouth, nausea, constricted pupils, warm flushing of skin, itchiness.

Cannabis can make the heart beat faster and increase blood pressure immediately after use, increased risk of stroke, heart disease, and other vascular diseases.^[25] Smoked cannabis, regardless of how it is smoked, can harm lung tissues and cause scarring and damage to small blood vessels.^[26]Short term effects are altered senses like seeing brighter colours, altered sense of time, changes in mood, impaired body movement, difficulty with thinking and problem-solving, impaired memory, hallucinations, delusions, psychosis. Long terms effects are daily cough and phlegm, more frequent lung illness, and a higher risk of lung infections and higher risk for lung cancer in people who smoke marijuana,^[27] increase the rate of heart attack, can develop Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome.^[28]

Amphetamines

Amphetamines are a group of stimulant drugs, some of which were used in the past as slimming tablets. High doses of amphetamines can cause panic, paranoia and hallucinations. In long-term effects develop a condition known as ‘amphetamine psychosis’, with symptoms like schizophrenia. The paranoia can cause to become violent if person believe being threatened or persecuted.^[29] Heart problems such as fast heart rate, irregular heartbeat, increased blood pressure, and heart attack, high body temperature and skin flushing, memory loss, problems thinking clearly, and stroke, mood and emotional problems such as aggressive or violent behaviour, depression, and suicide, on-going hallucinations and inability to tell what is real, restlessness and tremors, skin sores, sleep problems, tooth decay. Adverse effects recorded in drug labels of prescription amphetamines include disturbance of mood and behavior in addition to cardiac and gastrointestinal effects. Most of these adverse effects are considered “time-limited”, resolving rapidly after withdrawal of stimulant exposure. The most common drug-related effects are loss of appetite, insomnia, emotional problem, nervousness and fever.^[30] Neurotoxic damage to the serotonergic and dopaminergic neurons has been projected for psychosis resembling schizo-phrenia.^[31]

LSD

Physical short-term effects of LSD are dizziness, sleeplessness, dilated pupils, increased heart rate and blood pressure, increased body temperature,

It can lead to sort of health problems, both physical & mental, as well as to dependence & other negative consequences. Drug abuse is also related with criminal activity, lost productivity & economic costs. It can create problems for families & social relationships & can pose risk to public safety. Strong relationships within family, structure of authority & overall happiness can affect progress & acceleration of abuse. As such, it is important to recover problem of drug abuse through prevention, education, and treatment.

References