What are Drugs?
To start with, a definition
Drugs are substances of natural or synthetic origin which can alter the emotional state, perception, body functioning or behavior of an organism. So say the World Health Organisation, and who am I to argue? Antibiotics are drugs which help us to fight infections; most people will think of this this kind of drug as ‘positive’, ‘beneficial’ or ‘of therapeutic value’. ‘Antidepressants’ are prescribed in their millions by GPs and MDs, alleviating people’s depressed moods and generally making life easier to bear, for those that find it a burden. Again, most people will think of this this kind of drug as ‘positive’, ‘beneficial’ or ‘of therapeutic value’. Lots of us drink alcohol, even more of us drink Coffee (or tea). Outside of the growing group of people who turn their back on any drug use because of a religious belief, it’s rare to find anyone who finds the non-prescribed use of these drugs to change our state of mind disagreeable on point of principle. It might also be worth noticing that other religious groups actually include the use of alcohol as part of religious ritual. The drugs which we’re talking about here are drugs that are taken for pleasure. Drugs that alter people’s perception. Drugs that change how people think-feel. Substances that have an action upon the mind, or psyche. Psychoactive substances.
Substance Misuse
There are lots of ways of describing and labeling people who develop a problem with their use of drugs. Many of the professional support services that have developed to support people experiencing some kind of drug-related difficulty refer to ‘substance misuse’. ‘Substance’ is a catch-all referring to anything that’s being used for effect, ‘misuse’ describes the use of drugs illegally, or without medical supervision. Lots of people misuse prescribed or over-the-counter medications. Misuse doesn’t necessarily mean a problem, it just means not as directed by an appropriately qualified person. The use of any ‘illicit’ drug is invariably defined as misuse. And many people are prescribed diamorphine hydrochloride, heroin, and use it as directed.
It’s an interesting situation, where the use or misuse of a drug is defined by the law controlling that substance, and the law is dictated by political will. In the UK, current legislation enables the Home Secretary to add any named chemical to the list of currently controlled substances at will, and with immediate effect. When the Police Federation suggested in 1999 that the law pertaining to ecstasy and cannabis use should be softened to reflect current patterns of use and research investigating the harmful effects of these drugs, the government gave a clear indication that it thought the Federation had got it wrong. The language of ‘substance misuse’ reflects political imperatives more than actual behavior.
Drugs, drugs, drugs…
I’m still amazed at the number of well-intentioned, intelligent, rational people who seem to believe that ‘drugs’ are all on a continuum, like there’s some kind of inevitable slide into the use of ‘harder and harder’ drugs, to ‘get a new buzz’ when the ‘old’ buzz just doesn’t cut the mustard any more. This slide is usually described as ending invariably in ‘addiction’ and death. I’m even more amazed when the people who actually use the things start to fulfil the myth by living that lifestyle. Drugs have different effects. Let’s face it, if you don’t smoke cigarettes then you’re hardly going to start trying to bum fags off the people around you when you’ve sunk your last pint/short/glass of wine/whatever of the evening, are you. are you? Or start hunting down all the abusable volatile substances in your (or your friend’s) house and start to work your way through all the available aerosols. It seems a little unlikely. The drugs that are misused generally fall into one of the following categories:
Drug effects
STIMULANTS
Sometimes called ‘uppers’, these substances stimulate the Central Nervous System. This category includes amphetamines, amyl nitrite, cocaine and crack and ecstasy
DEPRESSANTS
Sometimes called ‘downers’, these substances depress the Central Nervous System. This category includes alcohol, barbiturates, benzodiazepines like valium and temazepam, cannabis and GHB.
ANALGESICS
Powerful pain killers that may be derived from the opium poppy, or synthetically produced. This category Includes morphine, diamorphine (heroin), methadone, pethidine and buprenorphine (temgesic).
HALLUCINOGENS
Sometimes called ‘psychedelics’, these substances dramatically alter perception. This category includes LSD, psilocyn and psilocybin (magic mushrooms), cannabis and ecstasy, a hallucinogenic stimulant.
And you’ll have noticed that some of these drugs are listed in more than one category – they produce the effects of several different categories.
Drug myths
We all love a good story, don’t we. Everyone knows someone who knows someone who’s been touched by drugs in some way. The way in which they were touched can become a little exaggerated along the way, amplified here, bits left out there. Add in the media’s need to sell stories and the ‘war on drugs’ propaganda machine of the last forty years and drug use has produced some of the most potent, long-lived, outrageous and just plain daft urban myths of all the untruths that are out there, somewhere.
This is at its most obvious in the media when any campaign is portraying the user as a helplessly depraved “drug addict”. Many different governments’ campaigns to prevent initial use have centered around fear of ‘addiction’ as a means to avert experimentation. Aside from missing a simple point about human health-related behavior during adolescence (I’m immortal, it won’t happen to me and who wants to live to be older than 25 anyway) physical dependence is actually very rare, and not associated with the drugs that are most commonly used by young people. In the mid-1980’s the UK’s government scored a spectacular own goal with their “Heroin screws you up” campaign. The actor chosen to be the face of spotty, sweaty, disheveled, 20-something male heroin-dependent Britain was found to have scored a tremendous hit with the late-teen target group who either aspired to be just like him, or bed someone who looked just like him. Not the intention of the campaign, which was rapidly withdrawn.
Drugs screw you up, drugs are bad, people have a bad time, it’s all about a gritty, shitty hell…and yet the reality for many young users is that they and most of their friends have a great time doing fun stuff and giving the finger to authority, which is, after all, a pretty important and virtually full-time job for many people at that age. It makes it difficult to engage in open and honest discussion about drug issues, as we’re often starting off from a basis of misinformation. There are loads of parents contacting drug services every day because they’ve just found out their beloved son or daughter is ‘in with a bad crowd’, smoking something they call ‘hash’, maybe even taking ‘pills’ or ‘speed’ at the weekend and they’re naturally worried that it’ll end in a custodial sentence, homelessness and HIV at best, and maybe a lot worse. And if they can’t find anyone else to blame, they’re quick to blame themselves.
The horror of all of this is of course that some of those people really might end up contracting HIV (possibly whilst banged up, thereby enabling all potential employers and housing associations to turn them away upon the completion of their rehabilitation at Her Majesty’s Pleasure), or worse. As well as its blatant lies, the ‘myth’ culture propagates massive generalisations.
All the drugs listed above either currently or at some time have been used therapeutically, within the medical field. Whilst no-one has yet been given crack on prescription, cocaine has a long history of use as an anesthetic. And lots of people do receive heroin on prescription. For many people who use drugs illegally, the drugs they buy are the medication that makes them feel better, and they will continue to use drugs until they discover other ways of taking control of their lives.
Why do people use drugs?
For many people, the reason for first-time use will simply be because they’re there. These drugs are generally psychoactive, they affect the psychological state of the user. They change how people tink-feel, how they perceive the world around them. In my experience, it works with a very basic model of learnt behavior and reward. The first time that someone uses a drug, they do not know how they will feel or how they will be perceiving the experience and the world around them. The experience will be guided by what the person believes will happen, which is of course massively open to suggestion. A lot will depend on the user’s emotional state, the environment that they are in and who they are with.
It’s unusual to find someone who takes a drug for the first time thinking that they won’t enjoy it.
If the person enjoys it enough the first time to want to do it again, the chances are that if they have the opportunity then they probably will.
The initial use of any substance is not always an enjoyable experience, and might be the only time that a person uses that drug. If someone doesn’t enjoy the experience and uses it again, it seems likely that they still believe that there is a good time to be had, and they’re even willing to believe that over their own experience, until they have the experience (or reach a threshold and give it up as a bad job).
We are all individual and unique, and everybody’s experience of a drug is different; there are similarities and recognisable aspects of each experience. The perceptual changes that happen are individual.
The UK drug industry is thought to be worth at least £4 billion ($6.4 billion) annually. The people who are spending all that money are investing it with the intention of having a very good time indeed.
The long arm of the law
The information here refers to British law. The primary piece of legislation governing substance misuse in the UK is the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. We have a ‘drugs and the law’ page that goes into more detail. For now, I thought it might be useful just to say that there are three ‘Classes’ of drug controlled by Act. Drugs included in ‘Class A’ were thought to be the most dangerous at the time of inclusion, and attract the heaviest penalties. The Maximum sentence for supplying a Class A drug is life imprisonment and an unlimited fine.
Class A drugs
amfetamines prepared for injection
cocaine and crack
ecstasy
heroin
LSD
methadone
psilocyn and psilocybin (magic mushrooms)
Methamfetamine (crystal meth)
2-C* based “research chemicals”
Oxycodone
DMT
Class B drugs
Amphetamines
Cannabis
Cathinones (Mephedrone, Methylone, Butylone, MDPV etc)
Class C drugs
Benzodiazepines (including diazepam – valium – and temazepam)
Piperazines (BZP, MCPP, TFMPP, often sold in pills as “MDMA”)
Anabolic steroids
Ketamine
The “drugs and the law” Classes and Schedules section provides more information.
