1. Drugs do not possess intrinsic properties with readily identifiable chemical  properties  or  pharmacological
    effects

There is no property or effect inherent to or caused by substances referred to as drugs that cannot be found in substances not called drugs
 

Drug -- Any chemical substance, other than food that affects living processes
 

Objective effects -- can be perceived and measured by an outside observer

Subjective effects -- are experienced internally by the user and can be   known too outsiders only through verbal reports
 

Drug classification systems are arbitrary, selecting one set of effects over others
 

The link between illegality and harmfulness of substances is tenuous

The use level and rate of injury (illness, disability, death) from legal drugs far surpasses that of  illegal drugs

The social reaction to various drugs varies by time, place, and social location within society

6. Drugs are not independent of one another. Substances may be cross-tolerant and  cross dependent.

Cross-dependence -- Drugs in a specific category can replace or substitute for one another in their effects.

          Heroin - Methadone

          Heroin - Morphine

Cross-tolerance (Tolerance -- frequency and amount of use reduce drug effects) -- Inhibition of effects of drugs in the same category from taking any one in the category.

                LSD - Mescaline

1. Stimulants (Speed up signals passing through the CNS)

Caffeine, Nicotine, Amphetamines (Methedrine, Dexedrine, Benzedrine, Desoxyn), Cocaine, and Crack
 

Analgesics (Inhibit the perception of pain)

Narcotics or Opiates
 
Opium (derivatives -- Morphine, Codeine, Heroin)

Synthetic narcotics (Methadone, Percodan, Demerol)
 

Non-narcotics
 
Aspirin, Darvon, Tylenol, Ibuprophin

General Depressants (Depress wide range of body organs and functions)
 
Alcohol
Sedative-Hypnotics
PCP (Serinyl) Barbituates Minor Tranquilizers (Valium, Librium, Quaalude, Sopor, Parest)
 

Mescaline LSD Psilocybin MDMA (Ectasy)
 

Addiction is defined by

1. Tolerance -- heightened and habituated need

2. Withdrawal  -- intense suffering from discontinuation of use

3. Craving -- willingness to sacrifice all (to the point of self-destruction) for drug-taking

1. Inexorable

2. Universal

3. Irresistible

1.  Addictive behavior is no different from all other human feeling and action in being subject to social and cognitive influences

2.  Addiction is an individual's adjustment to his/her environment. It represents a habitual style of coping, one that  the individual is capable of modifying with changing psychological and life circumstances
 

1. Physician "addicts"

2. Subordination of drug use to other social demands

3. Naturalistic studies of heroin users

4. Vietnam heroin users

5. Non-narcotic substances produce craving and withdrawal symptoms
 

1. Identity

Many street drugs sales involve a substance sold as a different substance
 

Traditions develop in every society about customary dosages of drugs
 

Potency --  Quantity of a drug necessary to produce a given effect. Some drugs are extremely potent (LSD)

Purity -- Percentage of a substance taken composed of the actual drug. Some drugs traditionally have been cut continuously during production and distribution (Heroin)
 

Synergy -- Certain drugs have a stronger effect taken in combination

Speedball -- Heroin and Cocaine
 

Drug effects are significantly influenced by route of administration
 
Intravenous Injection

Intramuscular Injection

Snorting

Oral Ingestion
 

Continued use of most drugs leads to tolerance
 

Setting -- Physical and social environment

Set -- Psychic, mental, and emotional, and emotional state of the individual

1. Cultural

Opium use in India was never proscribed but became a major social problem in China

Displays of antisocial aggression and loss of control associated with Alcohol consumption is pronounced in some cultures (American Indians, Eskimos, Eastern Europe, United States) and absent in others (Greeks, Italians, American Jews, Chinese, Japanese)
 

Groups affect the pattern of use and the way that drugs are experienced

Display of withdrawal symptoms is influenced by the context in which withdrawal occurs (prison versus therapy group)
 

Drugs may be used in a particular social context and then abandoned with the situaion changes

Most Vietnam veterans terminated Heroin use following their return to the United States
 

Drug use frequently occurs in a ritualized context that reinforces drug effects

Nicotene ingested directly does not reduce cigarette smoking among habitual smokers
 

Some drug use is associated with various stages of the life course

Heroin is most often a youthful habit
 

Some types of individual become "addicted" to a variety of substances simultaneoulsy, sequentially, alternatively

Alcohol, barbituates, and narcotics show cross-tolerance but not not act in the same way neurologically
 

Cognitive understandings of the meaning and purpose of drugs influences their use

Patients receiving narcotics rarely seek continued use of the drugs following treatiment

Males become agressive and sexually aroused when told they have ingested alcohol but do not manifest those behaviors when ingesting alcohol in a disguised form