Risks of Drug misuse

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Taking illegal drugs carries serious health risks because they are not controlled or supervised by medical professionals. Many illegal drugs have to be imported into this country from different parts of the world. This means that they have been processed and passed through the hands of many different people before they are eventually sold in small quantities on the street. During this time they may be mixed with other products (cut) , often many times, with other products, in order to increase the quantity and make more profit.

It is not unusual to find substances in illegal drugs that are much more harmful than the drugs themselves. Someone buying illegal drugs may trust their own supplier, but they cannot know or trust the chain of people who have dealt with the drugs before that.

As well as having immediate health risks, some drugs can be addictive and lead to long-term damage to the body. Heavy or long-term use of some illegal drugs may cause the user to overdose, which may cause irrepairable damage to the body and can be fatal.

Mixing drugs is highly dangerous. For example, a speedball (a mixture of cocaine and heroin) increases the risks from each drug involved, making it far more likely for the user to experience harmful side effects.

Taking illegal drugs also carries a legal risk. Being caught in possession of class A drugs may carry a penalty of seven years imprisonment, while supplying class A drugs can mean life imprisonment. Supplying means giving or selling drugs to other people.

The risks of using specific drugs include:

Cannabis

Cannabis may cause feelings of dizziness or sickness and it can make the mouth, tongue and lips feel dry. In large or repeated doses, cannabis may cause panic or paranoia. Cannabis contains a large amount of tar (about three times the amount found in a standard cigarette). This means it is very bad for people with respiratory problems such as bronchitis and asthma. Long-term use of cannabis is also thought to lower a manâ€™s sperm count.

Amphetamines

Amphetamine use can lead to feelings of dizziness and may cause blood vessels to burst. Burst blood vessels can, in very rare cases, lead to paralysis and may even be fatal. Using amphetamines, particularly over long periods of time, can cause insomnia, which may lead to depression. As the body becomes more tolerant to the drug, larger amounts are needed to produce the desired effect. This increases both health risks and the likelihood of dependence or addiction. Some people may also have a toxic or allergic reaction to amphetamines.

Ecstasy

Very few â€˜eâ€™s are pure. Most have been cut into with other contents such as talcum powder and even dog-worming tablets. Most dangerously, anaesthetics and tranquillisers such as ketamine may also be added to ecstasy tablets.

Another big risk with ecstasy is dehydration. Ecstasy raises the bodyâ€™s temperature and the amphetamine contained in each tablet encourages the user to behave energetically for long periods of time, for example dancing in a club all night. If the userâ€™s fluid levels drop dramatically, dehydration can cause unconsciousness, coma and even death.

Users who take large amounts of ecstasy can experience feelings of anxiety, panic and confusion that are difficult for other people to calm down. Other unpleasant side effects include dry mouth, nausea, raised blood pressure and depression. Some users say that their body tends to stiffen after taking ecstasy, often causing them to clench their jaw and grind their teeth. The feeling that the heart is hammering or pounding in the chest is another common symptom of ecstasy use.

Cocaine and crack

Cocaine raises blood pressure, causes the heart to beat irregularly and increases body temperature. As well as causing heart failure when taken in large doses, long-term use of cocaine can lead to:

extreme paranoia
depression
insomnia
extreme weight loss and malnutrition, and,
impotence in men.

Because cocaine is so addictive, users experience withdrawal symptoms such as intense irritability and restlessless if they go for longer than usual without taking it. This period of time becomes shorter and shorter as the body becomes more tolerant to the drug and requires larger quantities to experience the high. Come-down symptoms are also usual after a fix and include exhaustion and depression.

Mothers who use cocaine while they are pregnant risk the health of their babies, as the drug can cause low birth weight and birth defects. Babies whose mothers used cocaine while pregnant may be born addicted to it.

Cocaine and crack addicts often lose more than just their physical health, as the addiction encourages anti-social behaviour such moodiness, unpredictability and theft in order to fund their habit.

LSD (acid)

Taking acid is risky because each tab can contain very different amounts of acid. Research shows that a single tab can have as little as 25 micrograms of acid in it, or as much as 250 micrograms - this is enough to cause serious psychiatric side-effects.

Psychological health problems are the most common side effect of taking acid. A bad trip can feel like being trapped in a nightmare, often played over and over. Flashbacks can occur at any time after taking acid, sometimes even after many years. A flashback is a sudden, vivid memory of a bad trip and can be very frightening, sometimes causing mental health problems. There is no way to prevent flashbacks occurring.

When a person has taken acid they will experience hallucinations and delusions. This is becomes dangerous as they may behave irrationally, believing, for example, that they can fly. Acid users who have a bad trip often try to physically run away from the experience and can become a danger to themselves, by running into the road for instance.

Heroin

Most heroin bought on the street is only 10 to 60 % pure. It is usually cut into with other products to increase the quantity and therefore make more profit from it. It is often the substances used to bulk up heroin that prove most harmful and cause allergic or toxic reactions. Users can never be sure that the heroin they buy has not been added to with dangerous substances.

Because it is impossible to say how pure heroin is, it is easy for the user to overdose. Overdosing on heroin can cause heart failure, unconsciousness and coma. There is also a risk of the user choking on their own vomit if they are sick whilst unconscious.

Injecting heroin presents another set of risks. Sharing needles increases the risk of contracting serious diseases such as hepatitis and HIV. Long-term injecting may cause collapsed veins, appetite loss and severe constipation.

Heroin is probably the most addictive drug available in this country. Users become so dependent on it that they will do almost anything to fund their addiction. This is why heroin use is often associated with anti-social and criminal behaviour such as child neglect and burglary.