Drugs

Alcohol

 * Colleen Chi**


 * Classification:** Alcohol is a **depressant**.
 * Explanation:** A depressant is a drug that slows down activity in the central nervous system.
 * How it works:** When alcohol reached the brain, it interacts with the receptor on some cells. Alcohol interferes with the communication between cells by suppressing excitatory nerve pathway activity and increasing inhibitory nerve pathway activity. Among other actions, alcohol enhances the effects of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA. Enhancing an inhibitor has the effect of making a person sluggish. Also, alcohol weakens the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamine, which enhances the sluggishness even farther. Also, alcohol destroys brain cells and unlike many other types of cells in the body, brain cells do not regenerate. Excessive drinking over a prolonged period of time can cause serious problems with cognition and memory.
 * Effects:** Sluggishness, difficulty walking, slowed reaction times, impaired memory.
 * Results of abuse/addiction:** Brain deficits, liver problems, impaired memory, blackouts.

Tobacco

 * Paige Reynolds**


 * Classification: ** Tobacco/nicotine is a **stimulant**.
 * Explanation: ** A stimulant is a drug that excites neural activity and speeds up bodily functions.
 * How it works: ** Tobacco is a plant of the nightshade family. Nicotine, an alkaloid contained in tobacco, is used for medical purposes and as an insecticide. When tobacco is smoked, nicotine is absorbed by the lungs and quickly moves into the bloodstream, where it is circulated throughout the brain. The nicotine molecule is shaped like a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine. Acetylcholine and its receptors are involved in many functions including the release of other neurotransmitters and hormones that affect your mood, appetite, memory, and more. When nicotine gets into the brain, it attaches to acetylcholine receptors and mimics the actions of acetylcholine. Nicotine also activates areas of the brain that are involved in producing feelings of pleasure and reward.
 * Effects: ** Addictive; increased risk of lung cancer, emphysema, bronchial disorders, cardiovascular disorders.
 * Results of abuse/addiction: ** Increased risk of lung cancer, emphysema, bronchial disorders, and cardiovascular disorders. Withdrawal symptoms include craving, insomnia, anxiety, and irritability.

Barbiturates

 * Kelly McClure**


 * Classification**: Barbiturates are **depressants**.
 * Explanation**: Barbiturates, along with other depressants, reduce neural activity and slow body functions.
 * How it works**: The molecules of barbiturate drugs pass through the membranes of the cells in the brain. They are then able to block nerve signals that pass from cell to cell, thus inhibiting the stimulation and conduction of chemical neurotransmitters (the action potential) between the cells. This prevention of an action potential slows reactions and responses in all parts of the body, leading to relaxation and sleepiness. However, in high doses, barbiturates can also act as stimulants, increasing the amount of dopamine (a major chemical in controlling reward) released into the limbic system and causing the opposite of its intended effects.
 * Effects**: Reduced anxiety and tension, sedation
 * Results of abuse/addiction**: Increased dosage needed for effects; impaired motor and sensory functions, impaired permanent storage of new information, withdrawal symptoms; possibly convulsions, coma, or death

Heroin

 * Jiawei Zhou**


 * Classification:** Heroin is a **depressant**.
 * Explanation:** A depressant is a drug that slows down activity in the central nervous system.
 * How it works:** Before heroin enters the system, inhibitory neurotransmitters are active in the synapse by blocking the release of dopamine. When the body's own opiates are active, they shut down the inhibitory neurotransmitters and dopamine is releases into the system. Heroin mimics the bodies natural opiates and turn off dopamine inhibition. When heroin turns off inhibition, dopamine is then flooded to the synapse creating the feelings of sedation. Neurons with opiate receptors are responsible for pain signals, stress response, and emotional attachment. Heroin abuse may cause the brain to stop producing endorphins due to the control of the abuser. With regular heroin use, tolerance develops, in which the user’s response to the drug decreases, and more heroin is needed to achieve the same intensity of effect. This causes heroin users to develop a high risk for addiction. Heroin can be injected, snorted/sniffed, or smoked—routes of administration that rapidly deliver the drug to the brain. All three methods of administering heroin can lead to addiction and other severe health problems.
 * Effects:** Short-term effects of heroin include a surge of euphoria and clouded thinking followed by alternately wakeful and drowsy states. Heroin depresses breathing, thus, overdose can be fatal. Users who inject the drug risk infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis.
 * Results of abuse/addiction:** Pupils constrict, breathing slows, lethargy sets in; cravings, demand higher doses, withdrawal, may cause the brain the stop producing endorphins.

Marijuana

 * Fardeen Medhi**


 * Classification**: Marijuana is a mild **psychedelic**.
 * Explanation**: A psychedelic is a consciousness-altering drug that produces hallucinations, change thought processes, or disrupt the normal perception of time and space.
 * How it works**: Marijuana enters the body throw the mouth ready to infect the body. Once it reaches the bloodstream, THC takes only a few seconds to reach the brain, where it passes itself off as a neurotransmitter - the chemicals which carry messages between neurons in the brain. THC is shaped much like a neurotransmitter called anandamide, which means it can sneak itself into the brain’s anandamide receptor proteins and start to cause mischief. With THC’s spanner in the works, some of the brain’s normal functions really begin to waver. The receptor proteins are located primarily in three areas of the brain: the hippocampus, responsible for short-term memory; the cerebellum, an area controlling coordination; and the basal ganglia, which manages unconscious muscle movement. These are the functions that are altered by THC’s presence, which is why a marijuana user will typically experience impaired coordination, memory lapses, paranoia and altered perception, as well as feeling their heart quicken (Null Hypothesis).
 * Effects**: Relaxation, euphoria, increased appetite, reduced ability to store new memories, other effects depending on mental set and setting.
 * Results of abuse/addiction**: Throat and lung irritation, possible lung.

Tranquilizers
Information on Tranquilizers

LSD
Information on LSD

Cocaine
Information on Cocaine

Amphetamine/Methamphetamine
Information on Amphetamines/Methamphetamines