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Historical Themes of Drug Use

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Can you please help me with the following:

- Pick an illegal drug of particular interest (any).
- Post an explanation of this particular drug's current use pattern in the context of all five historical themes.
- Include an evaluation its psychoactive drug classification.

Five historical themes of drug use:

1. There is a basic need of human beings to cope with their environment to control their fear and pain in a hostile world as well as to give pleasure.
2. Psychoactive drugs work because they mimic natural neuro-chemicals that already exist in the brain. Manipulation of these chemicals can alter a user's mood.
3. Governments and businesses have always been involved in the drug trade, gaining control of the supply of drugs to make money in taxes or sales or to control people's behavior by limiting the supply.
4. Technological advances in refining and synthesizing psychoactive drugs have increased the potency of these substances, making them more desirable and, unfortunately, more addictive. One example is the refinement of opium into morphine and then into heroin.
5. Researchers and users discovered new ways of using drugs so that these drugs reached the brain faster and therefore had a greater impact on the central nervous system. A working physiological definition of a psychoactive drug is a drug that passes through the blood-brain barrier. Psychoactive drugs include those substances that affect the central nervous system. The Inaba text classifies drugs according to their effects: stimulants (uppers), depressants (downers), and psychedelics (all arounders). Other groups of drugs include inhalants, sports drugs (such as anabolic steroids), and psychiatric medications such as Haldol and Prozac.

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Solution Summary

This solution discusses the historical themes and patterns in drug use.

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*Psychoactive drugs work because they mimic natural neuro-chemicals that already exist in the brain. Manipulation of these chemicals can alter a user's mood.

(1) Describe psychoactive drugs

Psychoactive drugs result from chemicals that affect the nervous system and alter consciousness and awareness, influence sensations, perceptions and cognitive processes. Research shows the primary causes of drug addiction are related to physical, psychological and cognitive factors. Biological components associated with addiction are contributed to self-stimulation that takes place in the pleasure area of the brain (Pinel, 2006). Cognitive factors in the history of drug abuse are psychoactive drugs commonly abused, including: (a) nicotine, (b) alcohol, (c) marijuana, (d) cocaine and/or other stimulants, (e) cocaine, and (f) opiates (heroin and morphine). Research suggests that psychoactive drugs have a long history and pattern of use. As an example, it is believed that creative thought may be enhanced through the consumption of psychoactive substances. According to Hicks, Pedersen, Friedman, and McCarthy (2011), many prominent writers and artists gained inspiration from the inebriating effects of drug and alcohol consumption. Room (2003) asserts that the need exists for restrictive laws at both the state and federal level to control wholesale, retail, production and distribution of the drugs

(2) ...

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