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What Drugs Do?
- Anything which changes
the way a body works normally, even if only for a short time, has some
dangers.
- This is because drugs
affect other parts of the body in addition to those they are designed to
affect. These are called side effects.
- Some drugs alter the way
the body functions or the way people function emotionally so that people
need to keep taking them. This is called addiction.
- Sometimes the user has
to take more of the drug to get the same effect. This is called tolerance.
- Different drugs have
different effects.
- Nicotine - smokes,
cigarettes etc:
- stimulates the brain
- relaxes the muscles
- increases blood
pressure
- increases heart rate
- decreases urine output
- increases fatty acids
in the blood.
- Central nervous system
depressants, like alcohol, and drugs like valium:
- reduce reaction time
- reduce the ability to
see and concentrate
- reduce the ability to
think
- affect coordination
- affect speech
- high doses can slow
breathing.
- Barbiturate use is very
rare in Western Australia.
- Morphine, codeine and
heroin:
- reduce breathing rate
- reduce the ability to
think
- affect stomach and
intestine
- pupils of eyes become
significantly smaller
- can cause
constipation.
- Stimulants such as
caffeine, amphetamines and cocaine:
- reduce concentration
- increase heart rate
- increase the ability
to think
- reduce appetite
- cause restlessness
- increase confidence
- cause pupils of the
eyes to become dilated.
- Hallucinogens:
- affect how people see,
hear, taste, feel and smell
- make people lose their
sense of reality
- increase appetite.
- Cannabis, or pot, mull,
dope, grass, weed, gunga, leaf, smoke, green causes:
- increase in heart rate
- dryness of the mouth
and throat
- redness of eyes
- enlargement of pupils.
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