Chapter 1

Drugs and Behavior Today

What is a drug?Drug: A chemical substance which, when taken intothe body, alters the structure or functioning of the body in some way.

Problems with this definition?

…excluding those nutrients considered to be related to normal functioning. (whether the substance in question has been intended to be used primarily as a way of inducing abodily or psychological change; p. 5)

Is Benadryl a drug?

The active ingredient is the same in both capsule and topical cream: Diphenhydramine HCl

Which of the following is not a drug?

A. AspirinB. 5-Hour Energy drinkC. InsulinD. Nicotine patchE. Vodka

The definition of a drug is trickier than it first appears. Complicating matters even further is that there are different definitions for different contexts, e.g. in medicine, pharmacology, drug law, governmental regulation and in the general population. This will become clearer as the course progresses.

What is a drug?

What is a drug?Must the substance be synthetic?Must it be regulated?Must it be non-essential?Is the definition dose-related?(e.g. alcohol in small quantities = beneficial; in large quantities = harmful

water is toxic in sufficient quantitiesAre all toxins drugs?Must it be voluntarily introduced?Can substances normally found in food be drugs?Is addictive potential necessary? Sufficient?

Is drug use uniquely human?

Is drug abuse uniquely human?

 By the definition used in the textbook, a chemical substance would be considered a drug if __________.

A. it intoxicated the userB. it had an impact on brain functioningC. it served as a nutrientD. both A and B

Social Messages aboutDrug Use

Beer commercials on television are popular forms of entertainment as well as effective marketing tools, despite the fact that alcohol abuse and alcoholism continue to present serious personal and societal problems.

Liquor and tobacco products cannot, by law, be shown on network TV for the good of society.

Is this ban a violation of first amendment rights?

Should beer commercials be similarly banned?

Social Messages about Drug Use

Anti-drug campaigns in the media compete with pro-drug use messages arising from the entertainment industry as well as from Internet web sites.

How effective are these anti-drug messages?

Social Messages about Drug Use

Prominent political figures admit to experiences with marijuana earlier in their lives, while marijuana remains officially classified by the U.S. government as a drug with a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use.

Should current drug use preclude election to political office?What about prior drug use?

What about drug addicts in recovery?Recovering alcoholics?Does length of time “clean” matter?

Are some jobs/professions O.K., others off-limits?

i.e., is risk to others a consideration?

Nancy Reagan is famous for her “Just say NO!” campaign against illegal drug use.

Was this campaign successful?Why or why not?

What might be more successful?

Two Ways of Looking at Drugs and Behavior

Psychoactive drugs are those drugs that affect our feelings, perceptions, and behavior.

Depending on the intent of the individual, drug use can be considered either instrumental or recreational.

Figure 1.1

Prescribed Valium taken toenhance the effect of alcohol?

Suppose a person has intractable pain.

Is using legally prescribed pain-killers within prescription limits, if multiple prescriptions are obtained by “doctor shopping,” an instance of recreational or instrumental use?

Would your answer change depending on whether or not the person a. had chronic pain? b. was dependent on (addicted to) the drug?

Drugs and Behavior:Misuse and Abuse

Drug misuse refers to cases in which a prescription or over-the-counter drug is used inappropriately.

what about “off-label” use?

Drug abuse refers to cases in which a licit or illicit drug is used in ways that produce some form of impairment.

Addiction is a sub-category of abuse.

What about drugs “that may cause drowsiness”or warn against “operating heavy machinery.”

Is this evidence that the drug produces impairment? If so, is this abuse?

If one drinks alcohol to the 0.07 blood level,is this abuse? Does 0.08 mean abuse in thesense of “some form of impairment?” If a heavy drinker is tolerant to alcohol and easily passes field sobriety tests at ) 0.12, is he/she impaired?

Legal definition vs. performance criterion?

Suppose a person has a drug or alcohol addiction, and needs the drug/alcohol to “get right” or to avoid impairment or even death due to withdrawal. Is this “abuse?”

Drugs in Early Times

Earliest experiences with psychoactive drugs naturally growing plants

products of natural fermentation.

Knowledge of drugs and their effects dates back to ancient Egyptians and Babylonians

Some were used therapeutically

Those with knowledge of drugs and their sources (shamans) had great power within their cultures.

Drugs in theNineteenth Century

Active ingredients in many psychoactive substances were identified in the 1800’s.

e.g. morphine as the major active ingredient in opium.

Psychoactive drugs were widely used in the form of patent medicines.

Risks of drug dependency were not recognized until the end of the century.

Drugs and Behavior in the Twentieth Century

Perceived social effects of drug dependence led to legislation regulation of morphine, heroin, cocaine, and marijuana.

Social pressure from the temperance movement resulted in the prohibition of alcohol consumption in the U.S. from 1920 to 1933 (18th Amendment).

1940’s -1950’sillicit drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and

marijuana were available but outside the mainstream of American life.

1960’s – 1970’srecreational use of marijuana and hallucinogenic

drugs becomes widespread across the nationproblems related to heroin increase

dramatically

1980’sheroin use declinescocaine and amphetamine abuse risecrack cocaine emerges as a relatively cheap

form of the drug

Drugs and Behavior in the

Twentieth Century

1990’smethamphetamine emerges as a poor man’s

alternative to cocaine (rural, inner city)

2000’s (O.K., so this is the 21st Century. Big deal.)prescription drugs (e.g. Adderall, Oxycontin) become

major problems of abuse“club” drugs become popular (e.g.MDMA GHB,

ketamine, Rohypnol)synthetic “marijuana” (“spice”) and “bath salts”

become readily available legal alternatives to illicit psychoactive drugs

Drugs and Behavior in the

Twentieth Century

Present-Day Attitudes toward Drugs

A wide range of psychoactive drugs, both licit and illicit, qualify are sources of misuse and abuse.

The “baby boomers” generation who grew up during the explosion of drug experimentation in the 1960’s and 1970’s must now deal with the drug-taking behavior of their children.

© Copyright 2011, Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

A shaman is __________. A. a primitive healerB. an “extinct” cultural phenomenonC. an individual who relies upon elaborate ritualsD. often appointed at random from among young females in a tribe

Patterns of Drug Usein the United States

2009 (Definitely the 21st Century!)– 37% of high school seniors used an illicit drug– 33% smoked marijuana– 3 %used cocaine– 44% used alcohol– 11% smoked tobacco cigarettes daily

21 million Americans >25 used an illicit drug15 million used marijuana or hashish9 million used a prescription pain reliever recreationally

Figure 1.2

Prevalence of Illicit Drug Use

Table 1.1

Figure 1.3

Table 1.2

What factors contribute to adolescent drug abuse?

a tendency toward nonconformity within society

influence of drug-using peers

an intact home environment

a positive educational experience

conventional peer relationships.

What are protective factors against adolescent drug abuse?

Table 1.3

Table 1.4

A prominent advocate of cocaine use was __________. A. Louis PasteurB. Alexander FlemingC. Edward JennerD. Sigmund Freud