Possible Effects
Whether you’re smoking pot once a week or injecting heroin once a day, if you’re using substances in any amount, they’re going to have an effect on you. Whether you feel the effects are positive or negative, one thing’s for sure….using any drug (including alcohol) causes damaging changes in your body.
Nicotine
Nicotine is one of the easiest substances to become addicted to, but it’s not impossible to quite. When tobacco is smoked, the nicotine is absorbed quickly into the blood through the lungs and passes within seconds to the brain. Nicotine leaves the brain after about 30 minutes.
The longer you smoke, the more your body builds up a tolerance to the effects of the drug. The first time you try it, you might be dizzy and/or nauseous, but this effect would go away with time. Smoking is habitual. So for some this means you become addicted to the routine of smoking in different situations as well as the drug itself.
Smoking can cause lung cancer and chronic lung diseases, like emphysema. Smoking around others can also cause them to contract these illnesses. Emphysema is lung disease that diminishes the ability to exhale (meaning you have a tough time breathing) – the effects of emphysema cannot be reversed.
Smoking increases your risk of heart disease. It increases your heart rate and blood pressure, which in turn makes your heart work really hard to do what it should normally do easily.
Smoking effects circulation. Smokers often have thinner skin and more wrinkles as they grow older.
Smoking can delay the physical and mental development in unborn babies.
When trying to quit, a person might go through:
•powerful cravings (“I’m having a nic fit”)
•irritability
•obsessive feelings - constantly thinking about needing a smoke
•feeling socially isolated (if everyone you hang out with is a smoker or you’re used to having a smoke at a certain time or during certain situations)
•anxiety
•having trouble sleeping.
Alcohol
The short term effects of alcohol:
•can mess up coordination and motor skills, cause clumsiness, difficulty walking, and slower reflexes – these all have the possibility of causing a serious accident
•when alcohol is mixed with other drugs, it can be life threatening
•loss of inhibition or shyness, or the tendency to behave in ways that one would not normally behave
•increase in aggressive and violent behaviour
•more calm and relaxed
•more talktative
•less shy
•warm (skin may be flushed)
•less co-coordinated
When people are intoxicated (drunk), they may:
• have blackouts (lose their memory)
• slur their speech or have trouble walking
• feel sleepy or lose consciousness
• be more likely to have falls and other accidents
• get alcohol poisoning or die
• have slower reflexes and thinking
• take more risks and make bad decisions
With long term use:
•mood and emotional changes highlight/irritate any pre-existing disorders or disturbances
•alcoholism
•ulcers
•cancer (of the lip, oral cavity, esophagus, larynx, stomach and liver)
•loss of sex drive
•liver damage (cirrhosis)
•in heavy drinkers, malnutrition
•problems with school and learning: the more alcohol consumed by a student, the lower the grades
•high blood pressure
•damage to the heart muscle
Signs of problem alcohol use:
•Craving: a strong need, or compulsion, to drink.
•Impaired Control: the inability to limit one’s drinking on any given occasion.
•Physical dependence: withdrawal symptoms such as nausea, sweating, shakiness, and anxiety when alcohol use is stopped after a period of heavy drinking.
•Tolerance: the need for increasing amounts of alcohol in order to feel its effects.
If drinking when pregnant, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, resulting in physical and mental injury to the baby.
Marijuana
Marijuana smoke contains more tar and more of some cancer-causing chemicals than tobacco smoke. People who smoke marijuana often inhale more deeply, hold the smoke in their lungs longer that cigarette smokers do. This increases the risk of cancer.
Short-term effects:
• Marijuana affects your co-ordination and makes it harder to concentrate and react. It’s dangerous to operate cars, bikes and machinery.
• Relaxation, loss of inhibitions or anxiety, confusion, panic or paranoia
• be more outgoing and talkative, and laugh more—or quiet and withdrawn
• distorted concept of time and space
• have keener senses, such as sharpened hearing and vision
• have trouble keeping your balance
• decreased concentration and short-term memory
• want to eat a lot (get “the munchies”)
• have a sore throat and lungs
• have increased heart rate
• sleepiness as the drug wears off
• hallucinate
• have a dry mouth and/or red eyes.
• You may make decisions while using marijuana that you regret later.
Long term effects:
• Marijuana smokers can develop the same breathing problems as smokers do (link). Their risk of developing lung cancer is also higher than for non-marijuana smokers. Smoking marijuana has been linked to chronic cough, bronchitis and could make asthma worse.
• THC can also damage the cells and tissues in the body that help protect people from disease.
• Lack of motivation
• Difficulty processing new information
• Large doses of marijuana can lead to “toxic psychosis.” This can cause people to see or hear things that aren’t really there, become feel like people are out to get them. These symptoms usually disappear within a week after the person stops using marijuana.
• If you’re pregnant, the more marijuana you smoke, the more likely your baby will have problems such as being born under-weight.
• People who are at risk of developing schizophrenia, marijuana can jump start symptoms.
• Long-time marijuana users find it harder to pay attention, remember things and learn.
Ecstasy (MDMA)
Ecstasy has been reported to: lower inhibitions and anxiety, cause feelings of empathy for others as well as suppress the need to eat, drink and/or sleep.
Ecstasy increases user’s heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature. When high, users often clench their teeth and jaw. Muscle tension, dehydration, chills combined with sweating, nausea and blurred vision also happen. General dizzy feelings, confusion, insomnia and paranoia are also common symptoms.
Ecstasy can also cause death from kidney or cardiovascular (heart) failure induced by hyperthermia or dehydration.
The effects of ecstasy usually behing in an hour and can last 4-6 hours. The length of the after-effects can’t be predicted as precisely though they may last for days or weeks.
Long term effects:
• rash, depression, sleep disorders, drug craving, persistent elevation of anxiety, paranoia, aggressive and impulsive behaviour
•Abusing MDMA may permanently inhibit the user’s ability to produce serotonin, resulting in chronic depression and anxiety
•When someone overdoses on ecstasy, their heart beat speeds up, blood pressure rises. They can faint, get cramped muscles, panic attacks or in more severe cases lose conciousness and go into a seizure.
Cocaine & crack
Cocaine is a stimulant drug Stimulants make people feel more alert and energetic. Cocaine can also make people feel euphoric, or “high.”
Use of cocaine and crack will cause:
•Increased blood pressure and heart rate
•Rapid breathing
•Constriction of blood vessels
•Decreased appetite
•Sweating
•Restlessness, insomnia
•Paranoia, anxiety
•Dilated pupils
Over time, and/or larger doses:
•Aggressive, hostile, erratic behaviour
•Hallucinations
•Rapid and irregular heartbeat
•Increased paranoia
•Impotence
•Depression
Psychological effects:
•Paranoia and confusion
•Cocaine psychosis: losing touch with reality, loss of interest in friends and family, self-harm
•Crashing: after doing coke, people crash and can become very depressed and tired
Cocaine can make you feel:
• energetic, confident, alert, talkative, excited and less sleepy
• agitated, nervous, irritable, unable to relax or sleep
• paranoid
People may also crave more of the drug, and take more cocaine to come out of the crash. Some people stay high by using cocaine for hours or days (“binging”).
Bingeing to stay high leads quickly to addiction.
Cocaine acts quickly, but the effects don’t last long:
• When snorted or injected, cocaine takes effect in minutes, and the effect may last up to one hour.
• When smoked cocaine takes effect in seconds, and the effect lasts only five to 10 minutes.
• A person can overdose on even a small amount of cocaine.
• Cocaine can cause a heart attack or stroke, even in healthy people.
• Snorting cocaine can cause sinus infections, loss of smell and nose bleeds. It can damage tissues in the nose forever and cause holes in the wall between the nostrils.
• Smoking crack cocaine can hurt your lungs.
• Injecting cocaine can cause infections from shared needles (for example HIV/AIDS, hepatitis). Injecting cocaine that has been cut with impure or unsanitary material can lead to complications and infections.
• Using cocaine in pregnancy may hurt the baby. The mother is more likely to have a miscarriage, to giver birth too early or have an under-weight baby.
• Using cocaine while breast feeding can make the baby sick.
• Using cocaine for a long time can lead to mental health problems, including psychosis, anxiety, depression and paranoia.
• Long–term cocaine use can also cause weight loss, malnutrition, poor health, sexual problems, and loss of friends and money.
Methamphetamine (Meth)
Crystal meth and speed are usually used to increase alertness, stay awake, feel stronger and more confident.
When someone does crystal meth it:
•Releases high levels of dopamine, stimulating brain cells,
•Improves mood and feelings of pleasure
•Can “turn off” the brains ability to produce dopamine, with repeated use, leaving users unable to experience any kind of pleasure from anything other than more Meth
Signs of use:
•Excessive activity and movement
•Talking a lot; often argumentative
•Irritability and paranoia
•Nervousness
•Noticeable weight loss and sleeplessness
•Euphoria
Physical effects:
•Increased heart and respiratory rate
•High blood pressure
•Dizziness and blurred vision
•Anxiety and restlessness
•Decreased appetite
Mental and Emotional Effects:
•High energy when on the drug; extremely low energy when coming off meth
•Depression and irritability when withdrawing
•Powerful urges to sue the drug and extreme difficulty resisting use
•Exhaustion
Depending on how a person does meth, the high can last from 6 to 24 hours.
With long term use:
•users tend to build up a tolerance instantly, causing them to vary the quantity, frequency or method of use to try to recreate their first experience of the high
•symptoms experienced even with low-level usage include: drug cravings, extreme weight loss, loss of muscle tone, tooth decay (“meth mouth”)
•users can develop amphetamine psychosis (includes hallucinations, paranoia and bizarre/violent actions)
•anxiety, insomnia, confusion, hearing things, moodiness and delusions (for example: sensation of bugs crawling on skin)
•brain damage, respiratory problems, irreversible damage to the brain’
Another effect Meth has, although not directly on users:
•every pound of meth generates approximately 5 pounds of toxic waste (corrosive liquids, acid vapors and other harmful materials) which is often dumped illegally, contaminating both animal and human habitat.
Heroin
People who use heroin become dependent very quickly, drawn to the rush of pleasure they experience when using. However, the withdrawal effects of heroin use are very painful, making it a really difficult drug to quit. Once people become addicted to heroin, they continue to use mostly to prevent themselves from feeling sick. Heroin is a depressant as it slows down all mind/body processes.
Physical effects:
•Slower breathing
•Flushed skin
•Pinpoint pupils
•Nausea and vomiting
•Constipation
• Nodding of the head (looks like nodding off to sleep)
•Decreased ability to feel pain
•Increased risk of contracting Hepatitis A & C, and HIV/AIDS through infected needles
Mental and Emotional effects:
•Dreamy, pleasant state
•Highly psychologically addictive; user becomes preoccupied with how to get more heroin
•Dependence: the constant need to obtain heroin, and the repeated use of the drug, can result in becoming involved with crime and other illegal behaviour. Heroin users can loose their families, their jobs and their health usually in a domino effect.
Because of the intense physical effects of using heroin, death by overdose is always a possibility. This happens because breathing slows down to the point where it stops altogether. This can happen with a single dose, meaning someone can die of a heroin overdose the very first time they try it.The risk of overdose is increased by:
• The unknown purity of the drug. Ironically, many overdoses are due to increases in the quality of the drug sold on the street.
• Injection, because the drug reaches the brain more quickly than by other ways of taking the drug, and because the dose is taken all at once.
• Combining heroin with other sedating drugs, such as alcohol, benzodiazepines and methadone.
Withdrawal:
Withdrawal from heroin is miserable, but not life threatening. Physically, it feels like a very bad flu: fatigue, sweating, aching, and diarrhea. These symptoms go away after about a week.
Pregnancy:
•women who use heroin regularly often miss their periods; some mistakenly think that they are infertile, and become pregnant. Continued use of heroin during pregnancy is very risky for the baby.