Share:
Drug addiction heroin and cocaine
contents
- Hashish and heroin, alcohol and nicotine
- dependence
- opiate
- morphine
- heroin
- The "queen of drugs"
- The Bundeswehr protects the opium kings
- The Afghan gold
- A fight of cultures?
- Ill, no criminals
- Criminalization creates misery
- cocaine
- The coca bush
- An alkaloid
- Coke
- How does cocaine work??
Hashish and heroin, alcohol and nicotine
Nicotine and alcohol are also drugs, and dependence on them is also a drug addiction. However, in official usage drug addiction is a sign of dependence on illicit substances. These include opiates such as opium and heroin, which include cocaine, extasy, speed, amphetamines and metaamphetamines, halluinogens such as LSD or mescaline and cannabis, ie hashish and marijuana.
Drug addiction is usually associated with illicit substances such as heroin or cocaine. (Image: Witthaya / fotolia.com) dependence
We become physically dependent on some substances. They superimpose messenger substances in the organism and directly intervene in the biochemical metabolism. Dropping it off has serious physical consequences, at least until a chemical balance has re-established itself in the body.
Opiates, nicotine and alcohol lead to such a physical dependence. Other substances such as cannabis or cocaine do not lead to a physical, but to a mental dependency. If the drug is missing the drug, the urge to procure it, overpowers.
An addictive disorder is associated with mental disorders, it is often unclear whether the psychiatric problems were there first, so are the cause why those affected in the first became dependent. In particular, psychological dependence on drugs is more of a problem for labile characters.
opiate
Opium, morphine and heroin are drugs derived from opium poppy. Originally the plant (Papaver somniferum) comes from Asia, in particular from Afghanistan, Pakistan, the northeast of Iran and the bordering countries. He is also grown in Central and South America.
Poppy seed oil can be squeezed from the seeds and the milk is the basis for raw opium. For the almost ripe capsules are scratched with a knife. The milk comes out, dries and can be scraped off. This raw opium has been used for thousands of years as a painkiller and narcotic. It contains over 20 alkaloids, the most important of which is morphine - for a long time also the most important narcotic in Europe.
The first high cultures in Sumer and Egypt used opium poppy as a medicinal plant, and its product, opium, in China had special significance. There was a culture of opium smoking in early modern times. This opium made the British East India Company rich; she exported thousands of tons from India to China.
The opium smoking had massive social consequences in China, and the Chinese government opposed the import: in 1839, it destroyed 1000 tons of opium in the port of Canton, which the British had illegally imported. The British government therefore led the so-called Opium War (1839-1842). The British won and now forced China to accept not only opium but other goods traded by the British.
For the opium extraction, the still immature capsules of the opium poppy are scratched, then the dried milk juice is scraped off and collected. (Image: moonrun / fotolia.com) morphine
As early as 1806, the German pharmacist Friedrich Wilhelm Sertürner had isolated opium morphine (morphine); Eponym was Morpheus the Greek god of sleep - he referred to the narcotic intoxication, which causes the Subtstanz. It has been produced by the factory since 1828 and has been injected into the bloodstream since 1853.
In the next three years it was massively used to relieve the pain of wounded German soldiers in the Crimean War, also in the American Civil War of 1861-65 and in the war between Germany and France 1870/71 quantities of the drug were used. The result was many thousands of soldiers who became dependent on morphine. This physical dependence got a special name: morphinism.
heroin
At the latest, the addicted to morphine soldiers showed that this opiate led to a high degree to physical dependence. But the effect as a painkiller such as sedatives was undisputed, and the doctors were looking for a replacement that had these positive qualities, but did not make it dependent.
The Irony of History: C.R.A. Wright synthesized diacetylmorphine in 1874. In 1898, Bayer marketed this morphine derivative under the name of heroin. It soon became clear that heroin was even faster than morphine. Of all the drugs, apart from meta-amphetamines (meth) and crack, heroin is the most addictive. In 1931, Bayer stopped heroin production.
The "queen of drugs"
In medicine, heroin is today, unlike other opioids, no longer used. As an illegal intoxicant, however, it is a billion dollar business. Drug users call heroin "the queen of drugs". An injection leads to a euphoric intoxication, which people call the experience a dream with open eyes. This effect is not unlike that of opium, but heroin works faster and more intensely.
However, when the morphine level drops, the euphoria tilts into depression, the person is extremely irritable and calls for a new kick. The psychic dependence begins so after a few injections, then follows the physical dependence.
Heroin lies down on the messenger substances, which activate the feeling of happiness in the brain. Once the addicts take the substance off, the body is missing these transmitters. This has physical consequences: the affected person itches the whole body, they have to vomit, have nightmares, in which they fear for their lives, vomit in convulsions, and the sweat breaks out. This condition lasts several weeks.
Once the addict's body has become accustomed to heroin, the euphoric effect is eliminated, more specifically, the afflicted have to supply larger amounts to achieve this effect, and the injection-to-injection distance becomes shorter.
Since 1925, opiates have been allowed almost exclusively for medical purposes in almost all countries because of addiction, and only under strict conditions. On the one hand, opium has been a cultural asset in Afghanistan or Iran for millennia, and on the other hand, in Afghanistan, where 92% of the world's opium is produced, many thousands of farmers are growing for the drug kings, who promise the poppy seed peasants protection as warlords.
Heroin makes you extremely mentally and physically dependent. (Image: animaflora / fotolia.com) The Bundeswehr protects the opium kings
It is interesting to note that while the Bush administration in Colombia conducted a "war on drugs" against the coca farmers, it indirectly promoted opium production in Afghanistan. They control the warlords of the so-called Northern Alliance, US allies against the Taliban. In Germany this led to the fact that on the one hand the heroin price sank rapidly and the police pursued in this country the dependent end consumers and small dealers, on the other hand the German Federal Army de facto the military protection provided, under which the Afghan drug bosses could bring the heroin to Europe.
The Afghan gold
The heroin business also attracted countless desperados from Islamic countries from Morocco to Malaysia. While Al Qaeda and other jihadists who are rampant and active in Afghanistan are known only from the point of view of religious terror, the pull that attracted young men from Arab countries to Afghanistan had many practical reasons: it attracted the perspective of to get rich in the opium business. However, the farmers who live on the opium poppy have little alternative in Afghanistan.
In fact, the persecution of heroin users in western countries is disproportionate to the social consequences that alcohol has. Millions of alcoholics face thousands of heroin addicts; alcohol-related illnesses are among the major causes of death in Europe; Alcohol plays a role in a high proportion of crimes, including dangerous bodily harm or manslaughter in the affect.
A fight of cultures?
Critics therefore consider the careless handling of alcohol and the criminalization of heroin for cultural chauvinism: The main growing areas of the opium poppy are Islamic countries, in which alcohol is forbidden, and opium and hashish belong to the cultural tradition. So the fight against heroin is about fighting one culture against another?
It is true that pure heroin does not even begin to damage the body as much as alcohol abuse has for many years. It is equally true that many people in Iran or Afghanistan sometimes smoke opium without ending up in social misery, just as not everyone who likes to drink a beer in Germany becomes an alcoholic.
However, Iran also has a huge heroin problem. Although the Iranian army is conducting its own war on drugs, militarily combating drug trafficking in the border provinces of Afghanistan like Baluchistan, and publicly deterring heroin traffickers in Tehran, there are armies of heroin addicts in major Iranian cities.
Ill, no criminals
In the enlightened drug policy it has long been a matter of course that a persecution of the addict is wrong, because it is not first about criminals, but about the sick. The criminalization of these patients puts them even more into a misery spiral.
The criminalization of addicts has fatal consequences. (Image: dizfoto1973 / fotolia.com) To get the money for the fabric, they sell their bodies on the most dangerous edges of the street, finance themselves through theft, burglary and robbery; they lose their home and their job; since they need the money for heroin, they neglect nutrition and hygiene; they suffer from diseases caused by vitamin deficiency and mineral deficiency; they get hepatitis and AIDS from infected syringes; they poison themselves with stretched heroin. All these are expressly not consequences of the heroine itself, but the need to procure the substance in the illegal market.
Criminalization creates misery
The history of opiates in Europe and the US confirms that the criminalization of addicts creates social consequences. When heroin or the "opium wine" Laudanum were legal, opiates spread especially among intellectuals; Laudanum was considered a hallmark of writers, and some world-class narratives were created in the opium rush. Many apothecaries around 1900 were as dependent on opiates as the American short story superstar, Edgar Allan Poe.
What is important is that these individuals remained dependent on opiate until their deaths, but most of them were able to pursue their profession with their addiction and did not fall out of all social stereotypes. Many sufferers today receive methadone, so they remain dependent, but the intoxication conditions are less extreme, and those affected have the opportunity to structure a daily routine. Ideally, they are also at a distance from the illegal market and the associated criminal milieu.
In reality, most of the addicts in this milieu are under arrest and many are in addition to methadone heroin. Meanwhile, there are projects in Germany with synthetic heroin for the severely dependent.
cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline powder that is produced chemically from the leaves of the coca shrub that originated in South America. Coca leaves of the species Erythroxylum coca and Erythroxylum novogranatense have been an important painkiller of the Indians of the Andean countries for millennia.
The coca bush
They use the leaves both in everyday life because of their stimulating effect as well as in all kinds of painful diseases. Envelopes of coca leaves help against colds, chills, muscle stiffness and burns, against swollen feet as well as against exhaustion.
Indigenous peoples of the Andean countries use the leaves of coca smoke, for example, for headaches and gastrointestinal diseases. (Hecke71 / fotolia.com) Ablutions with boiled coca leaves are used by indigenous physicians for gastrointestinal complaints, chewed coca leaves against headaches. Colics and gastritis are treated by the natives with potions made from coca. The two types of the Kokastrauches belong to the most important plants in the medicine of the Andean people.
The Spanish conquistadors took advantage of the properties of the plants to exploit the Indian slaves better: With coca they needed less food and could work longer.
An alkaloid
From the eighteenth century coca leaves came to Europe, and in 1860 pharmacist Albert Niemann isolated the alkaloid cocaine. In 1862 Merck in Darmstadt made it factory-made. Cocaine was used for local anesthesia in eye surgery, and Sigmund Freund praised it as a remedy for depression; he took it regularly and was probably mentally dependent.
Coke
In 1886, the pharmacist John Styth Pemberton invented a composition of cola nuts and coca leaves, which helped against fatigue and headaches. This drink was called Coca-Cola since 1892. The risk of psychological dependence led to the Coca-Cola Company replacing coca with caffeine in 1903.
Today, several Latin American countries are calling for the legalization of coca products. Ecuador is at the forefront of the "Coca si, Cocain no" campaign. There are Kokashampoos, Kokatees, Kokabonbons, Kokatabletten, Kokakekse etc. In contrast to the isolated cocaine, the addictiveness of these products is low.
How does cocaine work??
Cocaine is euphoric, it is uninhibited and users feel like a maniac in its heyday: they believe they can do everything, develop ingenious thoughts, their self-doubts disappear and they develop an oversized ego. When the intoxication stops, a depressive phase follows. Therefore, the cocaine intoxication is comparable to the clinical picture of bipolar.
The change between extreme euphoria and the "black hole" after that leads to a high risk of mental dependency, as those concerned want to fear the deep and reach the high with the drug. In addition, cocaine is considered an "antisocial drug".
Who is "on coke", not only feels like the ruler of the world, he often evaluates others; he throws money around him that he does not have, he looks arrogant and unscrupulous. Coke (as Maniker) regularly destroy close social relationships through their behavior when they consume the drug.
Cocaine stimulates the dumping of the neurotransmitters dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin, and thus increase blood pressure, heart rate and respiratory rate. The body receives the signal of higher readiness and is in full swing - also hyperactivity is a consequence.
Cocaine is usually snorted and passes through the nasal mucosa into the bloodstream. (Image: vchalup / fotolia.com) Cocci usually sniff the powder in narrow strips that suck it up through the nose. Coke can also be boiled with water and baking soda, the mixture then burn and inhale or smoke. We'll talk about crack or freebase.
Today in South America "Paco" is common. This is the dregs left over from coking coca paste to cocaine. This "waste" is significantly cheaper than the real cocaine. Since the intoxication lasts only very briefly, the addictiveness is extreme. The risk of developing persistent psychoses is greater than that of any other drug.
In Europe and America, cocaine is the most commonly used illegal drug after cannabis. (Dr. Utz Anhalt)
Specialist supervision: Barbara Schindewolf-Lensch (doctor)
references
http://www.dieterwunderlich.de/drogen_halluzinogene.htm
http://www.dieterwunderlich.de/drogen_meskalin.htm
http://www.dieterwunderlich.de/drogen_cannabis.htm
http://www.dieterwunderlich.de/drogenmissbrauch.htm