NCJ Number
172887
Date Published
1997
Length
52 pages
Annotation
This discussion of illicit drugs reviews research findings regarding the types of drugs that are abused throughout the world and their impacts on the individual and the community.
Abstract
The health consequences of psychoactive drug use depend on the interaction between the characteristics of the drug and those of the user. Drugs can alter mood and behavior and create dependence. A single use can provoke an acute toxic reaction; chronic effects come from long-term drug abuse. The major types of drugs are opiates, central nervous system depressants, central nervous system stimulants, hallucinogens, inhalants, and cannabis. The health consequences tend to fall first and most acutely on the family of the drug abuser. Drug-using women are likely to be more stigmatized than their male counterparts, because their activities are regarded by society as double deviance. Poverty and intimidation cause many women to become drug couriers. The age of starting drug use appears to be declining in many parts of the world; young people who use drugs may establish a pattern with lifetime consequences. Health risks of injection drug use include HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, tuberculosis, and sexually transmitted diseases. The relationship between illicit drug use and crime is complex; estimates of the cost of drug-related predatory crime are very approximate. The economic costs of drug abuse are widely cited but rarely defined; the crucial distinction is between private costs and social costs. Figures, tables, photographs, reference notes, and attached discussions of the social and health impacts of juvenile drug use in Peru and the relationship between drugs and violence in the United States