When the subject of drug use is addressed, most individuals think about the abuse of narcotics - yet the topic of drug use spans a whole plethora of different categories, including legal and illegal consumption of substances. ... Opium use was popular for centuries in Asia, and was part of the reason that the "Silk Road" was born. ... Since the 1980's, MDMA, a form of amphetamine commonly known as ecstasy, has been popular in club scenes. ...

• Word Count: 559
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The Diagnostic and Statistical Disorders Manual or the DSM-IV defines addiction as the presence of three or more of the following criteria in the last twelve months; tolerance, withdrawal symptoms, continued use despite harm, loss of control, attempts to cut down, salience, and reduced involvement. ...

• Word Count: 977
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

These drugs were not only medicinal, however, and they became popular for recreation, and cocaine, specifically became an ingredient in wines and soft drinks, namely Coca Cola (Encarta, "Cocaine"). ... Also in relation to alcohol prohibition, those profiting most from America's "War on Drugs" are the organized crime barons, who make an estimated $10 to $50 billion dollars a year from drug trade alone (More Reefer Madness, 15-25). ... It is in this that the prohibition of marijuana is most harmful to the American public. ... Marijuana is the third most popular drug in America, alcohol a...

• Word Count: 1707
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

However, drinking remains popular among teenagers. ... However, educating teenagers about alcohol has proven to be the most effective way to reduce the amount of underage drinking in America. ... However, the word "drug" has negative implications, and the attempt to disgrace a legal product, alcohol, which is used in moderation by most American adults, is ineffective. ...

• Word Count: 872
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Parental responsibility lies, also, in protecting children of most of harmful things in the world, in this case, shielding them of drugs consumption; and obviously of business related with it. ... In spite of many popular cultures consider a teenager that acquires the Identity Card (IC), as an adult, who has the right to make decisions by himself. ...

• Word Count: 727
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The primary distinguishable feature of most psilocybin containing mushrooms is that they bruise blue when handled. ... Even though psilocybin-containing mushrooms are a popular recreational drug, estimating the use of hallucinogenic mushroom use is difficult. ... Most recreationally used mushrooms are cultivated rather than picked wild. ... Once ingested, most of the psilocybin is converted to psilocin within the first hour. Most of the psilocin is then excreted within 8 hours, but portions remain in the system for several weeks. ...

• Word Count: 1026
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug in the United States and tends to be the first illegal drug teens use. ... While most marijuana users do not go on to use more dangerous drugs, most heavy drug users started with marijuana. ... Marijuana in Hawaii is the second most significant drug threat to the state and is frequently abused in Hawaii, especially by teenagers. ... It's the more popular drug, more widely used...

• Word Count: 1430
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

To legalize and unleash the United States' third most consumed drug behind alcohol and cigarettes seems ludicrous to most Americans yet more than half of Californians find it ideal. ... It would be a symbolic victory for commonsense drug policy after acknowledging the popular support and scientific evidence for cannabis. ...

• Word Count: 1412
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Although if there is food in the stomach, then most of the alcohol will be absorbed by the food before being absorbed by the stomach and small intestine. ... Pain-Killers In the United States, addiction to pain-killers, whether they are prescription or over-the-counter, are becoming a popular thing among teenagers and young adults. ...

• Word Count: 2034
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

First of all, and most directly, it is a crime to use, possess, manufacture, or distribute drugs classified as having a potential for abuse (such as cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and amphetamines). ... Twenty three years later, these policies have had significant effects on the criminal justice system, most of them negative. ... A report by the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) asserts, "[e]ntanglement of law enforcement with treatment can come at a high price: the sacrifice of confidentiality between patient and caregiver; the diversion of funding from voluntary and community-based treatment into coe...

• Word Count: 2815
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Most of us believe that, if an event or condition 'causes' some consequence, then the consequence invariably follows the event or condition. ... One shared issue in popular discussions of crime is a bias to mystify the examination for "causes" with an examination for "blame". ...

• Word Count: 3709
• Approx Pages: 15
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

INTRODUCTION Marijuana - often called pot, grass, reefer, weed, herb, mary jane, or mj - is the Nation's most commonly used illicit drug. ... Marijuana is the third most popular recreational drug of choice for Americans, exceeded only by alcohol and tobacco in popularity.3 Types of Drugs Used by Past Month Illicit Drug Users Aged 12 or Older: 2002 Marijuana penalties vary nation wide. ... Institute of Medicine (IOM), fewer than one in 10 marijuana smokers become regular users of the drug, and most voluntary cease their use after 34 years of age. ...

• Word Count: 2773
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Morphine is easily converted to heroin by a chemical process.Currently, heroin has no real medicinal value and is one of the most abused narcotics ever synthesized, being responsible for the destruction of many lives. ... In later years the Portuguese and later the British were supplying China with most of its opium, making Britain (and mainly a company called the East India Company) the world's largest dealer. ... During Victorian times, taking opium in the form a laudanum (opium dissolved in alcohol) and in pill form became very popular among all the classes. ... We are often told wha...

• Word Count: 3024
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In the 1930s most states required antidrug education in the schools, but fears that knowledge would lead to experimentation caused it to be abandoned in most places. ... The 1980s brought a decline use of most drugs, but cocaine and crack use soared. ... Most of these preparations were herbs, roots, mushrooms or fungi. ... Morphine , a strictly controlled opiate, and synthetic opiates, such as fentanyl, are most often abused by people in the medical professions, who have easier access to these drugs. ... Given intravenously, it is still considered the most effective drug for the relief of pain...

• Word Count: 5106
• Approx Pages: 20
• Grade Level: Undergraduate