The drugs thread - marijuana, tobacco, caffeine, cigarettes et al

Quote:

---

Upset stomach and heartburn may occur.

Tell your doctor immediately if any of these unlikely but serious side effects occur: easy bruising/bleeding, difficulty hearing, ringing in the ears, change in the amount of urine, persistent or severe nausea/vomiting, unexplained tiredness, dizziness, dark urine, yellowing eyes/skin.

This drug may rarely cause serious bleeding from the stomach/intestine or other areas of the body. If you notice any of the following rare but very serious side effects, seek immediate medical attention: black/tarry stools, persistent or severe stomach/abdominal pain, vomit that looks like coffee grounds, slurred speech, weakness on one side of the body, sudden vision changes or severe headache.

A very serious allergic reaction to this drug is rare. However, seek immediate medical attention if you notice any symptoms of a serious allergic reaction, including: rash, itching/swelling (especially of the face/tongue/throat), severe dizziness, trouble breathing.

This medication should not be used if you have certain medical conditions. Before using this medicine, consult your doctor or pharmacist if you have: bleeding/blood-clotting disorders (such as hemophilia, vitamin K deficiency, low platelet count).

If you have any of the following health problems, consult your doctor or pharmacist before using this medication: kidney disease, liver disease, diabetes, stomach problems (such as ulcers, heartburn, stomach pain), asthma, growths in the nose (nasal polyps), gout, certain enzyme deficiencies (pyruvate kinase or G6PD deficiency).

This medicine may cause stomach bleeding. Daily use of alcohol and tobacco, especially when combined with this product, may increase your risk for this side effect. Limit alcoholic beverages, and stop smoking. Check with your doctor or pharmacist for more information.

Before having surgery, tell your doctor or dentist that you are taking this medication.

Older adults may be more sensitive to the side effects of this drug, especially stomach ulcers.

Not recommended for use during pregnancy. Consult your doctor before using this medication if you are or think you may be pregnant. Tell your doctor immediately if you become pregnant while taking this medication. Do not use this medication during the last 3 months of pregnancy because of possible harm to the unborn baby or problems during delivery.

This drug passes into breast milk and may harm the nursing infant. Breast-feeding while using this drug is not recommended. Consult your doctor before breast-feeding.


This is NOT a complete list of possible side effects. If you notice other effects not listed above, contact your doctor or pharmacist.

---

Hello,

I believe all drugs are dangerous. I can't listen to a drug advertisement on television without being horrified. The side-effects sound worse than the disease.

I think anyone who makes a claim that any drug is absent harmful effects is deluding themselves. It's the wrong argument to make. What they ought to be saying is that they personally feel using the drug is worth the risks, and that they feel people should have the right to make that determination for themselves.

Here's another one:

Quote:

---

SIDE EFFECTS: Nausea, vomiting, stomach upset, headache, trouble sleeping, restlessness, rash or dry skin may occur. If any of these effects persist or worsen, notify your doctor or pharmacist promptly.

Tell your doctor immediately if any of these unlikely but serious side effects occur: trouble breathing, vision changes.

In rare (sometimes, fatal) cases, this medication has been associated with a serious stomach condition (necrotizing enterocolitis).

This is not a complete list of possible side effects. If you notice other effects not listed above, contact your doctor or pharmacist.

---

These are legal medicines. Available without a prescription.


--Anthony

_______________________________________________

"In every war, the state enacts a tax of freedom upon the citizenry.

NOTIFY: Y  | REPLY  | REPLY WITH QUOTE  | PERMALINK  | TOP  | HOME

My wife quit smoking last May, and it has stuck, at least so far. She went to an all-natural, no additives tobacco which she bought at a local "roll-your-own" shop (you buy the tobacco and filters, and their machines will roll you 200 cigarettes for about $20 less than a carton of brand-name smokes). After about 6 months of smoking these non-additive cigarettes, she felt she was ready to just walk away from all of it.

I quit a few years ago myself, but did it cold turkey off the brand name smokes, and it seemed harder for me than it did for her.

From this experience, I'd recommend the "natural" cigarettes to anyone who even wants to THINK about quitting.

Another thing that helped both of us through it? Every time we thought about buying cigarettes, we'd think of the people we're making rich, who are actively trying to kill us with their products. Instead of getting desperate, we got angry. And it's worked.

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill

NOTIFY: Y  | REPLY  | REPLY WITH QUOTE  | PERMALINK  | TOP  | HOME

Some people seem to have an easier time quitting than others. There are studies showing that people with mental health differences have a harder time quitting because our brains are wired a bit differently, duh. My brother tried to quit once and turned into the hagbeast for six weeks until he gave in and started again. We all know he has mental health differences except him.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

NOTIFY: N  | REPLY  | REPLY WITH QUOTE  | PERMALINK  | TOP  | HOME

Quote:

---

Originally posted by RionaEire:
Some people seem to have an easier time quitting than others. There are studies showing that people with mental health differences have a harder time quitting because our brains are wired a bit differently, duh. My brother tried to quit once and turned into the hagbeast for six weeks until he gave in and started again. We all know he has mental health differences except him.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

---

Hello,

It's hard to see these sorts of things in yourself.

For my own part, I am addicted to Coca Cola. Seriously. I've tried to quit on numerous occasions. Sometimes I've been successful for over a month. Then somewhere I have 'just one' and it's all over.

I feel like an alcoholic, but obviously there's no support group you can go to for this stuff without everyone there thinking you're an asshole for comparing your problems to theirs.

--Anthony


_______________________________________________

"In every war, the state enacts a tax of freedom upon the citizenry. The unspoken promise is that the tax shall be revoked at war's end. Endless war holds no such promise. Hence, Eternal War is Eternal Slavery." --Admiral Robert J. Henner

NOTIFY: Y  | REPLY  | REPLY WITH QUOTE  | PERMALINK  | TOP  | HOME

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Kwicko:
My wife quit smoking last May, and it has stuck, at least so far. She went to an all-natural, no additives tobacco which she bought at a local "roll-your-own" shop (you buy the tobacco and filters, and their machines will roll you 200 cigarettes for about $20 less than a carton of brand-name smokes). After about 6 months of smoking these non-additive cigarettes, she felt she was ready to just walk away from all of it.

I quit a few years ago myself, but did it cold turkey off the brand name smokes, and it seemed harder for me than it did for her.

From this experience, I'd recommend the "natural" cigarettes to anyone who even wants to THINK about quitting.

Another thing that helped both of us through it? Every time we thought about buying cigarettes, we'd think of the people we're making rich, who are actively trying to kill us with their products. Instead of getting desperate, we got angry. And it's worked.

---

Took me a long time to give up cigarettes, and I switched to the rollies, only I used to roll my own. It looked terribly eccentric, but in the end I preferred it, it was heaps cheaper and healthier and I still missing rolling, gave me something to do with my hands.

The physical withdrawal was the easiest, just lasted a day or two of feeling irritable, but cigarettes had become a whole way of life. Breaking for a smoko, hanging outside, something to do when I was bored, tense, tired, uncertain. I went into a mourning for the loss.

Haven't smoked for 13 years. Don't miss it now. Had a few puffs last year when I had had a few (drinks) and hated it.

Now all I have to do is give up alcohol and coffee and I'll be addiction free.

NOTIFY: Y  | REPLY  | REPLY WITH QUOTE  | PERMALINK  | TOP  | HOME

I don't know what thread this is being continued from, but some of this caught my eye:

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:

Quote:

---

I would question the difference between "dependent" and "addicted"...I'm believe marijuana can cause PSYCHOLOGICAL dependency, for many reasons--not all having to do with the properties of the drug--but I've seen no scientific evidence that it is physically addictive.

---

Well again, I think the science is incomplete. But in the end, whether you are dependent or addicted, the effect is really the same, isn't it?

---

As far as I can tell, drugs that are classified as "physically addictive" are drugs that mimic the effects of certain chemicals the body produces. In some cases (such as with opiates) the replacement is so flawless that the body stops making the chemical in question, causing major problems when the drug is out of the system for too long. Drugs that are classified as "psychologically addictive" all seem to be drugs that stimulate the body to boost its production of certain chemicals (or, sometimes, to lower its production of an excitatory neurotransmitter) so in these cases, regular production is not shut down. However, removal of this sort of drug from a system that is used to it still means less of whatever chemical is desired. (Or, in more rare cases, more production of something that might not be desirable in high doses.)
So yes, Magons, I agree that the end result is ultimately the same. Shutting down the body's production of something is going to cause more severe problems during withdrawal, but it all causes some fairly serious shifts in neurotransmitters, hormones, or other powerful chemicals.

Let's look at nicotine, for example. The current model of why nicotine is so addictive is that it works with the dopamine system, causing a "reward" feedback in the brain. This is either because it's similar to dopamine or because it enhances the effects of dopamine by attaching to it. Either one of these actions would probably lower the production of dopamine, because not as much would be needed to get the same results. Dopamine might be the single most important chemical in your brain; it is very powerful. It controls not only reward feedback, but learning, pattern recognition, and movement. People who give up nicotine, even after they get over the painful withdrawal symptoms, feel sluggish in their thinking because they aren't getting that boost anymore. This particular effect of quitting can last a year or more, and can be enough for people who have successfully gone through withdrawal to take up cigarettes again. Nicotine, by all accounts, is one of the most difficult things to quit.
I don't have any experience with nicotine addiction. Smoking never appealed to me. Of course, a few years ago, several of my neurotransmitter levels were tested and my dopamine levels were nearly twice the average, so it's possible that I personally would have found the effects of nicotine unpleasant and anxiety-inducing. I'm lucky I never smoked marijuana, because one of the things I've read about it is that it signals the brain to lower production of dopamine. At the same time, it signals the enteric nervous system to up its production of serotonin. When my results came back, by the way, my serotonin was at about half the average. So odds are, I would have really liked the effects of THC. (I started taking 5-htp, which has some similar effects on body chemistry, and have done very well on it. It's fortunately legal and doesn't require inhaling something that isn't air.) If I had gotten addicted to marijuana, withdrawing from it would have likely made me feel anxious and unhappy, because my neurotransmitter production would have gone back to where it once was. Marijuana is considered "psychologically addictive" because withdrawal can have this sort of psychological effect. It doesn't mean the effect is less real, though, or that it has no basis

NOTIFY: N  | REPLY  | REPLY WITH QUOTE  | PERMALINK  | TOP  | HOME

A major factor in how hard it is to quit is how old you were when you started. People who get hooked while they're still teenagers (and younger!) will have the hardest time quitting because they became addicted at a time when their body's chemical balance was still being worked out. So the drug becomes a part of what the body understands as "normal." And abstenance is experienced as an imbalance. Very hard to rewire that.

Whereas, folk who get addicted in their twenties and beyond tend to have a much easier time "resetting" their bodies to a time before the drug. That's why cigarette companies continue to market to children and why MacDonald's has those disgusting playgrounds. They want their drug of choice to become part of your body's basic chemical makeup.

HKCavalier

Hey, hey, hey, don't be mean. We don't have to be mean, because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

NOTIFY: Y  | REPLY  | REPLY WITH QUOTE  | PERMALINK  | TOP  | HOME

I don't believe that drugs should be restricted. The artificially high cost of drugs in the US is part market mechanics and part covering the cost of overhead. I think that if I want to buy percocet, I should be able to walk into the drug store and buy percocet.

In the late 19th century you could buy opiates over the counter at drug stores. Despite the easy availability of lethal drugs, street sweepers weren't complaining about all the overdosed bodies littering the streets. Now, with regulations and restriction of drugs, we still have people who get addicted to drugs. They still manage to feed those addictions. And I'm talking about prescription drugs, not alcohol or tobacco.

I'd like to see the FDA continue to monitor the drug business for purity and safety before a drug is released to market. I just don't believe we need a nanny to watch over us.

NOTIFY: Y  | REPLY  | REPLY WITH QUOTE  | PERMALINK  | TOP  | HOME

Just a few quick comments on addiction

IMHO addiction is whatever you do to get that jolt of dopamine, whether that is playing video games, eating starch combined with grease (there go my opiod receptors!) supporting a baseless idea (delusion), or mainlining heroin. SOME forms of addiction involve psychoactive drugs, but not all.

People who are generally low in dopamine probably have higher rates of addiction.

In addition, people are born with different sensitivities to various chemicals- for example, some people have two copies of the gene for nicotinoid receptors and are powerfully addicted to nicotine, most have only one copy, and some have none and literally cannot get addicted to cigarettes. That probably explains why some people can get hooked on the first try of some things, and others walk away. that also explains why some addictions (like alcoholism) runs in families.

As HK said, when you get accustomed to a chemical also makes a difference.

Psychoactive chemicals are rate-and-dose-dependent. If you had to chew on coca leaves to get your buzz, it would prolly be a lot like drinking coffee. But inhaling it creates a huge rush.

If you have headaches unless you drink caffeine, you are probably a migraineur. There is nothing wrong with drinking coffee or tea (unless the tea is grown in Japan and contaminated with cesium) so keep drinking it.

As far as personal addictions, I could count eating, alcohol, and computer time as areas that I have to watch. Never really started smoking, never really tried many street drugs, but started to get hooked on Darvocet and had to stop after four or five pills because I could see which way it was heading.

If you grew your own coca, pot, poppies and tobacco ... literally... and ingested it in its natural form and concentration there would prolly be less chance of you getting addicted because the dose and rate really makes a difference. As the cigarette mfrs and drug dealers have figured out.

NOTIFY: Y  | REPLY  | REPLY WITH QUOTE  | PERMALINK  | TOP  | HOME