GROUPS OR CLASSIFICATIONS OF DRUG ABUSERS

1. Situational Users – those who use drugs to keep them awake for additional energy to
perform an important work. Such individual may or may not exhibit psychological
dependence
2. Spree Users – School age users who take drugs for kicks, and adventurous daring
experience or as a means of fun. There may be some degree of psychological
dependence but little physical dependence due to the mixed pattern of use
3. Hard Core Addicts – those whose activities revolve almost entirely around the drug
experience and securing supplies. They show strong psychological dependence on the
drug
4. Hippies – those who are addicted to drugs believing that drug is an integral part of
life and fashion

BASIC CONCEPTS OF DRUGS

What is a drug?
- It is any substance (with the exception of food and water) which, when taken into the
body, alters the body’s function either physically and/or psychologically.

- It could be:
a. Natural - plant leaves, flowering tops, hashish, opium and marijuana.
b. Synthetic – drugs that are products by laboratories
 Prescriptive drugs- drugs requiring written authorization from a
doctor before they can be purchased.
 Over- the – Counter drugs (OTC’s) - are non-prescription medicines,
which may be purchased form only any pharmacy or drugstore
without written authorization from a doctor.
c. Herbal Drugs - Are plant substances that have drug effects and whose use is
not generally regulated by the law.
d. Unrecognized Drugs - Are commercial products that have a psychoactive
drug effect but are not usually considered drugs. E.g. Tobacco; Alcohol
e. Illicit Drugs - These are drugs whose sale, purchase or use is generally
prohibited by law.

How does it work?

- Drugs interfere with the way neurons send, receive, and process signals via
neurotransmitters. Some drugs can activate neurons because their chemical structure
mimics that of a natural neurotransmitter in the body. This allows the drugs to attach
onto and activate the neurons. Although these drugs mimic the brain's own chemicals,
they don't activate neurons in the same way as a natural neurotransmitter, and they
lead to abnormal messages being sent through the network.

- Depending on the drug, how it functions will affect everyone differently depending
on a person’s (size, gender, mood, and expectations), what environment the drug is
used in, and the drug (amount used, strength, purity).

Are all drugs harmful?

- Any drug may be harmful when abused. The fact that many drugs will produce
beneficial results has led some people to feel that drugs solve all problems. Drugs that
can affect the mind can have subtle or obvious side effects which can be immediate or
may only become evident after continuous use. There are drugs that are taken as

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 medicines. But certain drugs are taken not as medicines but to satisfy a craving or a
strong desire and taking them becomes an ingrained habit.

How drugs are used? (Common methods of administration)

a. Orally
- This is the safest, most convenient and economical route whenever possible.
The drug is taken by the mouth and must pass through the stomach before
being absorbed in the bloodstream. This is the most common ways of taking
drugs.

b. Inhalation
- A drug in gaseous form enters the lungs and is quickly absorbed by the
capillary system. It is probably the second most commonly employed drug
administration.

c. Injection
- Drug is administered to the body by the use of syringe or hypodermic needle
in the following ways:
 Subcutaneous – the drug is injected just below the surface of the skin.
This is sometimes called as “skin popping”.
 Intramuscular – administration involves the injection of a drug into a
large muscle mass that has a good blood supply, such as the gluteus
maximus, quadriceps or triceps.
 Intravenous – this is the most efficient means of administration
which involves depositing a drug directly to the blood stream. This is
also the most rapid drug administration.

d. Snorting / Insufflation
- Inhalation of drugs through the nose. It is done by inhaling a powder or a
liquid drug into the nasal coats of the mucous membrane.
e. Buccal
- Drug is placed in the buccal cavity just under the lips. The active ingredients
of the drug are absorbed in the blood stream through the soft tissues lining
the mouth.
f. Suppositories
- Drug is administered through the vagina or rectum in a suppository form and
the drug is absorbed into the blood stream.
g. Topical
- This refers to the application of drugs directly to a body site such as the
mucous membrane.

DANGEROUS DRUGS

What are dangerous drugs?

- These are drugs that are attended by risk and therefore unsafe, perilous, and
hazardous to people using it. These are strictly prohibited that possession of them is
punishable (RA 9165 Art. 2 Sec. 11).

- The Philippine’s law on dangerous drugs, RA 9165, defined it as: those listed in the
Schedules annexed to the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, as amended by
the 1972 Protocol, and in the Schedules annexed to the 1971 Single Convention on

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 Psychotropic Substances. (See supplemental reading at USB digital resource chapter
2 folder).

Pharmacological classification of dangerous drugs

- Pharmacology simply means as the study of how a drug affects the body.

- According to effects, dangerous drugs are classified as Narcotics, Stimulants

(uppers), Depressants (downers), Hallucinogens.

NARCOTICS (aka opioids)

~ The term “narcotic” comes from the Greek word “narkōtikos” that means
“stupor” and is originally referred to a variety of substances that dulled the senses
and relieved pain.

~ These are drugs relieve pain and produce profound sleep or stupor. Medically,
they are potent painkillers, cough depressants, and as an active component of
anti-diarrheal preparations.

~ The following are classified as narcotics:

Opium

- It is extracted from the coagulated juice poppy plant (Papaver

Sumniferum Linne).
- It can be in the form of aqueous solution, granulated, and powdered.
- Its alkaloids are Morphine, Codeine, Thebaine, Papaverine, Heroin
(diamorphine, diacetylmorphine), Dihydromorphinone, Methyl
dihydromorphinone, and Apomorphine
- Meconic Acid is the active ingredient and analgesic property of Opium.
- Opiates have their effect on the brain because their structure closely
resembles the endorphins of the brain.
- Slang names: “Gum”, “Gamot”, “Kalamay”, “Panocha”

Morphine
- It is the principal derivative of opium and the
most active.
- It is a white crystalline powder, light porous
cubes or small white tablets.
- Its name was derived from the name
“Morpheus”, the Greek god of Dream because
of its dreamful effect, which follows its initial
stimulating effect.
- It is effective as a painkiller six times potent or
stronger than opium, with a high dependence-producing potential.
- 1st discovered by Friedrich Serturner
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 - Slang names: “M”, Dreamer”, “Pectoral”, “Syrup”, “AAA”,”1A”, “999”

Heroin
- It chemically known as Diacetylmorphine or
Diamorphine.
- The most addicting opium derivative.
- 3-5 times more potent than morphine.
- 1st discovered by Alder Wright
- Slang names: “Snow”, “Stuff”, “Junk
tooth”, “H” “Miracle drug”

Codeine
- A derivative of morphine commonly available in cough preparations.
- It is the Methyl Ether of morphine and the least effective.
- 1st discovered by Pierre Robiquet

Synthetic Opioids
Demerol
- A morphine-like opioid and it is a brand
name of meperidine. As a powerful
painkiller, an addiction to the drug can
develop quickly.
Methadone
- It is a powerful drug used for pain relief
and treatment of drug addiction.
Percodan
- It is an opioid agonist of the morphine-type.
Darvon (propoxyphene)
- It is a mu-opioid agonist, it may be subject
to misuse, abuse, and addiction.

Paregoric
- Camphorated tincture of opium. It is a
mixture of opium, camphor, benzoic acid,
and anise oil in alcohol.

Laudanum
- It is a tincture of opium containing
approximately 10% powdered opium.
Fentanyl
- A designer narcotic whose potency may even
be greater than heroin’s. It is an effective pain
killing drug.
- Designer drug means substances chemically
related to but slightly different from controlled
substances. It is designed by clandestine
chemist with the aim to manufacture
compounds that produce the “high” or
euphoria of parent drugs and avoid the penalties that would be levied against
those illegally traffic the controlled substances.
- Synthetic opioid that is similar to morphine but is 50-100 times more potent.
- Slang terms: “Apache”, “China Girl”, “China White”, “Jackpot”

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STIMULANTS (UPPERS)
- These are drugs that produce excitation, alertness, and wakefulness, intense feeling of
“highness” and in some cases, a temporary rise in blood pressure and respiration.

- It works by increasing the activity of the brain chemicals dopamine and

norepinephrine. Dopamine is involved in the reinforcement of rewarding behaviors.
Norepinephrine affects blood vessels, blood pressure and heart rate, blood sugar, and
breathing.

- People who use prescription stimulants report feeling a "rush" (euphoria) along with
the following:
a. increased blood pressure and heart rate
b. increased breathing
c. decreased blood flow
d. increased blood sugar
e. opened-up breathing passages

- The following are classified as stimulants:

Cocaine
- This is a natural produce obtained/extracted
from the leaves of Erythroxylum coca or the
Coca Bush.
- First isolated in 1860 by Dr. Albert Nieman.
There are basically three chemical forms of
cocaine: the hydrochloride salt, “freebase” and
the Crack. Crack is made by mixing baking soda
or ammonia into the powder form of cocaine.
- Here is a more detailed step-by-step process for making cocaine:
Step 1: Workers harvest the coca leaves.
Step 2: The leaves are soaked in gasoline.
Step 3: The gasoline is drained.
Step 4: The cocaine base is dried.
Step 5: The dried substance is dissolved in a solvent.
Step 6: Excess solvents are removed, and it is dried into bricks.

Amphetamines
- Amphetamines are a group of drugs that
increase the activity of certain
chemicals in the brain.
- They are derived from ephedra
(Ephedra sinica), a plant native to
China and Mongolia. The plant contains
ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, which
are natural alkaloids, or nitrogenous
organic compounds that cause a

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 physiological response in humans. These chemicals are the basis on which
amphetamines (including methamphetamine) were created.
- SLANG NAMES: “Beanies”, “copilots”, “football hearts”, “pep pills”,
“ampies”, “Speedballs

Methamphetamine Hydrochloride (Shabu)

- It is white, colorless, crystal or crystalline
powder with a bitter numbing taste.
- It is considered as the poor man’s cocaine
and was 1st synthesized in JAPAN (1919)
“Kakuseizai”.
- SLANG NAMES: “upper or speed”,
“Shabs”, “Tubas”, “S”, “Spoil”, “Ha”,
and “Ice”.
- Meth bugs / Magnan’s Symptoms - The
feeling as if grains of sand are lying under
the skin or small insects are creeping on
the skin.

Flakka
- Aka Bath salts, Ivory Wave, The zombie
drug
- Khat plant of East Africa and Southern
Arabia
- People who use it have gone on mad,
violent, zombie-like rampages.

Caffeine
- It is a drug that is present in coffee, tea, chocolate, cola drinks and some
wakeup pills.

DEPRESSANTS (DOWNERS)
- These are drugs which suppress vital body functions especially those of the brain or
central nervous system with the resulting impairment of judgment, hearing, speech,
and muscular coordination.

- They dull the minds, slow down body reactions to such an extent that accidental
deaths/or suicides, usually happen.

Barbiturates
- These are drugs used for inducing sleep in
persons plagued with anxiety, mental stress
and insomnia.
- Adolf Von Bayer synthesized Malonyl
Caitamide or the so called barbituric acid.
- SLANG NAMES: “Goofballs”,
“Footballs”, “Barbs”, “Blockbuster”
- Its types include the following:
 Amo-Barbital (Amytal) - In solid blue capsule form known as
“Blues”, “ Blue devils”, “Blue heavens”, “Blue birds”, and “Blue
dragons”
 Seco- Barbital (Seconal) - In red capsule form called “Reds”, “ Red
birds”, “ Red devils”, and “Seggy”.

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  Pento- Barbital (Nembutal) - It is found in solid yellow capsule
known to the abusers as “yellow jackets”, or “Nemies”
 Pheno- Barbital (Luminal) - “Purple heart”, “Barbs”
 Combination of Amobarbital- Secobarbital (Tuinal) - “Tooies”,
“Christmas Tree”, “Rainbow”

Methaqualone
- It is a sedative-hypnotic drug that is similar
in effect to barbiturates, a general central
nervous system depressant.
- Trade Names: “Quaalude”/”ludes”,
“Sopor”/”soaps”, “Parest”, and “Optimil”

Mandrax
- A methaqualone and diphenhydramine
combination pill. It may also contain benzodiazepines, barbiturates, or
ephedrine.

Tranquilizers
- These are drugs used in treating nervous
disorders or calm psychotic patients or
mental disorders without producing sleep.
- Some of its type includes Diazepam and
Meprobamate.

Alcohol
- It is considered as the ‘king’ of all drugs and most extensively legalized drugs
throughout the world.

Inhalants
- The inhalation of solvent fumes from glue,
gasoline, and paint thinner and lighter fluid
will produce a form of intoxication.
- “sudden sniffing death syndrome” (sudden
death by cardiac arrest)

HALLUCINOGENS (PSYCHEDELIC)
- A variety or mind- altering drugs which distort reality, thinking and perception of
time, sound, space and sensation. It usually affects the user by Hallucination, Illusion
and Delusion.

- Hallucinogens interfere with the action of the brain chemical serotonin, which
regulates mood, sensory, and perception.

- Its kind includes the following:

Cannabis Sativa / Marijuana

- Considered to be the world’s oldest cultivated
plant.
- The most important psycho-active ingredient of
Cannabis is known as Tetrahydrocannabinol
(THC) or the Delta 9. The TCH was first

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 synthesized by Raphael Mechoulam; an Israeli organic chemist and professor of
Medicinal Chemistry.
- It is also called as Indian hemp, Grass, Damo, Weed, Ganja. It is a drug called
known as the “Assassins of the Youth”.
- Cannabis is prepared in the following manner;
 Marijuana – dried leaves of cannabis plant
 Weed / pot – dried flowering tops
 Hashish - is derived from the “kief,” or the dried resin, of the flowering
tops of mature and unpollinated female cannabis plants. The resin glands
are called trichomes or crystals.
 Hash oil - is a concentrated cannabis extract and the most potent among
all preparations.

 Joint – MJ cigarette

Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD)

- The drug was first synthesized by Dr.
Albert Hoffman and Dr. Arthur
Steel. It is synthesized from the Ergot
plants- a fungus that parasites rye and
other grains.
- This drug is the most powerful of the
Psychedelics and it is 1, 000 times
more powerful than marijuana. LSD is
a colorless, tasteless, odorless, usually
liquid form and taken orally.
- Synesthesia – hear colors or see
sounds.
- Higher doses cause a more serious
condition called gangrenous ergotism
in which the tissue in the feet, legs,
hands, and arms becomes dry and black.
- SLANG NAMES: Acid, Blotter Acid, California Sunshine, hoze, Microdots,
paper acid, purple haze, sunshine
- Usually in the form of paper strips and abused orally.

Mescaline
- Mescaline is a hallucinogen obtained from the
small, spineless cactus Peyote (Lophophora
williamsi). The top of it are cut off and dried in
the sun to form peyote or mescal buttons which
contain the active drug, mescaline.

- SLANG NAMES: “Battons”, “Cactus”, “Mese”,

“Mescal”, “Mescal Buttons”.

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Psilocybin
- A drug derived from the psylocybe mushrooms (azurescens, semilanceata,
cyanescens) is eaten and they produced an effect quite similar to mescaline and
LSD.
- These mushrooms induce nausea, muscular relaxation, mood changes with
visions of bright colors and shapes and later maybe followed by depressions
laziness and complete loss of time and space perceptions.
- Slang words for "magic mushrooms" are: zoomers, shroom, sewage fruit, goom.

Ecstasy
- A group of drugs that chemically includes
Methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA),
Methylenedioxy-amphetamine (MDMA) and
methylenedioxyethylamphetamine (MDEA).
- Because the drug produces euphoric effects,
increased sensitivity to touch, and lowered
inhibitions
- It popularly known as the “love drug”.
SLANG NAMES: “XTC”, “Adam” “molly”
(US), “mandy” (UK)

Phencyclidine (PCP)
- It was developed in the late 1950s as an
intravenous anesthetic. PCP first appeared on
the street drug scene in 1967 as the PeaCe
Pill. In 1968, PCP reappeared in New York
as “Hog”.

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