Hallucinogen Essay example -- essays research papers

Hallucinogen tour many drugs speed up or depress the central na useous system, there is aclass of drugs that distorts how we feel, hear, see, smell, taste, and think.Called hallucinogens because users often hallucinate, or experience nonexistentsensations, these drugs are as well as known as psychedelic, or mind-bending, drugs.Some hallucinogens sum from natural sources others are made in laboratories.Examples of natural hallucinogens are mescal, psilocybin, DMT, and marijuana.Mescaline, which has been utilize by Ameri ordure Indians in religious ceremonies,comes from the peyote cactus. Psilocybin, also use by the Indians and believedto have supernatural powers, is found in about 20 varieties of mushrooms. Onceingested, psilocybin is converted to psilocin, which is trusty for thedrugs psychoactive sensations. DMT (dimethyltryptamine) is a short-actinghallucinogen found in the seeds of certain West Indian and South American plants.In the form of snuff, called cohoba, it has be en apply in religious ceremonies inHaiti. cannabis is a plant belonging to the hemp family . The active principleresponsible for the drugs effects is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), obtained fromthe amber-colored resin of the flowering tops and leaves of the plant. Hashishis also made from this resin.Of all drugs, synthetic and natural, the most powerful is lysergic acid diethylamide, or lysergic blistery diethylamide. Twenty micrograms, an almost infinitesimal amount, issufficient to produce a hallucinogenic effect just 3 pounds (1.4 kilograms)could induce a reaction in all the inhabitants of New York City and London. Thisextraordinary potency makes LSD especially dangerous since it is usuallyimpossible to determine how much is contained in doses offered by drug dealers.LSD is chemically derived from ergot, a parasitic fungus that grows on rye whiskyand other grains. An odorless, colorless, and tasteless substance, LSD is soldon the street in tablets, capsules, and sometimes liquid form. It is usuallytaken by mouth yet can be injected. Often LSD is placed on a blotter or otherabsorbent paper and marked into smallish squares, each representing one dose.Synthetic hallucinogens with effects resembling those of LSD include DET(diethyltryptamine), a synthetic compound similar to DMT, and DOM (2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylamphetamine), a compound that combines some of the propertiesof mescaline and amphet... ...ects of hallucinogens are dilated pupils,raised body temperature, increased heart rate and rail line pressure, sweating, lossof appetite, sleeplessness, dry mouth, and tremors. The long-term effects areless certain. LSD users whitethorn experience involuntary flashbacks during which thedrugs effects reappear without warning. Such flashbacks can occur days, months,or even years after the drug was go used. Some LSD users develop organic braindamage, manifested by damage memory and attention span, mental confusion, anddifficulty with abstract thinking. It is stil l indecipherable whether such damage canbe reversed when LSD use is halted.Although hallucinogens can pose a threat to health when used indiscriminately,they may also have therapeutic uses in medicine when administered undercontrolled circumstances. A synthetic form of THC, the active principle inmarijuana, has been approved for ethical drug use by persons who suffer from thesevere nausea that often accompanies cancer chemotherapy and for whom otherantinausea drugs are unsuitable or ineffective. LSD was once used to treatpersons with certain mental disorders, but such use was tumble-down because of thedrugs harmful effects.