Addictive drugs may be classified as Stimulants, Depressants, Hallucinogens or Opioids on the basis of

their effect. Write a detailed document about each class how they interact and effect one’s brain and
their source of production

By Aroosa Sarfaraz

Classification of drugs

Addictive drugs may be classified as Stimulants, Depressants, Hallucinogens, or Opioids on the basis of
their effects

Drug Classifications: Law and Science

From common medications to illegal narcotics, drugs abound all over the world. A drug is any substance
that alters the physiology, sensation, or cognition of an organism. Since thousands of drugs exist,
scientists tend to categorize them into broad classifications on the basis of their shared chemical
properties and effects on the human body and mind.

Since many drugs are dangerous and addictive, every country in the world also classifies some drugs or
categories of drugs as controlled substances. Drugs become controlled substances when a country’s
laws restrict people from consuming, possessing, manufacturing, transporting, buying, or selling them
within the government’s jurisdiction. In some cases, a controlled substance may be illegal for anyone to
use for any reason. In other cases, the law may impose limits on how a controlled substance may be
used legally, such as exclusively for medical prescriptions or scientific research.

Drug Classifications By Effect

Both legal drugs and controlled substances can the sources of addiction. In general, addictive drugs may
be classified as Stimulants, Depressants, Hallucinogens, or Opioids. These four drug classifications
separate substances by how they interact with the brain and alter a person’s mindset and behavior.

Stimulants

Stimulants are a class of drugs which enhance central nervous system activity and block the re-uptake of
the neurotransmitters norepinephrine and dopamine. Norepinephrine enhances arousal, memory, and
attention, while dopamine reinforces a person’s inclination to positive stimuli. A typical Stimulant will
cause a “rush” of euphoria and wakefulness, accompanied by heightened breathing, heart rate, and
blood pressure. In larger doses, Stimulants may cause heart failure and seizures.

Doctors prescribe some Stimulants as medication for ADHD and narcolepsy. People also use Stimulants
without a prescription to stay active and alert while working, studying, or exercising. Caffeine is the most
commonly used Stimulant in the world. The illegal recreational drugs Cocaine, Methamphetamine,
MDMA (Ecstasy), and Cathonine are also Stimulants.
Depressants

Depressants are drugs that impair the activity of the central nervous system by enhancing the effects of
GABA, a neurotransmitter which inhibits connectivity among neurons. Depressants typically make a
person feel calm or drowsy. Since depressants sedate the brain, doctors prescribe some of them as
medications for sleep disorders, anxiety, and stress. The two sub-categories of prescription depressants
are Benzodiazepines and Barbiturates. Depressants have the potential to cause addiction and overdose,
and they can cause side-effects such as slurred speech, dizziness, and loss of coordination. Alcohol is
perhaps the most widely-abused depressant in the world.

Hallucinogens

Hallucinogens are mind-altering drugs which cause false perceptions of reality. A hallucinogen may
distort how a person experiences time, motion, colors, and sounds. Hallucinogens affect the brain’s
levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter which regulates cognition and memory. Some Hallucinogens also
cause dissociative effects by interfering with the functioning of the excitatory neurotransmitter
glutamate.

Dissociative Hallucinogens cause sensations of detachment from reality as well as hallucinations. The
effects of a Hallucinogen will depend on the drug and vary from person to person. Mescaline, DMT, LSD,
and Psilocybin are examples of non-dissociative Hallucinogens. Ketamine and PCP are both dissociative
Hallucinogens. Almost all Hallucinogens are controlled substances in most countries.

Opioids

Opioids are drugs which originate naturally in the Opium poppy plant. Synthetic Opioids like Fentanyl
are manufactured to imitate the chemical structures of natural Opioids like Morphine. Opioids block
sensations of pain by binding to the brain’s Opioid receptors. Doctors prescribe Opioids to treat
moderate to severe pain. Opioids also cause intense sedation and euphoria. Since Opioids pose serious
risks for addiction and overdose, most Opioids are Schedule I or II controlled substances. Throughout
the world, drug traffickers manufacture and sell Opioids as counterfeit painkillers or recreational drugs.
From 1999 to 2017, illegal and prescribed Opioids killed about 400,000 Americans.

Source of stimulants

Stimulant, any drug that excites any bodily function, but more specifically those that stimulate the brain
and central nervous system. Stimulants induce alertness, elevated mood, wakefulness, increased speech
and motor activity and decrease appetite. Their therapeutic use is limited, but their mood-elevating
effects make some of them potent drugs of abuse.

The major stimulant drugs are amphetamines and related compounds, methylxanthines (methylated
purines), cocaine, and nicotine. Amphetamines achieve their effect by increasing the amount and
activity of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine (noradrenaline) within the brain. They facilitate the
release of norepinephrine by nerve cells and interfere with the cells’ reuptake and breakdown of the
chemical, thereby increasing its availability within the brain. The most commonly used amphetamines
are methamphetamine (Methedrine), amphetamine sulfate (Benzedrine), and dextroamphetamine
sulfate (Dexedrine). Amphetamines were first used in the 1930s to treat narcolepsy and subsequently
became prescribed for obesity and fatigue. Their heavy or prolonged use causes irritability, restlessness,
hyperactivity, anxiety, excessive speech, and rapid mood swings. Still higher doses or chronic use can
cause agitation, tremor, confusion, and, in the most serious cases, a state resembling paranoid
schizophrenia. Moreover, letdown effects of deep depression and physical exhaustion may occur after
only a single dose of moderate strength wears off. With repeated use, tolerance develops, so that a user
needs to take larger doses, but the accompanying dependence is not strong enough to be termed a
physical addiction. Amphetamines are widely abused, in some cases by workers or students seeking
enhanced physical energy and mental acuity to fulfill demanding tasks.

Certain drugs related to the amphetamines have the same mode of action but are somewhat milder
stimulants. Among them are phenmetrazine (Preludin) and methylphenidate (Ritalin). The latter drug is
widely used to “slow down” hyperactive children and improve their ability to concentrate.

The methylxanthines

The methylxanthines are even milder stimulants. Unlike the amphetamines and methylphenidate, which
are synthetically manufactured, these compounds occur naturally in various plants and have been used
by humans for many centuries. The most important of them are caffeine, theophylline, and
theobromine. The strongest is caffeine, which is the active ingredient of coffee, tea, cola beverages, and
maté. Theobromine is the active ingredient in cocoa. Caffeine constricts blood vessels of the brain; for
this reason it is often a component of headache remedies. Theophylline is used in the treatment of
severe asthma because of its capacity for relaxing the bronchioles in the lungs.

Cocaine

Cocaine is one of the strongest and shortest-acting stimulants and has a high potential for abuse owing
to its euphoric and habit-forming effects. Nicotine, the active ingredient in cigarettes and other tobacco
products, may also be regarded as a stimulant.

Cocaine, white crystalline alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant (Erythroxylum
coca), a bush commonly found growing wild in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador and cultivated in many other
countries.

For centuries the Indians of Peru and Bolivia have chewed coca leaves mixed with pellets of limestone or
plant ashes for pleasure or in order to withstand strenuous working conditions, hunger, and thirst. In
other cultures the active alkaloid is chemically extracted from coca leaves and is converted into the
hydrochloric salt of cocaine, cocaine hydrochloride. This fine white powder is sniffed through a hollow
tube and is readily absorbed into the bloodstream through the nasal mucous membranes

Impact of hallucinogens on brain

The chemical formula of cocaine is C17H21NO4. Cocaine acts as an anesthetic because it interrupts the
conduction of impulses in nerves, especially those in the mucous membranes of the eye, nose, and
throat. More importantly, cocaine when ingested in small amounts produces feelings of well-being and
euphoria, along with a decreased appetite, relief from fatigue, and increased mental alertness. When
taken in larger amounts and upon prolonged and repeated use, cocaine can produce depression,
anxiety, irritability, sleep problems, chronic fatigue, mental confusion, paranoia, and convulsions that
can cause death.
Cocaine is an irritant, however, and acts to constrict blood vessels, causing a chronic runny nose or, in
severe cases, ulcerations in the nasal cavity. The euphoric effects of sniffing cocaine are relatively
transitory and wear off after about 30 minutes. Cocaine is habit-forming and may also be physically
addicting. Cocaine is also injected in solution or smoked in a chemically treated form known as freebase;
either of these methods produces a markedly more compulsive use of the drug. In the 1980s a new
preparation of cocaine appeared, called crack; the smoking of crack produces an even more intense and
even more short-lived euphoria that is extremely addicting. This form of cocaine consumption is also the
one most detrimental to health. Another smokable and highly addictive form is cocaine paste, which is
an intermediate stage in the processing of coca leaves into cocaine.

The prolonged or compulsive use of cocaine in any of its purified forms can cause severe personality
disturbances, inability to sleep, and loss of appetite. A toxic psychosis can develop involving paranoid
delusions and disturbing tactile hallucinations in which the user feels insects crawling under his skin.
Cocaine abuse, which had been a marginal drug problem throughout much of the 20th century, grew
alarmingly in the late 20th century in several countries, and cocaine has become responsible for a
markedly increased proportion of drug-induced deaths.

Only the D-isomer of LSD was found to be psychedelically active. It was thought that LSD, as well as
psilocybin, psilocin, bufotenine, and harmine, acted antagonistically toward serotonin, an important
brain hormone. However, evidence for this was contradictory. Some chemicals that blocked serotonin
receptors in the brain were found to have no psychedelic activity. Mescaline was discovered to be
structurally related to the adrenal hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine—catecholamines that are
very active in the peripheral nervous system and are suspected of playing a role as neurotransmitters in
the central nervous system.

Hallucinoges: N,N-dimethyltryptamine, dimethyltryptamine

DMT, abbreviation of Dimethyltryptamine, powerful, naturally occurring hallucinogenic compound

structurally related to the drug LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide). DMT blocks the action of serotonin (a
transmitter of nerve impulses) in brain tissue. It is inactive when taken by mouth and produces effects
only when injected, sniffed, or smoked. The hallucinatory action begins about five minutes after
administration by injection and lasts for about an hour. Naturally formed DMT has been found in the
body fluids of persons suffering from schizophrenia. It also has been synthesized chemically. DMT is
contained in cohoba, the hallucinogenic snuff made from the seeds of Piptadenia peregrina and used by
the Indians of Trinidad and the Llanos in northern South America at the time of early Spanish
explorations.

Sources of Hallucinogens

Psychopharmacological drugs

The psychopharmacological drugs that have aroused widespread interest and controversy are those that
produce marked aberrations in behaviour or perception. Among the most prevalent of these are D-
lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD-25, which originally was derived from ergot (Claviceps purpurea), a
fungus on rye and wheat; mescaline, the active principle of the peyote cactus (Lophophora williamsii),
which grows in the southwestern United States and Mexico; and psilocybin and psilocin, which come
from certain mushrooms (notably two Mexican species, Psilocybe mexicana and P. cubensis).
Other hallucinogens include bufotenine, originally isolated from the skin of toads; harmine, from the
seed coats of a plant of the Middle East and Mediterranean region; and the synthetic compounds
methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA), methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), and phencyclidine
(PCP). Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in cannabis, or marijuana, obtained from the
leaves and tops of plants in the genus Cannabis, is also sometimes classified as a hallucinogen.

Scientific interest in hallucinogens developed slowly. Mescaline was finally isolated as the active
principle of peyote in 1896. It was not until 1943, when Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann accidentally
ingested a synthetic preparation of LSD and experienced its psychedelic effects, that the search for a
natural substance responsible for schizophrenia became widespread. Gordon Wasson, a New York
banker and mycologist, called attention to the powers of the Mexican mushrooms in 1953, and the
active principle was quickly found to be psilocybin.

Psychotherapy and illicit use

During the 1950s and ’60s there was a great deal of scientific research with hallucinogens in
psychotherapy. LSD was used in the treatment of alcoholism, to reduce the suffering of terminally ill
cancer patients, and in the treatment of children with autism. Controversy arose over the social aspects
of the drugs. Subsequent scientific research indicated that the side effects of these drugs were more
serious than previous research had indicated and that human experimentation was somewhat
premature. As a result, many of the hallucinogens were limited to scientific use, with pharmaceutical
manufacture strictly regulated.

Illicit experimentation continued over the following decades, partly inspired by the mystical writings of
Aldous Huxley, and a vigorous subculture sprang up surrounding hallucinogens in the 1960s. Originating
on the West Coast of the United States, it spread throughout North America, Western Europe, and
Australia. At the end of the century there was a revived interest in LSD in the United States, and the drug
Ecstasy became popular among young people. In addition, some individuals began experimenting with
countless new substances, particularly from the phenethylamine and tryptamine families, which was
difficult to regulate or suppress because the necessary information to make the drugs was widely
available through the internet.

SOURCES OF OPIODS

Opioids can be prescription medications often referred to as painkillers, or they can be so-called street
drugs, such as heroin.

Many prescription opioids are used to block pain signals between the brain and the body and are
typically prescribed to treat moderate to severe pain. In addition to controlling pain, opioids can make
some people feel relaxed, happy or “high,” and can be addictive. Additional side effects can include
slowed breathing, constipation, nausea, confusion and drowsiness.

Opioids by Name

Opioids are sometimes referred to as narcotics and although they do relieve pain, they do not fall into
the same category as over-the-counter painkillers such as aspirin and Tylenol.

The most commonly used opioids are:

 1. prescription opioids, such as OxyContin and Vicodin
2. fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50–100 times more potent than morphine
3. heroin, an illegal drug

Impact of Opioids on brain

Opioid use does not come without risks. Regular use of these prescribed medications can increase your
tolerance and dependence, requiring higher and more frequent doses. In some cases longer term use
can lead to addiction (or what doctors will call “opioid use disorder”). In addition, opioids can restrict
your ability to breathe when taken at a higher dose, and when misused, can lead to a fatal overdose.
The risk of respiratory depression (slowing or even stopping your breathing), increases if you have never
taken an opioid before or if you are taking other medications/drugs that interact with the opioid.
Opioids, which can interact with diseases, too, should only be used if needed for pain, including if
alternatives for pain control are not effective.

Two opioids often spoken about are heroin and morphine. One of these substances, heroin, is
completely illegal, while morphine is used in medical settings. So, what are the differences between
heroin and morphine?

What Is Heroin?

Heroin is an illegal opioid that’s sold on black markets and is derived from the poppy. When you take
heroin, it creates a euphoric high at first and then, because it depresses the central nervous system,
people will become very drowsy or sedated. A sign of heroin use is often nodding off intermittently,
which is the result of the effects of the drug on the central nervous system.

Heroin attaches to the opioid receptors in the brain and floods the reward pathways with dopamine,
which is a feel-good brain chemical. While this dopamine flood is responsible for the high that people
seek when they use heroin, this is also what triggers the development of addiction. Your brain’s reward
pathways push you to continue seeking heroin after you use it and it’s a highly addictive drug.

There’s also physical dependence that occurs with heroin. Physical dependence means that your body
becomes used to the presence of heroin and if you stop using it suddenly, you go into a type of shock
which is called withdrawal.

Heroin is most often injected, so along with the risks of the drug itself, there are also risks associated
with intravenous drug use.

What is Morphine?

Morphine is derived from poppies, and it’s used in medical settings as a powerful pain reliever. In
medical settings, morphine is usually reserved for only severe pain management including following
surgery and in terminal cancer patients. When you are on morphine, it not only reduces pain but it also
reduces appetite and cough.
Much like heroin, morphine can also be highly addictive, which is why it’s meant to be tightly controlled
in medical settings. However, it is widely abused.

On the street, morphine is often known by names like God’s Drug, MS and Dreamer.

In the past, morphine was most often administered in an injectable form, but now it’s given as a pill, a
suppository or as a solution that can be ingested instead.

When someone takes morphine, it enters their bloodstream and then crosses the blood-brain barrier,
activating opioid receptors. Much like heroin, morphine can cause respiratory depression because it
affects the central nervous system, and people can not only become addicted but also develop tolerance
and physical addiction. This means that the effects of morphine may start to subside, so the person
would have to take more of it to get the same results. Morphine is classified as a Schedule II drug in the
U

Differences Between Heroin and Morphine

There are many similarities between heroin and morphine, but differences as well.

One of the biggest differences between heroin and morphine is the fact that heroin is three times more
potent than morphine, which can be shocking. Heroin, along with being three times more potent, is also
semi-synthetic. Heroin is made when morphine is combined with unknown chemical substances.

There are also differences in how heroin and morphine are administered. Heroin is primarily injected,
and it doesn’t have any medical uses in the U.S., while morphine is usually given as a pill or a
suppository.

Another one of the differences between heroin and morphine relates to how quickly they reach the
brain. Both heroin and morphine can pass the blood-brain barrier, but heroin does so faster than
morphine, and once it reaches the brain, it’s converted to morphine. Generally, the more fast-acting a
drug is, the more addictive it is.

With heroin and morphine, it’s also easier and cheaper to get heroin in most cases. The market is
flooded with heroin, and much of it is poor quality or mixed with dangerous ingredients, while morphine
is closely regulated, making it much less accessible.