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Example research essay topic: Opium Poppy Blood Flow - 1,589 words

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Many different drugs have different effects on the body. This paper focuses on the effects caused by three widely used drugs opium, cocaine, and cannabis. They have many common effects between them. Some characteristics of the effects of those drugs are those of stimulants and others are those of depressants.

We will describe the chemical effects of each drug on the body. Opium is a drug produced from the capsules of the opium poppy. When fresh from the plant it is a gooey light brown mass ("Opium, " Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2000). After it is allowed to dry out it hardens and darkens. Its chemical formula consists of 17 carbon atoms, 19 hydrogen atoms, 3 oxygen atoms, and 1 nitrogen atom (Barbara Hodgson, 1999, p 15). Opium has an extensive history.

It was first used about 3400 B. C. In the early 1800 s British opium smugglers illegally smuggled the drug into China. In doing this they made enormous profits and hooked many Chinese citizens on the drug. This illegal trade caused a war, appropriately titled the Opium War. Eventually when the Chinese began migrating out into the world they spread opium use.

Opium can be smoked, eaten, drunk or injected. Most commonly it was smoked. This was in part because opium designed for smoking was the cheapest and easiest to obtain. Smokers took their habit very seriously.

They usually possessed a smokers kit, which included a lamp to light the opium, a box to store it, one of a variety of different pipes, extra bowls for the pipe, a sponge and bowl scraper to clean the pipe, and a pillow to rest their heads on as they smoked (Barbara Hodgson, pgs. 1 - 46). Most smokers did so in groups, normally in places called opium dens. These dens were located in cities and many in Chinatowns. Chinatowns were areas within cities where the Chinese migrated to, lived, and brought their addictions to. The addicts who ingest opium orally are nicknamed opium eaters (Barbara Hodgson, p. 3, 62). This edible opium is in the form of pills and it has a horribly bitter taste.

The form of opium that can be drunk is called laudanum, which is an opium-alcohol mixture. (Barbara Hodgson, p 3). With the invention of the hypodermic syringe during the American Civil War, injection presented another way for addicts to get their fix. The opium derivatives that were introduced to the body through a syringe were called morphine and heroine, both of which were extremely addictive. There were commercial drugs that were introduced into the market which were supposed to help addicts kick their opium habit. These drugs did not help very well due to the fact that most of them contained either opium or some other addictive drug, therefore hooking the addict.

Other commercial products that contained opium were cough syrups and baby soothing medicines. Of course, opium would make babies stop crying but it had many negative side effects. Many children grew up with deformities and mental retardation. Opium was a very popular drug, but it caused much harm (Barbara Hodgson, p 1 - 7). Opium's short-term affects include drowsiness, lightheadedness, weakness, euphoria, dry mouth, urinary retention, and constipation. It is said that the most effective way to smoke opium is by lying on your side with your head on the pillow mentioned in the smokers kit.

Most people could not sit up and smoke opium because they became too dizzy or tired to remain upright, or were to weak to hold up the pipe. Whenever people smoked opium they went to sleep immediately afterwards. This was quite a sight at the opium dens, where there would be dozens of people passed out on the floor. They smoked just for a few minutes of pleasure and anywhere from 1 to 3 hours of near-paralytic sleep. Opium gave a temporary feeling of euphoria to anyone who used it. This was the main reason why the drug was in such high demand.

It let people get away from the stress of their everyday lives. Opium also caused its abuser to dehydrate. After smoking one would drink much water and liquid to help soothe their horrible thirst. This dehydration leads to constipation and urinary retention, both of which tended to be quite painful (web). Opium's long-term affects include hallucinations, psychosis, and seizures.

If an opium addict consumed their drug over a long period of time, they usually developed several harmful side effects. One of them was recurring hallucinations, which have been compared to the trips induced by the modern-day hallucinogen LSD, also known as acid. During these hallucinations people see objects and people that are not really there. These people and objects sometimes talk to them.

For instance, if an addict was having hallucinations while eating, their food might talk to them and say, Dont eat me. Another long-term affect that relates closely to hallucination is psychosis. This is the condition in which the user loses touch with reality, their mind is very disorganized, and their thought process is altered greatly. They are conscious but do not have much common sense (web). Psychosis is a type of altered consciousness. Seizures are another side effect, occurring after prolonged use of opium.

This is because the body is rejecting the drug. As with any drug, opium overdosing is possible. The symptoms that indicate an overdose are marked by extra drowsiness and dizziness, extreme confusion, a possible coma, bradycardia (abnormally slow heartbeat) and depressed breathing (web). Some other drugs derived from opium include morphine, heroine, and codeine. Both morphine and heroine can be injected into the body through the use of needles. Morphine is commonly given for pain relief to people who have undergone surgery or who have serious injuries.

Morphine acts in the brain to decrease the feeling of pain and to reduce emotional response to pain, as do most opiates. Since morphine is made from the same poppy flowers as opium it is highly addictive. Morphine was used more in the past than it was now. It is on its way out of the drug abusing society (web).

Heroine use, on the other hand, is rising in the drug community. Heroines effects are almost identical to morphine's because it is made from the same opium poppy and it is introduced to the body in the same way, through a needle. Codeine is another opiate that is growing quite popular today. It is introduced into the body in the form of a pill. It is addictive but not nearly as addictive as the other opiates mentioned so far. It is used as a painkiller and cough suppressant (web).

All of these opiates are quite harmful to the body as are most illegal drugs. To kick their addiction, addicts must go through many years of rehabilitation and usually through many recurrences. After going for some time without their drug the addicts in rehabilitation undergo withdrawal. Opium withdrawal symptoms include anxiety, depression, nausea, diarrhea, or pain; symptoms vary with the type of drug. The overall edginess associated with withdrawal is due to the lack of drug content in the users system. After an addict is so used to being high and they come down, they cannot handle a normal life with stress.

Opiates are horrible drugs and they have many horrific effects on the body (web). Cocaine is a powerful stimulant with terrible side effects on the body. "It is a stimulant drug derived from the South American coca plant, Erythroxylon coca" (Weiss, Mirin, and Bartel, 1994, p. 169). The intranasal, inhalation and intravenous use causes complications to vital organs in the body and also creates many complications such as the acquiring diseases and psychiatric problems. One of the ways cocaine may be used is in the form of coca paste and crack used thru smoking.

Coca paste consists of a mixture of cocaine, kerosene, sulfuric acid, and sodium carbonate. The white or brown paste is allowed to be dry after being manufactured; it is then placed at the end of a tobacco or marijuana cigarette, and inhaled deeply (Weiss, Mirin, and Bartel, p. 20). Cocaine can also be smoked in the crack form and is made using a procedure of reacting chemicals. Crack is produced by combining cocaine hydrochloride with sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). This mixture is heated until all the water has evaporated. The resultant product is small white chips, consisting of the alkaline precipitate of cocaine (Weiss, Mirin, and Bartel, p. 21).

Another form of cocaine is crystalline cocaine hydrochloride. This compound is chopped up finely by a razor blade to be used for snorting and / or for intravenous use. "Cocaine is prepared for intravenous administration by placing between one-tenth and one-quarter of a gram in a spoon and then adding water. This aqueous solution is then strained, after which it is drawn up into a syringe and injected into a vein. Euphoria occurs almost immediately" (Weiss, Mirin, and Bartel, p. 23). Cocaine is popularly used because it works as a vasoconstrictor.

A vasoconstrictor is a substance that can constrict blood vessels to a specific area to where it was applied... thus blood vessels in the area exposed to cocaine are reduced in size, and blood flow to that area is diminished (Weiss, Mirin, and Bartel, p. 34). Since cocaine restricts blood flow, nutrients and oxygen are unable to flow properly to many organs, which restricts the cells in that area to become malnourished. When the blood flow is diminished, it causes the person's sympathetic nervous...


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