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NORML@UCF Meeting 10-30-2013
Announcements
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Rachael
o Saturday, November, 2nd
 Car Wash at IHOP from 8am-2pm
o Wednesday, November 6th: Guest speaker
 Madeline Martinez, owner of the World Famous Cannabis
Café who is leading the marijuana movement in Oregon
o Saturday, November 9th
 Autism Walk (5k) in Altamonte Springs
 We will be passing out information and talking about cannabis
 We will be meeting in the back of the parking lot at the
Neighborhood Wal-Mart on Alafaya (across from campus) at 8:30am
o Sunday, November 10th
 Pond Cleanup at 4pm
Jan
o See Jan about becoming a member
o Due:
 $20 for the semester
 $30 for the year
o Get your NORML@UCF shirt with your membership!
 $15 otherwise
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Marco
o Saturday, November 9th: Homecoming game
 UCF vs. Houston
 Tailgating begins at 3pm
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Amanda
o Go camping and have fun!
o Table with Kendall Mon.-Thurs. from 10am-2pm in front of the Student
Union
Guest Speaker: Max Jackson
Max Jackson is a UCF Psychology Grad student (2010). He is currently working on
his Masters in Biotech. Max works for a hypo neural systems lab, targeting, studying, and
recreating the activities and communications of neurons outside of the brain.
Neuroscience is a passion of Max’s and he loves getting neurons to do what they do
inside of the brain outside of the brain, as well.
How Drugs Work:
 Overview:
o Drug use
o Neurology basics
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Legal drugs
Stimulants
Depressants
Dissociative
Psychedelics
Marijuana
Drugs and the mind
Drugs are dehumanizing and drug users are viewed as fiends who have problems.
This stems from Descartes, a French philosopher and mathematician (I think therefore
I am), who presented the idea that there is something between us and reality. Drugs
make humans “fail” in our ability to connect with reality and that makes drug users
inhuman. This is continuous with Darwin’s theory of evolution because animals react
and connect with their environment all the time without the use of drugs.
So, what do we do with our mind?
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Brain basics
o The brain is made of neurons which consume over 20% of body’s energy supply
o Drugs change the way neurons connect and communicate with each other
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Neurons
o Neurons are cells in the nervous system, specifically the brain. They are
comprised of a cell body, dendrites, and axons. Neurons take in electrical
signals with their dendrites (branch-like projections of the neurons that receive
information). The signals then travel down the cell body to the axons (long,
slender projections of the neuron that sends information to the next cell) where
neurotransmitters (chemicals) in vesicles (bubbles for said chemicals) turn the
signal into chemical information for the next neuron to detect once the
neurotransmitters have traveled across the synapses between neurons. Drugs act
as chemicals on the synapses in between neurons and impact the way that
neurons communicate.
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Legal drugs
o Alcohol
 Causes euphoria: When we drink, we feel good!
 Increases sociability
 Increases impulsivity
 Placebos can duplicate this
 Causes diuresis (makes you need to pee)
 Causes ataxia (makes you want to move less)
 Causes amnesia (can make you forget what happens)
 Causes respirator depression
 This can stop your lungs and kill you
 Causes hangovers from metabolic byproduct
 GABA agonist
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o Alcohol is a GABA (neurotransmitter) agonist (inhibitor)
o Alcohol “inhibits inhibition” by turning off processing
neurons, increasing oxytocin and decreasing ADH (alcohol
dehydrogenase)
 NMDA antagonist
 Causes “blacking out”
o .14-.2% blank in memory
 Alcohol produces toxic byproducts
o <2 drinks a day is ok
o The effects of alcohol last about1 hour/drink
o Caffeine
 Causes wakefulness
 Increases concentration
 Increases coordination
 Is potentially lethal
 Is an adenosine antagonist
 Adenosine is an inhibitory neurotransmitter believed to play a
role in sleep. Caffeine stimulates adenosine. By increasing the
adenosine in your body, caffeine decreases how sleepy you are!
 Decreases dopamine in body
 Caffeine tricks your brain into thinking it has more energy than
it actually does.
 Increases glutamate
 This affects your motivation, learning, and memory
 Contains theobromine, an ingredient in chocolate that mimics the
products that caffeine makes
o Nicotine (active ingredient in cigarettes)
 Causes alertness
 Causes loss of appetite
 Releases liver glucose that causes you to be less hungry
 Is highly addictive when smoked in cigarettes
 Is carcinogenic
 Can cause cancer
 Is a cardiovascular depressant when consumed in cigarettes
 Acetylcholine agonist
 Increases sharpness
 Causes paralyses lung villi (finger-like projections inside the lungs) that
keeps your lungs clean
 This is why smoker’s cough occurs. Once you have not smoked
for a while (or just overnight) the villi in your lungs begin to
work again and start to clear themselves out which causes you
to cough up what’s in your lungs.
 Smoking cigarettes stops your lungs from being able to take
care of themselves.
 Is not addictive by itself
 Cigarettes contain MAOIs
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These are not in cigarettes because of nicotine, MAOIs are
placed in cigarettes.
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Stimulants
In 1979 the Controlled Substances Act was passed and substances began being
scheduled on a scale between I and IV based on their accepted medical use and their
potential for addiction. Schedule I drugs have no accepted medical use and maximum
potential for addiction, while schedule IV drugs have tons of accepted medical use and
minimum potential for addiction.
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o Cocaine: Schedule I
 Causes euphoria
 Causes grandiosity
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The idea that nothing can stand between you and your goals
 Causes numbness
 Causes vasoconstriction, the narrowing of blood vessels due to
constriction in blood vessel walls
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Can cause and stop nose bleeds at same time
 Is highly addictive, even more so with cigarettes
 Has a 70 billion dollar market (this is a larger market than that of
Starbucks)
 Is a dopamine reuptake inhibitor. Cocaine plays on your rewards centers
by preventing the reabsorption of dopamine.
 Is a sodium channel blocker (this is what causes numbness and
vasoconstriction
Amphetamines
o Adderall/Vyvanse: Schedule II
 Increases concentration
 Causes grandiosity
 Causes irritability
 You get upset when something comes between you and what
you want to do
 Causes a rise in blood pressure
o A-methylphenethylamine
 Reverses dopamine reuptake
 Causes neurons to spit out dopamine. This more intense than
cocaine.
 Has an indirect effect on learning by increasing your focus,
rather than your capacity to learn
o Methamphetamine: Schedule II
 Causes euphoria
 Increases concentration
 Causes delusions of grandeur
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Makes you think you are more awesome than you already are!
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Causes irritability
Causes hallucinations
Causes paranoia
Causes psychosis
Reverses monoamine reuptake
Has a meth group which makes the brain work faster and harder to
break down the drug which is more soluble and more resistant.
Depressants
o Xanax Schedule IV
 Anxiolytic
 Inhibits anxiety
 Prevents panic attacks
 Helps with general anxiety
 May cause insomnia
 Helps with alcohol withdrawal
 Increases impulsivity
 Is a respiratory depressant and can stop breathing
 Drinking and taking Xanax increases your chances of stopping
your lungs
 Benzodiazepine derived from chm name
 Is a GABA-A Agonist
o Hydrocodone: Schedule III
 Most commonly prescribed painkiller
 Is a potent analgesia
 Decreases the ability to feel pain
 Somnolence
 Causes you to pass out
 Is a respiratory depressant
 Is a mu-opioid agonist
 Acts the same way as morphine
 Is usually coupled with acetaminophen
o Heroin: Proposed Schedule I
 Used for sedation
 Analgesia
 Causes Euphoria
 Makes you feel warm and safe
 Is injected
 Heroin and Hydrocodone work the same way because they have
similar structures
 Diacetyl-horphine
 Can pass the blood-brain barrier
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Is fat soluble and longer lasting
Dissociatives: Take you apart and make you put yourself back together
o Salvia: Proposed Schedule I
 Most potent natural hallucinogen
 LSD is the most potent hallucinogen
 Dose for effects: 200 micrograms
 Causes sensation of force and makes you feel as though you are being
tugged in all directions
 Causes a loss of boundaries
 Causes a stuttering of reality, which will not flow in the continuous way
that is does without salvia
 Is anti-addictive
 Has shown phenomenal results in treating alcohol addiction.
 When you take copious amounts of a drug, your brain tries to adapt
and anticipates receiving the drug. When the drug is no longer
being put into your body, your brain is still trying to cope with the
anticipation for the drug. Salvia helps your brain deal with this.
 Is a K-opiate agonist
 Increases dopamine receptors
o Ketamine “Special K”: Schedule III
 Dissociative anesthetic
 Causes delirium
 Causes aphasia (trouble with words)
 Causes double vision
 Causes a loss of boundaries
 Is a NMDA antagonist
 Blocks calcium
 Affects the dorsal horn of the spine
 Affects the hippocampus in the brain
o PCP: Schedule II
 Causes depersonalization
 Causes hallucinations
 Causes numbness
 Causes euphoria
 Is an NMDA antagonist along with alcohol and ketamine
 Is an acetylcholine antagonist
 Is a dopamine agonist
 Fries the receptors that it touches and causes lasting brain damage
Psychedelics
o Psilocin: Psilocybin mushrooms Schedule I
 Causes pupil dilation
 Causes sensory distortion
 Causes time extension
 Causes “mystical experiences”
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 Transcendence: makes you feel “above and beyond”
 May cause “bad trips” which are characterized by disorientation and
panic attacks
 Is a 5ht-2a agonist
 Is inhibitory of neurotransmitters
 Tunes down the structuring of reality in the brain
 Dose
 Normal dose: 1.8 grams
 Lethal: 1.7 kg; 3.7 lbs
 680x normal dose
 79% of people reported that taking mushrooms improved the quality of
their life
 33% of people reported having a bad trip
o LSD: Schedule I
 Most potent hallucinogen
 Dose for effects: 20 micrograms
 Causes a “mystical experience”
 Chemical name: lysergic acid diethylamide
 Is a strong agonist
 Serotonin
 Dopamine
 Adrenaline
o DMT: Schedule I
 Is powerfully immersive
 Causes ego death
 Causes feelings of universal oneness
 Causes feelings of higher entity contact
 Is brief
 Between 10-30 minutes
 Chemical name: Dimethyltryptamine
 Is endogenous
 Affects dreams
 “Normal” experience includes speculating life and consciousness as a
psychological experience
 Is difficult to smoke and usually vaporized or taken orally
 Effects last longer when taken orally
 Cause broad activity with neurotransmitters
 Serotonin
 Dopamine
 Adrenaline
o Marijuana: Schedule I
 THC CB1 Agonist
 Affects endocannabinoid receptors
 Affect the central nervous system
 Causes memory selection
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Causes satiation
 Munchies
Affects the immune system
Is a mild psychedelic
Causes cognitive shifts
Causes nonlinear thinking and explosions of association
Causes reduced short term memory
Causes a lower initiative
 Makes what you are doing really interesting so you do it for
an extended period of time
Causes red eyes due to lower blood pressure
Causes mouth due to reduced saliva
 Your body is trying to preserve water
Activates cough receptors
Limitations:
 Smoking: Smoking anything is not particularly healthy for
one’s body
 Smoking marijuana and cigarettes increase your risk for
cancer
 Driving while under the influence is not a good idea,
although drivers under the influence are usually aware of
this an able to compensate
 Pregnancy: Do not smoke when pregnant as this changes
the baby’s development. Studies have shown that children
born to those who used marijuana during pregnancy tend to
be more impulsive, less rational, and anger easily.
 Marijuana makes schizophrenia worse
Medical use:
 Chronic pain
 PMS
 Inflammation, as in ALS and Parkinson’s disease
 Mood disorders
 Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
 Depression and anxiety
 Cancer
o Increases appetite
o Inhibits growth of tumors
o Autophagy: causes brain cancer to eat itself
Max reminded us that to society, those who do drugs “have no limits, nothing can cause
us to reason, to participate in society, be healthy like those who don’t do drugs.”
Make the choices important to you, but choose wisely because being a “stoner” is
something that you do or something that you do not do every day. Beat the stereotype and
fight the good fight with the truth and science. Just because not all marijuana use is bad
does not mean all marijuana use is good. Make people think about this. Show them they
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can be open with this without becoming broken human beings out of touch with reality.
We are not under the influence but above the ignorance.