Chapter 16 – Medicine and Illegal Drugs
Lesson 1 – What are drugs?
Drug – any chemical substance that causes a change in a person’s physical or psychological
state.
How drugs enter the Body….
 Mouth – swallow
 Injection – hypodermic needle
 Transdermal patches
 Ear – does not go into bloodstream
 Smoke – nose
Lesson 2 – Using drugs as Medicine
Medicine – any drug that is used to cure, prevent, or treat illness or discomfort.
Prescription – a written order from a doctor for a certain medicine or treatment.
Prescription medicine – medicine that can be bought only with a written order from a doctor.
Over-the-counter – any medicine that can be bought without a prescription.
Drug interaction – an unexpected effect of a drug
Side effect – any effect that is caused by a drug and that is different from the drug’s intended
effect.
Drug allergy – a person can have a very bad reaction to a medicine that causes little or no side
effects in most people.
Tolerance – the body’s ability to resist the effects of a drug.
Overdose – the taking of a larger amount of a drug than a person’s body can safely process.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – a government agency that controls the safety of food
and drugs in the United States.
Lesson 3 – Drug Abuse and Addiction
Drug addiction – the uncontrollable use of a drug.
Drug abuse – the misuse of a drug on purpose or the use of any illegal drug.
Dependence – needing the drug in order to function properly.
Physical dependence – the body’s chemical need for a drug.
Psychological dependence – a person’s emotional or mental need for a drug.
Lesson 4 – Stimulants and Depressants
Stimulant – any drug that increases the body’s activity.
Cocaine – a powerful stimulant that is produced
Crack cocaine – cocaine that has been altered into a form that can be smoked.
Euphoria – a physical and mental sense of well-being.
Methamphetamine – a very powerful stimulant; it is produced in a laboratory.
Depressant (sedatives) – a drug that decreases activity in the body.
Tranquilizers – mild depressants that are used in small doses to treat anxiety.
Barbiturates – strong depressants that are used to treat sleep disorders and seizures.
Hypnotics – extremely powerful depressants that can cause sleep, loss of muscle control, and
loss of memory.
Rohypnol – an extremely powerful hypnotic depressant.
Blackout – the inability to remember anything that happened while under a drug’s effects.
Lesson 5 – Marijuana
Marijuana – the dried flowers and leaves of the Cannabis plant.
THC – the active chemical in marijuana
Lesson 6 – Opiates
Opiate – any drug that is produced from the milk of the opium poppy.
Opium – the white milky liquid that comes from the poppy plant to make opiates.
Heroin – may be the most powerful and addictive opiate that exists and is made from morphine
Morphine – one of the chemical substances in the milk of the opium poppy.
Lesson 7 – Hallucinogens and Inhalants
Hallucinogen – any drug that causes a person to hallucinate.
Hallucinate – to see or hear things that are not actually present.
Flashback – an event in which a hallucinogen’s effects happen again long after the drug was
originally taken.
Inhalant – any drug that is inhaled and absorbed into the bloodstream through the lungs.
Lesson 8 – Designer Drugs
Designer drug – a drug that is produced by making a small chemical change to a drug that
already exists.
Ecstasy – the common name given to the chemical MDMA is a mind-altering drug that was
created from the powerful stimulant methamphetamine.
Seizures – short episodes in which an overload of brain activity causes violent shaking in the
muscles.
GHB – a drug that is made from an anesthetic that is also a common ingredient in pesticides.
Ketamine – a powerful drug that is closely related to the hallucinogen PCP.
Lesson 9 – Staying Drug Free
Reasons for staying Drug Free
1. staying healthy
2. staying in control
3. making good decisions
4. staying out of jail
5. saving your money
Lesson 10 – Getting Help
Intervention – a gathering in which the people who are close to a person who is abusing drugs try
to get the person to accept help by relating stories of how his/her drug problem
has affected them.
Treatment center – a facility with trained doctors and counselors where people who abuse drugs
can get help for their problem.
Detoxification – the process by which the body rids itself of harmful chemicals.
Support group – a group of people who have undergone the same or very similar problems.