Heroin Was Originally A Cough Suppressant
When it was first brought to market more than a century ago, the drug heroin was marketed for its effects in suppressing coughs. At the time, pneumonia and tuberculosis were leading causes of premature death, and developing a cough could be a serious matter. It did not take long, however, before the drug was recognized for its dangerous addictive qualities. Heroin was originally developed as a non-addictive alternative to morphine, which is itself derived from opium. A similar story is currently playing out with morphine’s cousin, the opium-derived codeine. Opiate prescription painkillers such as hydrocodone and oxycodone, better known as Vicodin and Oxycontin, are now the second-most commonly abused type of illicit drug, and they kill more people through overdose than cocaine and heroin combined.
Cannabis Has Historically Been A Major Non-Drug Agricultural Crop
The cannabis plant is best known for the fact that the bud and leaves are smoked as marijuana, which is the most common illicit drug in the world. It is also, however, highly valued for the fibers found in the stems of the plant, which are better known as hemp. Hemp makes an excellent fiber for weaving or rope making, and it has been widely used in applications ranging from making clothes to the sails of a ship. Many of the founding fathers cultivated cannabis on their plantations, and before them the Puritans grew the crop here in the New World. In fact it was not until more recently that it has fallen out of favor to a certain degree, a fact which is largely attributable to the War on Drugs.
ADHD Medications Are Actually Hard Drugs
The drugs Ritalin and Adderall, which are in wide use among American school children and teenagers, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that more than 55 million prescriptions are written for the drugs on an annual basis. These medications are almost exclusively given to children, and the fact that they have received FDA approval and are prescribed by doctors in white coats makes most people think of them as being safe. This is simply not the case. The chemical structure of Ritalin (methylphenidate) is in fact quite similar to that of cocaine, and both drugs have essentially the same effect on the brain. Adderall is amphetamine, also known as “speed,” mixed with a few other similar substances. These drugs are widely abused, as reflected by the New York Times report that an estimated 30 percent of all ADHD medications end up in the hands of friends or are sold to others for nonmedical and recreational use. Both Ritalin and Adderall are included along with cocaine and opium in Schedule II of the Controlled Substances Act which the Drug Enforcement Administration uses to categorize drugs according to their dangerousness and potential for forming addiction.
Ecstasy Was First Popularized As A Psychiatric Drug
MDMA, the drug which we now know primarily by its popular name “ecstasy,” has its origins more than a century ago when a German chemist was attempting to develop a medication for the prevention of abnormal bleeding. It was not found to be effective for this purpose, but the chemist’s employer, the pharmaceutical industry giant Merck, did proceed to file a patent for the drug. During the 1950s and 1960s, the U.S. Army and the CIA experimented with the drug’s behavioral effects as part of the Project MKUltra mind control program, but it was not until the 1970s that MDMA began to be used recreationally on a small scale. Starting in the late 1970s, MDMA was widely used by psychotherapists who wanted to find a way to break down their patient’s resistance to opening up in therapy. After this, MDMA made its way into the club scene and became known by its current name.
Tobacco And Alcohol Are Even More Addictive Than Marijuana
Nicotine and alcohol are, along with caffeine, the most widely used drugs in the world. These two are also generally accepted by the medical community to be more habit forming and addictive than marijuana, the world’s most widely abused illicit drug. In 2007, the peer-reviewed British medical journal The Lancet published a chart which plots common drugs along a graph according to their risk for dependence and their physical harm, and both alcohol and tobacco scored significantly higher than cannabis. The most addictive and dangerous drug by far was found to be heroin, followed by cocaine. Similar results were found in a 2006 Claremont Graduate University study. A graph published in this study also ranked heroin as being the most harmful and potentially addictive, followed by morphine. Alcohol was ranked as being moderately addictive and highly dangerous, nicotine was listed as being highly addictive and moderately dangerous, and marijuana was given low ratings in terms of both potential lethality and habit forming. These studies did not, however, take into account the fact that marijuana often acts as a gateway drug, with users who start out with marijuana frequently graduating to more dangerous substances.
Source:
http://www.askmen.com/entertainment/special_feature_200/231_special_feature.html