Drug addiction and substance abuse. OBZhD

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Drug addiction and substance abuse. Basics of safe life

Fundamentals of Safe Life Activities (OBZhD)

Drugs - these are chemicals of synthetic or plant origin that can cause an attractive mental state, the systematic use of which leads to the development of mental and physical dependence - drug addiction.

There are a large number of substances that have an intoxicating effect. Wherein drugs they are recognized only if they meet the following three criteria:

medical, if the specific effect of this drug is the reason for its non-medical consumption;
social, if this non-medical consumption takes on such proportions that it acquires social significance;
legal, if this drug is officially recognized as a narcotic and included in a special list.

Along with drugs, the number of other drugs and industrial and household chemicals that can have an intoxicating effect is constantly increasing. The disease caused by dependence on them is called substance abuse.

Abuse of narcotic or toxic substances is a state in which the use of these substances takes place, but dependence on them has not yet been formed.

Mental addiction is a painful attraction - continuously or periodically (depending on the type of drug) - to take the drug in order to re-experience certain sensations or change one's mental state.

Physical dependence is a state when the body cannot function normally without a drug, and in its absence, a "withdrawal" syndrome or withdrawal syndrome (from the word "abstinence" - abstinence) develops.

Withdrawal phenomena without special treatment are facilitated or completely removed only by the new introduction of "one's own" drug (or a substance with a similar pharmacological effect). Another manifestation of physical dependence is the so-called compulsive (irresistible) attraction to taking a drug, comparable to hunger or thirst.

At the stage of development of physical dependence in the dynamics of drug and substance abuse, there is also a gradual loss of the euphoric effect. At the same time, drug use is associated with a desire not so much to experience euphoria as to avoid the pangs of withdrawal.

Tolerance is the body's resistance to the action of a drug, when there is a less and less pronounced reaction to its introduction. To achieve the same psychophysical effect, the patient needs an ever higher dose of the drug.

The development of drug and substance abuse is conditionally divided into three stages:

stage I is characterized by the development of mental dependence and the growth of tolerance to the intoxicating substance;
stage II is the formation of mental and physical dependence with the development of an abstinence syndrome, an increase in tolerance, a change in the form of intoxication with a loss of the euphoric effect, and compulsive craving;
stage III - the development of complications - does not have time to develop in adolescence.

The duration of individual stages in different patients is different and depends on many factors: the type of drug, the age at which consumption began, the rate of increase in dosages, and the physical condition of the patient.

Rice. 7. Dynamics of the development of crime related to drug trafficking (DOT) among drug addicts

Figure 7 shows the statistical data of the Main Internal Affairs Directorate of the Novosibirsk Region and the regional narcological dispensary on the development of crime among drug addicts over the past few years.

Figure 8. Dynamics of the development of drug addiction and substance abuse among minors in the Novosibirsk region

Figure 8 shows the growth in the number of drug addicts and substance abusers among adolescents in the Novosibirsk region over the past few years (according to the data of the regional narcological dispensary).

Often the first step towards drugs is taken out of curiosity (up to 60% of drug addicts have "tried" drugs for the first time this way). At the same time, everyone is convinced that he personally can always stop if necessary.

But this is a profound delusion. Usually, years pass before a drunkard becomes an alcoholic, while drug addiction is formed within a few months, and the process of degradation is so fast that at the age of 30-40 a drug addict is already a very old man. From psychological addiction to physical dependence takes only 2-3 months.

Drug addiction is a disease resulting from the abuse of drugs and narcotic active substances. Drug addiction is manifested by the constant need to take narcotic substances, since the mental and physical state of a person depends on whether he has taken the drug he needs or not. Drug addiction leads to a gross violation of the body's vital functions and social degradation.

Drug addiction is a disease with a chronic course that begins gradually. The cause of the disease is the ability of narcotic substances to cause a state of intoxication, accompanied by a feeling of complete physical and mental comfort and well-being.

The development of a painful addiction to drugs is the conscious use of drugs in order to obtain the effect of drug intoxication.

As a rule, emotionally unstable, mentally immature, dependent, prone to imitative actions, extremely selfish, whose interests are limited to elementary needs, tend to do this. Such people lack self-control, so the desire for intoxication does not meet with internal resistance, drug addiction develops quickly and is accompanied by the absorption of large doses of narcotic substances.

Drug addiction begins with repeated drug use due to the desire to again and again experience the sensations caused by drug intoxication. Without taking a drug, a person experiences dissatisfaction, he lacks "something". Calm and pleasure brings only the next use of the drug. This is how drug addiction is formed. Addiction is painful because it does not reflect a natural need and gradually suppresses and displaces natural drives.

As the drug is used, the effect of the drug weakens, and the patient is forced to increase the dose of the narcotic substance in order to achieve the same effect. Intoxication becomes pleasant rather because the state of sobriety is unpleasant, the person becomes restless, tense, unable to concentrate on anything, distract from thoughts about the drug. Only the introduction of the next portion of the drug brings him to a "normal" state. This is how addiction develops.

Addiction is formed according to the same principles, only drug addiction is associated with potent and psychotropic drugs.

According to the World Health Organization, drugs have taken the first place among the culprits of premature death in people and have already outstripped cardiovascular diseases and malignant tumors.

Authors: Aizman R.I., Krivoshchekov S.G.

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