Psychology 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Cannabis Sativa, Gateway Drug Theory, Hallucinogen

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 1000
• Professor: John Campbell

Document Summary

Drugs that influence subjective experience and behaviour by acting on the nervous system. User becomes less affected by the drug, so requires larger dose to achieve the same effect: compensatory responses. Prozac (antidepressant) increase in serotonin levels: antagonists. Some are form natural sources - mescaline (peyote) Some are synthetics - lsd and phencyclidine (angel dust) 4 major categories of hallucinogens & are categorized related neurotransmitters. Lsd history: created in 1938 by hoffman, but discovered its effects in 1943, drug companies began sending & experimenting with the drug to understand ef- fects. Closely related to schizophrenia: closely mimics the symptoms of illness while on lsd. Most widely used illicit drug in canada. 1/3 of canadians have used marijuana at least once. Therefore, lumped hemp in with cannabis and created a racial undertone around cannabis. Fears with legalization: economy will go down, as marijuana users would be lazy" and people would not want to work, driving high, promoting drugs.