PS268 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, Chronic Toxicity, Drug Tolerance
Document Summary
Early government approach (1800s: laissez- faire. Drugs in the workplace and lost productivity. Changing attitudes towards drugs results in changes in the law: Behavioural: intoxication that impairs the actions of drug users and increases the danger to themselves and others. Physiological: overdose that causes the user to stop breathing, or causes cardiac arrest. Behavioural: personality and lifestyle changes, effects on relationships with friends and family. Physiological: heart disease, lung cancer, cirrhosis, other health effects. Deaths (per year) from legal and illegal drug use: Two legal drugs are the leading killers. For every 1000 people that die each year from drug use: Illegal drugs kill fewer people: dead from illegal drugs: 25, dead from legal drugs: 975. Frequency of drugs involved in alcohol-in-combination emergency room visits: Why is alcohol-in-combination so dangerous: negative public health perspective, can lead to death, metabolites in drugs (i. e. in cocaine) when mixed with alcohol can almost turn into an antifreeze.
