PSY 217 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Legal Intoxicant, Lung Cancer, Intellectual Disability
Document Summary
Many other drugs are also used for medicine. U. s. seems especially drug oriented coffee to wake up, cigarettes and soda to stay alert and alcohol or marijuana to relax. All to often use becomes abuse and dependency and the destruction of ones life. Not just a psychological issue but also economic. Legal some legal, some not - rather arbitrary distinction. The cost of illegal drugs goes beyond the effects on the users. Robbery, assaults, aids, medical costs, violence in the streets, crowded prisons, auto accidents. Alcohol nearly of all auto accidents, murders and rapes and family violence. 25% of suicides, leading cause of mental retardation. Lung cancer, emphysema, high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes. Depressants alcohol, opiates, sedatives (barbs & antianxiety) Dependence - loss of control can"t cut down, taking more than planned. Alcohol 20% males, 8% women (arch gen psych v54 p 313 tolerance impairment , social, physical, psych.
