Introduction
Drugs abuse has been on the rise with five drugs being noted as the most abused among the abusers. These drugs include alcohol, heroin, cocaine, tobacco and marijuana. In addition, methamphetamine use and abuse has risen especially among the athletes in order to increase their muscles performance. These drugs have health hazards on their users, which differ from one drug to another.
Ranking of the drugs
Heroin is the most dangerous drug of all due to its negative health effects that include lethal overdose, impulsive abortion, malformed veins and the users contracting contagious diseases such as HIV/AIDS due to sharing injecting needles. In addition, the heart lining may become infected among the heavy users as well as causing liver diseases and respiratory diseases such as pneumonia etc. Heroin affects its users immediately after its injection to the body with many reporting dry mouth, warm swill out of the body skin and intense extremity.
On the other hand, cocaine causes marginal blood vessels to contract, pupils to enlarge as well as rise in body temperature, heart beats and body pressure. Once a person uses the drug, they immediately become addicted as they cannot control the amount and the number of times to use the drug. The use of the cocaine with alcohol has been known to cause sudden death as the liver tends to produce dangerous chemical components from the two drugs.
Marijuana causes learning and memory problems as it affects the sensory organs that send impulses to the brain hence the response of the brain to impulses becomes slow. In addition, the person becomes anxious and panics every time they take the drug. The marijuana users suffer from respiratory problems such as coughing on daily basis, persistent bronchitis and recurrent chest colds because the drug contains high levels of tar and the smokers tend to inhale the smoke deep in the lungs that has carbon monoxide.
Methamphetamine is known for brain stimulation to enhance movement and mood mostly used by athletes. Continued use of the drug causes brain damage as it destroys the brain cells especially the ones that hold dopamine and serotonin. Due to its action on the body nervous system, the users are known to suffer from increased insomnia, rise in bodily action, reduced appetite, rise in respiratory activities and excitements. Further, the user suffers from anxiety, nervousness, confusion and aggressiveness, with hypothermia and paroxysm being known to cause death to the users.
On the other hand, tobacco is known to cause lung cancer among the users due to the carbon monoxide inhaled and the tar in the cigars. In general, it causes respiratory problems to the users such as pneumonia and bronchitis. In addition, tobacco causes anxiety, depression and brain slow performance. Addicts find it difficult to quit smoking with many restraining for some days only to drift back to smoking. Depression and feeling of withdrawal are major effects of the drug to addicts attempting to quit smoking.
Alcohol is known to cause dizziness and lack of soberness among the users. More so, some become aggressive and violent after taking alcohol. Major health hazards occur when a person becomes addicted and their nervous system collapses such that their brain response to impulses becomes slow and altered.
Conclusion
In terms of the psychosocial hazards of the drugs, the most hazardous would be heroin as effects start immediately and the person has little contact with the reality hence most of their actions are out of control. Followed by the cocaine, which has almost similar characteristics as the heroin, where it makes the user behave abnormally. The third drug would be marijuana as it is known to affect the brain functioning and causes the user to be aggressive hence they perform their activities out of the drug influence.
Fourthly, Alcohol has the effects of making users feel and behave differently however for a given period of time then its effects eases or furnishes. Methamphetamine has the effects of killing brain cells hence the person becomes unstable however the user has the contact with reality hence they can control most of their actions. Lastly, tobacco has very little effect on the person behavior hence has little psychosocial hazards.
References
Pinel &John P. J. (2008) (7th Ed.), Boston: Allyn and Bacon publishers.