855-763-648824 Mar 2013
Gastrointestinal Complications of Cocaine Abuse
Cocaine is well known for its ability to trigger drastic changes in the normal cardiovascular (heart and blood vessel) health of its users. However, people who use/abuse the drug can also develop a range of problems in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, which extends from the esophagus to the rectum. Some of these problems occur relatively frequently, but only produce relatively minor health complications. Other cocaine-related gastrointestinal problems occur relatively rarely, but can produce severe or even life-threatening health complications. These advanced complications occur when cocaine use leads to loss of normal blood flow to various parts of the GI tract.
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Ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are two drugs that occur naturally in the plant species Ephedra sinica, known in traditional Chinese medicine as ma huang. Both of these substances are common ingredients in a variety of prescription and nonprescription medications used to treat colds, hay fever, and allergies. Not coincidentally, they bear a strong chemical resemblance to the legal stimulant drug amphetamine and the illegal stimulant drug methamphetamine. In fact, illicit drug manufacturers commonly use either ephedrine or pseudoephedrine to produce methamphetamine. For this reason, federal laws in the United States strongly restrict these substances’ legal usage.
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19 Mar 2013
Amphetamine Addiction
Although commonly referred to as amphetamines, in the plural, this is really just one compound called amphetamine. There are other drugs with amphetamine in their name, such as methamphetamine and dextroamphetamine. These are related, and may be referred to collectively as amphetamines.
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14 Mar 2013
Up-to-Date Information on Synthetic Cathinones
Synthetic cathinones are a group of amphetamine-like chemicals based on cathinone, a mind-altering substance found in the plant species Catha edulis. In recent years, these chemicals have entered mainstream conversation as the active ingredients in the euphemistically named, illegal drugs called “bath salts.” In addition, certain legal prescription drugs -including the antidepressant, anti-smoking medication buproprion (Wellbutrin, Zyban) – also belong to the synthetic cathinone family. Because of the relative newness of “bath salts,” no one knows for sure what types of damage long-term abuse of most synthetic cathinones will produce in the body. However, doctors and researchers have documented many of the potential consequences of short-term abuse of these drugs.
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12 Mar 2013
Mephedrone Abuse
Mephedrone is the common name for 4-methylmethcathinone, a manmade, illegal stimulant sometimes found in the designer drug preparations known in popular culture as “bath salts.” Along with a variety of other active ingredients found in these preparations, such as MDPV and butylone, it belongs to a chemically related group of mind-altering drugs called synthetic cathinones. In addition to its use in “bath salts,” mephedrone is also sometimes used on its own as an intravenous (IV) drug. Mephedrone abuse can trigger a number of unpleasant or dangerous short-term side effects, and may also lead to long-term or permanent changes in the user’s mood and normal memory function.
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07 Mar 2013
Opioid Use and Driving Impairment
Opioids (also known as opiates or narcotics) are a class of drugs used legally for pain relief and cough reduction, and also used illegally for their ability to produce a form of intense pleasure known as euphoria. They achieve all of these effects by binding to nerve cells (neurons) in the central nervous system and altering the signals produced by those cells. People who have grown accustomed to the effects of properly used prescription opioids typically experience no real reduction in driving skills. However, people unaccustomed to properly used opioids, as well as people who abuse prescription or illegal opioids, can develop a number of serious driving impairments.
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05 Mar 2013
Up-to-Date Information on Methcathinone
Methcathinone is an illegal stimulant drug that bears a chemical resemblance to both methamphetamine and cathinone, one of the active ingredients in another stimulant drug called khat. In parts of the United States, illicit drug manufacturers sell the drug as an alternative to methamphetamine or amphetamine. Like abusers of these two drugs, people who use/abuse methcathinone expose themselves to significant risks for drug addiction. Even in people who don’t become addicted, methcathinone produces clear risks for a number of harmful side effects during both active use and subsequent withdrawal.
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03 Mar 2013
Up-to-Date Information on AMT
AMT is the common abbreviation for alpha-methyltryptamine, an illegal hallucinogen chemically related to other hallucinogens such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and psilocybin. In certain respects, the drug produces effects similar to MDMA (Ecstasy), and illicit drug manufacturers sometimes use AMT as an MDMA substitute. AMT is not very widely distributed, according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration; however, its position as a potential MDMA substitute makes it a prominent target for ongoing monitoring. Many people who use AMT combine it with a second hallucinogen, commonly known by the street name Foxy Methoxy.
