psyc 179 midterm 3

Drugs on the Ballot

Oregon Measure 110: people in Oregon no longer get arrested or sent to prison for carrying small amounts of drugs like:cocaine, heroin, oxycontin, & methamphetamine.

Which passed by almost 60%- the law focuses more on getting people treatment for addiction

Washington D.C:

Voters approved decriminalizing (fewer punishments) of psychedelic mushrooms

Recreational Marijuana Legalization:

approved in south dakota, montana, arizona, & new jersey

Polydrug/Polysubstance Use

using multiple substances either: concurrently (around same time) or simultaneously (together)

DSM-III used “Mixed Substance Abuse”

for when the patient used so many drugs that the doctor could not determine which symptoms were from which drug. Or when the doctor preferred to treat them as a combination rather than as a specific disorder for each drug

DSM-III-R “Polysubstance Dependence”

for when a person met criteria:

• repeated use at least 3 substances

• over 6 months

• excluding caffeine & nicotine

• without meeting dependence criteria for one specific drug (that an individual has not developed a need for that substance to function normally)

DSM- IV (4) Two Interpretations

1. The person only met criteria when all drugs were grouped together
   OR

2. The person only met the full criteria for a substance disorder when all the substances were viewed as one combined problem.

DSM-5

• Removed polysubstance use as an official diagnosis

• Now it is just a descriptive term

• Still used informally to describe people using multiple drugs