Oral and smoked stimulants

Definitions 

  • Something that stimulates the central nervous system 

    • Exhilaration, sense of wellbeing, confidence 

    • Agitation, apprehension anxiety 

  • Stimulants have a high chance of abuse and bodies dependance on it 

    • Particularly ones affecting neurotransmitters in the brain such as serotonin 

    • Increased tolerance due to body becoming use to it 

  • Depressants depress or slow down things, block neurotransmitters 

    • Tranquilizers, hypnotic, drowsy 

    • Opium is example 

    • Strong potential for abuse due to effect on feel good neurotransmitters 

      • Brain needs more and more often to get the effects 

  • Hallucinogens 

    • Don't affect autonomic system 

    • Profound changes to brain in perception, though and mood 

    • Physically not addictive 

      • Overloads the brain so can't achieve the same effect multiple days in a row 

Betel

  • Areca palm native to indonesia 

  • Betel leaf herbaceous vine native southeast asia 

  • Active stimulant in palm betel or seed/nit 

  • History 

    • Use in thailand 7500 years ago 

    • 10% of global population chews betel nut 

      • India, pakistan 

    • Ritualistic - display and preparation 

  • Preperation 

    • Shave betel nut seed and mix with calcium salts to reduce acidity 

    • Put it into betel leaf 

    • In india gambir added which is a resin from the leaves of a gambir bush 

    • Leaf folded specifically and put it into the mouth and form a quid and then just leave it in the mouth for the day 

      • Stimulants slowly leak out and leaches into cheek blood vessels 

      • Associated with mouth cancer

      • Stains mouth and teeth, sometimes permanently 

      • Makes a person spit or hack it up 

  • Active alkaloids 

    • Arecoline and arecaidine 

      • Stimulants similar to nicotine 

      • Epinephrine and norepinephrine 

      • Help expulsion of intestinal worms 

Tobacco 

  • Solanaceous family 

  • Native to south america 

  • History of use 

    • Used in america but europeans are the ones that moved it around 

    • Use 

      • Ceremonially, shamanistic 

      • Divination, healing 

      • Pleasure and social interaction 

    • Aztecs 

      • Used tobacco and other psychoactives 

    • Amazonias 

      • Used to get trances and dreams, visions 

      • Often used complementary with ayahuasca 

      • Dopamine effects 

    • Great plains indigenous peoples 

      • Pleasure 

      • Spiritual, ceremonial, and medical shamanism 

    • Europe 

      • Europeans found it in the caribbean 

      • Took up the habit, tobacco is very addictive 

      • Developed a craving for it, needed reliable supply and took it all over with them introducing it to other parts of the world 

      • Because of this other cultures quickly began using it either pleasurably or religiously 

      • Viewed as medicinal plant 

        • Didn't know addictive 

        • Helped headaches. Toothaches, skin problems, bun

          • Effect on pain receptors makes this make sense

          • Purgative, emetic, expulsion of intestinal worms 

        • Mentioned in gerard's herbal 

  • Active compound 

    • Alkaloid nicotine 

    • Stimulant - perspiration, cardiovascular

    • Depressant - calming to anxious 

    • Globally more people addicted to it than anywhere else 

      • Psychological dependance 

        • Life difficult or impossible without it 

      • Physical dependance 

        • Body experiences physical symptoms during withdrawal 

    • Leaves is where nicotine is contained 

    • Brain 

      • Reaches the brain within 5 seconds 

      • Effects dopamine - feel good neurotransmitter 

      • Mimics acetylcholine - stimulates the transmission of it 

      • Also stimulates release of adrenaline 

      • Stimulates and blocks heat and pain sensory receptors within the skin and tongue 

        • Reduces hunger 

      • Narrows the blood vessels everywhere 

  • Effects of tobacco

    • Type of plant, where its frown, and biochem determines amount of active compound there is in the plant 

    • Cultural use also helps with the wide variety of effects tobacco has 

  • How to use it 

    • Lungs - smoked

    • Mouth - chewed = quid 

    • Nostrils - snuff 

    • Skin - salves 

  • Tobacco and health 

    • Notices in 1950s, tobacco companies downplayed the effects 

    • 1964 first huge notice outlining all the adverse effects of it 

      • Shortened life, cancers

      • Fetal problems - apck a day doubles chances of mentally impaired newborn 

      • Combated with companies having doctors saying its good 

    • After the campaign the average person was still smoking around 2-4000 cigars per day 

      • Since 1950 ⅔ drop in nicotine and tar levels 

    • Smokers and non-smokers are at risk due to secondhand smoke 

    • Very hard to overcome, so addictive 

      • More than alcohol, or cocaine 

      • Tobacco quitting has the highest fail rates 

        • Related to nicotine and so many triggers for it 

        • Becomes part of the daily life and addicted to doing it and the nicotine 

  • Can take zyban to keep dopamine levels higher to help overcome it 

    • Patches 

    • Vapes - cause lung damage 

  • Medicine 

    • Alleviates symptoms of parkinsons, tourettes, and alzeihmers 

    • Most of these associated with reduced dopamine levels in the brain and nicotine helps stimulate it 

    • Parkinsons 

      • Damage to dopamine releasing parts of the brain 

      • Reduces levels resulting in lack of coordination resulting in trembling, shuffling gait, hard time walking 

      • Nicotine used to increase dopamine 

      • Acetylcholine stimulated and directly associated in dopamine production 

Khat

  • Shrub or tree

  •  Native to northeast africa and arabian peninsula 

  • Leaves harvested

  • History 

    • Use in ethiopia and exportation to yemun 

    • Fresh upper leaves harvested and wrapped in banana leaves and shipped to yemen’ believed it loses its effects in a couple days after harvest 

  • Use

    • Leaves chewed as quid for 10 mins to get plant juices 

    • Swallow and eat with sweet water to get rid of bitter taste and the thirsty taste that come with them 

    • Yemen people chew it all day 

  • Concerns

    • Addictive

    • Rampant in young people

    • Social problems, linked to paranoid thoughts and psychosis 

    • Medical problems 

  • Active principle 

    • Alkaloid cathinone - amphetamine like structures and similar properties to it 

    • Potent stimulant 

    • Effects norepinephrine, epinephrine (fight or flight) and dopamine 

    • Alertness, mood 

    • Shuts down gastrointestinal system, causing backup and loss of hunger 

    • Schedule 1 drug, high potential for addiction and abuse and no known medicinal properties 

    • Semi-synthetic - methcathinone 

      • Started in russia moved to europe and North america 

      • Schedule 1 drug - commonly called bath salts 

Coca

  • Shrub 

  • Native to south america, grown in andes mountains 

  • Leaves harvested, grown on the sides of mountains  

  • Some traditional use but most goes to the illegal markets 

  • Use 

    • Leaves chewed in mouth to form quid and held in cheek

    • Done by people of the andeans 

    • Unprocessed 

      • Acts as mild stimulant

      • Used to increase stamina abd concentrations 

      • Useful for altitude sickness and headaches 

      • Due to slow leakage of stimulants was not as addictive as straight cocaine 

      • Divine - given to ancient incas from their gods 

        • Overcome hunger and fatigue 

      • Eventually made it to europe and North America 

    • Spanish 

      • Concerned the incas and banned it because they viewed it as bad 

      • Forced them to still mine the coca but productivity was decreased due to altitude sickness and the loss of the stimulant 

      • Eventually started giving them a few leaves a day to increase productivity 

    • Europe 

      • Coca introduced into europe and during the industrial revolution thought of using it to increase productivity 

      • Albert Niemann - isolated cocaine from the leaves 

        • Sparked research into it 

    • People 


  • Sigmund Freud - early advocate of its medical use 

    • Found good for relieving the suffering from morphine withdrawal, counteracted its effects and remove the addiction

    • Relieved depression and indigestion 

    • Published book uber coca 

      • Went into medicinal and pharmacological effects of cocaine 

      • Later found the addictive effects of it due to the addiction he developed himself 

  • Rober louis Stevenson - jeckyll and hyde 

    • Wrote the book while taking it 

  • Ernest shackleton 

    • Went to army expeditions in the antarctic 

    • Take cocaine and caffeine tablets to stay alive 

  • Sir arthur conan doyle - sherlock holmes 

    • Sherlock was addicted to cocaine 

    • Think writer was too due to his vast knowledge of it 

  • William Halstead - american surgeon 

    • Studied cocaine use in eye surgery, connected to freud 

    • Did self experimentation with it as a local anesthetic 

      • Experimentation lead to addiction, two other doctors involved died due to it 

      • Had to withdraw due to addiction, came back later and made incredible discoveries and only upon his death was it revealed he was taking morphine daily to overcome his addiction 

  • William hammond 

    • Self experimentation, us army general 

    • Used single grain of cocaine and tested what happened to him 

      • Upped the dosage to see how the effects changed 

      • Did Not believe in cocaine addiction 

  • History 

    • Used medicinally in medicines, toothache cures, digestive remedies, and cigarettes to reduce addiction 

      • Ex: Rynos hay fever and catarrh remedy - 4% pure cocaine in alcohol

  • Vin mariani 

    • French tonic wine - alcohol mixed with cocaine 

      • Recommended dose was 4 cups per day which was a ton of cocaine 

    • Thomas Edison, Ulysses Grant, Emile Zola 

      • Widely used vin mariani and recommended it to people 

    • Lots of imitation wines created 

      • Coca wine 

  • Coca-cola - evolved from coca wine 

    • Developed non-alcoholic version 

    • Virtues of coca without the vices of alcohol 

    • Bottle contained coca leaves and cola bean 

    • 60mg of cocaine and 4x the caffeine today

    • Eventually company taken from pemberton by Asa candler 

      • Concerns due to the addictions from cocaine 

      • Decrease leaves and bean concentrations 

      • Entered into partnership with elicit market, they would take leaves from them but most of the cocaine was already out of it 

    • US government sued due to presence of alcohol and cocaine in drink 

      • Private settlement reached, no cocaine and greatly reduced caffeine 

  • Cocaine 

    • Very addictive and widely used, banned in 1914 

    • Also banned in Europe also banning vin mariani 

  • Active compound 

    • Alkaloid cocaine 

      • Used in eye surgery or as a local anesthetic 

      • Deadens the nerves, stops the electrical impulse 

    • Semi-synthetic novacaine 

      • Does Not stimulate the entire nervous system 

      • Commonly used in dentistry 

    • How it works 

      • Effects CNS altering synaptic transmission 

        • Blocks reuptake of norepinephrine and dopamine 

        • Cannot be taken back up resulting in constant overstimulation 

      • Creates euphoric rush but only lasted 10-20 mins 

        • Binged to try and get the stimulation again 

    • Toxic 

      • Heart beat rapidly, increased blood pressure, cocaine bugs (crawly sensation)

      • Paranoid psychosis, hallucinations 

    • Medical symptoms 

      • Constriction and dilation of blood vessels 

      • Constriction reduces blood flow to the heart but its still pumping fastly so reducing oxygenated blood getting to the heart damaging it 

        • Leads to heart attack 

  • Cocaine abuse 

    • Mid-1980s extreme abuse of it in Europe and North America 

    • Withdrawal symptoms 

      • Depression - due to lack of dopamine levels 

      • Lack of sleep

      • Cant eat, lack of coordination 

    • Cocaine hydrochloride 

      • Cocaine powder

      • Taken orally and injections, snorting 

      • Crack cocaine - freebasing 

        • Take cocaine put it in spoon with baking soda until rocks are seen 

        • More addictive, more concentrated