B1.3 The Use and Abuse of

Drugs

Drugs affect our body chemistry.

Medical drugs are developed and tested before

being used to relieve illness or disease.

Drugs may also be used recreationally as people

like the effect on the body.

Some drugs are addictive.

Some athletes take drugs to improve performance.

People cannot make sensible decisions about drugs

unless they know their full effects.

Summary

Key terms

Drug

Prescription

Recreational drugs

Toxicity

Legal

Alcohol

Nicotine

Illegal

Cocaine

Heroin

Cannabis

Ecstasy

Performance enhancing

Anabolic steroids

Stimulants

Thalidomide

Statins

Cardio-vascular

Leprosy

Abnormalities

Cholesterol

Placebo

Adverse effects

■ evaluate the effect of statins in cardiovascular disease

■ evaluate different types of drugs and why some people use

illegal drugs for recreation

■ evaluate claims made about the effect of prescribed and

non-prescribed drugs on health

■ consider the possible progression from recreational drugs to

hard drugs

■ evaluate the use of drugs to enhance performance in sport

and to consider the ethical implications of their use.

You should be able to:

Medical Drugs Recreational

drugsPerformance

enhancing

Prescribed Non-

Prescribed

IllegalLegal

Antibiotics

Strong pain

killers

Statins

Thalidomide

Aspirin

Paracetomol

Cough

medicine

Types of drugs

Alcohol

Caffeine

Nicotine

Ecstasy

Cannabis

Heroin

a) Scientists are continually developing new drugs.

b) When new medical drugs are devised, they have to be

extensively tested and trialled before being used.

Drug trials

Drugs are tested in a series of stages to find out if they

are safe and effective.

Drug trials

New drugs are extensively tested for toxicity, efficacy

and dose:

Toxicity

in the laboratory, using cells, tissues and live

animals

in clinical trials involving healthy volunteers and

patients.

Very low doses of the drug are given at the start of

the clinical trial.

Drugs are tested in a series of stages to find out if they

are safe and effective.

Drug trials

New drugs are extensively tested for toxicity, efficacy

and dose:

Dose

Very low doses of the drug are given at the start of

the clinical trial.

If the drug is found to be safe, further clinical trials

are carried out to find the optimum dose for the

drug.

Drugs are tested in a series of stages to find out if they

are safe and effective.

Drug trials

New drugs are extensively tested for toxicity, efficacy

and dose:

Efficacy

In some double-blind trials, some patients are

given a placebo, which does not contain the drug.

Neither the doctors nor the patients know who has

received a placebo and who has received the drug

until the trial is complete

Statins

c) Statins can be used to lower the risk of heart and

circulatory diseases.

Statins are a relatively new group of drugs used to lower

blood cholesterol levels.

A high cholesterol level increases a person's risk of

having a heart attack or stroke.

The long-term use of statins reduces the risk of such an

event and can increase the life expectancy of people

with a history of heart disease.

People are concerned that these drugs could encourage

people to lead an unhealthy lifestyle in the belief that

they can reduce their cholesterol levels

d) Thalidomide is a drug that was developed as a sleeping

pill.

It was also found to be effective in relieving morning sickness

in pregnant women.

Thalidomide had not been tested for this use.

Unfortunately, many babies born to mothers who took the

drug were born with severe limb abnormalities.

The drug was then banned.

As a result, drug testing has become much more rigorous.

More recently, thalidomide has been used successfully in the

treatment of leprosy and other diseases.

Thalidomide

Some people use drugs recreationally.

Some of these recreational drugs are more

harmful than others.

Drug Abuse

Some of these drugs are legal, such as alcohol

and nicotine.

Drug Abuse

Some of these drugs are illegal such as ecstasy,

cannabis and heroin.

Drug Abuse

Some of these drugs are prescribed but are not

taken sensibly, such as sleeping tablets,

antidepressants and strong pain killers such as

morphine.

Drug Abuse

The overall impact of legal drugs on health is

much greater than the impact of illegal drugs.

Do you agree?

Why or why not?

Smoking and alcohol have the following effects on our

society:

The National Health Service spends loads on treating

people with lung diseases caused by smoking. Add to this

the cost to businesses of people missing days from work,

and the figures get pretty scary

The same goes for alcohol. The costs to the NHS are

huge, but are pretty small compared to the costs related

to crime (police time, damage to people/property) and

the economy (lost working days etc.).

And in addition to the financial costs, alcohol and

smoking cause sorrow and anguish to people affected by

them, either directly or indirectly

Legal drugs, like nicotine and alcohol, have a bigger

impact in the UK than illegal drugs, as so many

people take them.

The overall impact of legal drugs on health is

much greater than the impact of illegal drugs.

• Drugs change the chemical processes in people’s

bodies.

• Drugs work by affecting synapses.

• Some drugs make them work faster (eg, caffeine).

• Some drugs make them work slower (eg. cannabis).

• Drug abusers may become dependent or addicted to

the drugs.

• They may suffer withdrawal symptoms without them.

• Heroin and cocaine are very addictive.

Addiction and Withdrawal

Cannabis Heroin

• There are concerns about the possible progression from

people taking non-addictive recreational drugs to addiction to

hard drugs.

For example, cannabis is referred to as a gateway drug; it is

thought that it leads to people taking cocaine or heroin.

Alcohol affects the nervous system by slowing down

reactions.

It helps people relax.

Too much may lead to lack of self-control,

unconsciousness or even coma.

Long term abuse eventually damages the liver and

brain.

Effects of drugs

Nicotine is the addictive substance in tobacco smoke.

This makes it difficult for people to stop smoking.

Nicotine patches and nicotine chewing gum can be used to help

people stop smoking.

The link between smoking tobacco and lung cancer has been

known about for about 100 years.

However, this was only gradually accepted.

Tobacco smoke also contains carbon monoxide which reduces

the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood.

In pregnant women this can deprive a fetus of oxygen and lead

to a low birth mass.

Effects of drugs

The link between smoking tobacco and lung cancer has been known

about for about 100 years.

Tobacco smoke also contains carbon monoxide which reduces the

oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood.

In pregnant women this can deprive a fetus of oxygen and lead to a low

birth mass.

Healthy lung Smoker’s lung

Tobacco smoke contains carcinogens, which are chemicals

that cause cancer:

Ecstasy, cannabis and

heroin may have adverse

effects on the heart and

circulatory system.

Cannabis smoke

contains chemicals

which may cause

mental illness in some

people.

Effects of drugs

Drugs

in sport

Drugs in sportThere are several types of drug that an athlete can use to enhance

performance.

Some of these drugs are banned by law and some are legally

available on prescription.

All are prohibited by sporting regulations.

Examples include:

o Stimulants that boost bodily functions such as heart rate;

o Anabolic steroids which stimulate muscle growth.

Athletes in major sporting events have to be willing to give a blood

or urine sample so that they can be tested for these drugs.

Some scientists work to develop drugs that cannot be detected by

these tests.

1. What is a placebo?

2. What is meant by the term ‘double-blind trial’?

3. What do statins do?

4. What was the drug thalidomide originally developed for?

5. Why was it given to pregnant mothers?

6. What side-effect did it have?

7. What is thalidomide used for now?

A substance that looks like the drug

being tested but doesn’t do anything

The doctor or patient don’t know if they have

the drug – only the researcher would know

Lower cholesterol

It was developed as a sleeping pill

It helped with morning sickness

Birth defects in new-born babies when

their mother took the drug

Leprosy

The use and abuse of drugs

8. Name two legal drugs

9. Name two illegal drugs

10. Why could the impact of legal drugs be higher than illegal drugs?

11. Why are some drugs addictive?

Nicotine Aspirin

Alcohol Paracetamol

Caffeine

Cannabis

Heroin

Ecstasy

Far more people take legal drugs than

illegal drugs

They change the chemical processes

in peoples’ bodies

Use the data to

describe fully the

relationship

between physical

harm and

dependence on a

drug.

The scattergram shows the dependence and the physical

harm caused by recreational drugs.

Weak positive

correlation

The more

physical harm

the greater the

dependence

Based on the data

in the graph, would

you expect the

overall effect of

alcohol on the

health of the UK

population to be

more than the effect

of heroin?

The scattergram shows the dependence and the physical

harm caused by recreational drugs.

From the graph we

would expect more

as heroin causes

more physical harm.

However, more

people use alcohol

than heroin so the

combined effect

would be less

Some recreational drugs are dangerous. Class A drugs include heroin

and cocaine. Class A drugs are very addictive. It is difficult to stop using

addictive drugs.

Explain why.

They change the chemical processes in peoples’ bodies

OR

Alters brain/ body functioning

AND

Withdrawal symptoms (allow crave/ craving)

Describe how the

percentage of people

who have ever used

Class A drugs is related

to age. (2 marks)

It rises to a

maximum at

25-29

Falls to a

minimum at 55-59

Peer pressure/ ‘fashionable’

Experiment/ try new things

Ease of obtaining drugs

Testing for toxicity/ to see if it is safe

Testing for side effects/ for reactions to drug

Dose too low to help patient

Higher risk for patient

Might conflict with patient’s other treatments

Effect might be masked by patient’s symptoms

To find optimum dose

Substance that looks like, but does not contain, the

drug

The use of performance-enhancing drugs in sport is banned.

Regular tests are done to check that the athletes have not been taking

performance-enhancing drugs.

(a) (i) Name one type of performance-enhancing drug that some athletes may

decide to take.

..................................................................................................................................

(a) (ii) Give one effect of this type of drug on the body.

.................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................

(a) (iii) How would the effect you have given in part (a)(ii) help the athlete to

perform better?

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..................................................................................................................................

Stimulant

To improve

concentration/

more energy

Anabolic

steroid

To make

athlete

stronger/ faster/

more powerful

Beta blocker

Calming effect/

improve

accuracy

Faster reactions Lift heavier

weights

Throw things

further

Shoot rifle more

accurately

(b) A sports newspaper is campaigning for all athletes to be allowed to

take legal performance-enhancing drugs.

Give one argument for and one argument against the newspaper

campaign.

For:

Against:

Makes all competitors equal

Saves money on testing

Avoids unfair penalties for athletes who accidentally take a banned

substance

Competitions no longer based on human ability

Health risks/ addiction/ overdoes/ side effects of drugs

Favours wealthy athletes/ countries

Not all want to take drugs

Not a good role model for others if take drugs