Gage Gall

PSY. 101
Professor Gerald L Longnecker
20 April 2015
Alcohol and Drug Effects on the Brain
Across the world today there has been a huge spike in drug and alcohol use and abuse.
Many of the people that begin to use these substances do not realize the effects that these
substances can have on their body especially their brain. The brain is an essential part of the
human body and cannot be replaced. Thus doing drugs that affect the brain and using alcohol
will affect a persons life not just for the time that they are high or buzzed it will affect their life
for many years in the future. There are many different types of drugs that are abused in todays
society and they do different things to a person brain.
One drug that you hear a lot about is meth short for methamphetamine and is a highly
addictive street drug. The United States government reported in 2008 that approximately 13
million people over the age of 12 have used methamphetamineand 529,000 of those are
regular users.(Crystal Methamphetamine Use Statistics - The Meth Epidemic - Drug-Free
World.) This means that the 529,000 people who are regular users are going to have some major
problems. How does meth affect the brain? Methamphetamine increases the amount of the
neurotransmitter dopamine, leading to high levels of that chemical in the brain. Dopamine is
involved in reward, motivation, the experience of pleasure, and motor function.
Methamphetamines ability to release dopamine rapidly in reward regions of the brain produces

the euphoric rush or flash that many users experience. Repeated methamphetamine use can
easily lead to addictiona chronic, relapsing disease characterized by compulsive drug seeking
and use.( DrugFacts: Methamphetamine.) So in other words meth increases the dopamine levels
and the high amount of the dopamine levels is what people get addicted to. This is a very strong
addiction when the addiction does happen. Often thirty to ninety days can pass after the last
drug use before the abuser realizes that he is in withdrawal. First, he becomes depressed, loses
his energy and the ability to experience pleasure. Then the craving for more methamphetamine
hits, and the abuser often becomes suicidal. Since meth withdrawal is extremely painful and
difficult, most abusers revert; thus, 93% of those in traditional treatment return to abusing
methamphetamine.(What Does Using Crystal Meth Make You Feel Like? - Drug-Free World.)
There is hope for people who are addicted to meth. They can still find help and coming off the
drug may be like going through hell and back but it is possible.
Another drug that is a very hot topic in the news is cocaine and crack cocaine. What is the
difference between the two? Crack cocaine is just the crystal form of cocaine but is more
dangerous because it is more pure than the regular powdered form. Cocaine is the second most
trafficked illegal drug in the world. The most recent statistics show that international seizures of
cocaine have continued to increase and now total 756 metric tons, with the largest quantities of
the drug intercepted in South America, followed by North America.( Facts About Cocaine - Use
& Addiction Statistics - Drug-Free World.) That is a lot of cocaine that has been seized by law
enforcement but if that is how much that law enforcement has seized think about how much
could be slipping through the cracks. Cocaines effect on the brain is similar to meths effect on
the brain. It affects the dopamine in the brain. Normally, dopamine is released by neurons in
these circuits in response to potential rewards (like the smell of good food) and then recycled

back into the cell that released it, thus shutting off the signal between neurons. Cocaine prevents
the dopamine from being recycled, causing excessive amounts to build up in the synapse, or
junction between neurons. This amplifies the dopamine signal and ultimately disrupts normal
brain communication. It is this flood of dopamine that causes cocaines characteristic
high.(DrugFacts: Cocaine.) Not being able to recycle the dopamine is where the long term
problems begin. With repeated use, cocaine can cause long-term changes in the brains reward
system as well as other brain systems, which may lead to addiction. With repeated use, tolerance
to cocaine also often develops; many cocaine abusers report that they seek but fail to achieve as
much pleasure as they did from their first exposure.( DrugFacts: Cocaine.) So due to the not
being able to recycle the dopamine the cocaine abuser will not receive the same high as they did
before. This becomes a problem for the user because they want to get the same high as they did
the first time.
A drug that seems to be in the news a lot lately is marijuana, also known as weed. This
drug is said by some to be a light weight drug. So light weight in fact that two states have
legalized it. Weed is a hallucinogena substance which distorts how the mind perceives the
world you live in.(What Is Marijuana? How Is Marijuana Used? Street Names for Marijuana Drug-Free World.) Over 94 million people in the US have admitted using it at least
once.(Marijuana Statistics - Cannabis Use Statistics - Drug-Free World.) Over 94 million people
in the United States alone have used marijuana and since it is a hallucinogen 94 million people
have had their mind distort the world that they live in. The actual drug in marijuana that affects
the brain is known as THC. THC acts on specific brain cell receptors that ordinarily react to
natural THC-like chemicals in the brain. These natural chemicals play a role in normal brain
development and function. Marijuana over activates parts of the brain that contain the highest

number of these receptors. This causes the "high" that users feel. Other effects include altered
senses (for example, seeing brighter colors), altered sense of time, changes in mood, impaired
body movement, difficulty with thinking and problem-solving, and impaired memory.(
DrugFacts: Marijuana.) So the people who use marijuana are, for the time that they are high,
living in an altered world where even time has been altered this could mean dangers for the user
and those around them such as impaired driving. The long term effects of marijuana can be just
as devastating to some. Marijuana also affects brain development. When marijuana users begin
using as teenagers, the drug may reduce thinking, memory, and learning functions and affect how
the brain builds connections between the areas necessary for these functions. (DrugFacts:
Marijuana.) So people who use marijuana as teens could struggle later in life with thinking and
other key learning functions and since we are always learning this could form problems for
people who used weed as a teen.
Another drug is known as LSD. LSD is another hallucinogen or it causes the user
hallucinations. In America, since 1975, researchers funded by the National Institute on Drug
Abuse have annually surveyed nearly 17,000 high school seniors nationwide to determine trends
in drug use and to measure the students attitudes and beliefs about drug abuse. Between 1975
and 1997, the lowest period of LSD use was reported by the class of 1986, when 7.2% of high
school seniors reported using LSD at least once in their lives.( LSD Statistics - LSD,
Mushrooms, Mescaline & Other Hallucinogens - Drug-Free World.) Now think about this the
typical high school student is from fourteen to eighteen years old. That mean that some of the
people in that survey would not even be able to buy a gun but they have already used LSD a
hallucinogen that can bring a virtual reality. LSD works by altering the serotonin receptors in
the brain, which alters how a person experiences their senses. This is often what puts an LSD

user into a state of euphoria or an altered state of reality. It might alter their senses so they feel
things differently, taste foods in a more heightened way and even experience touch with more
intensity. Because an LSD user might use this drug to the point where they are becoming
immune to the effects, they have to begin to use more of the drug in order to see the same
effect.( Does LSD Cause Brain Damage?) There have been no evidence of permanent brain
damage from LSD however it is thought that LSD may be harmful to other parts of the body.
Alcohol is something that we dont hear about as much as some of some of the other
drugs. Why? Because it is a legal substance you can buy it when you turn twenty-one and law
enforcement officers cannot arrest you for just having it. This is different from the drug
previously listed (accept marijuana in the two states it is legal). But what makes alcohol so bad?
In the United States in 2007, the death toll from teenage drunk-driving accidents was 1,393
nearly four fatalities every day of the year.(Drunk Driving Statistics - Drinking and Driving
Facts - Drug-Free World.) That is just the teen driving death toll. This means that number is not
even people who are that legal drinking age. Also those are only deaths not the number of people
who had been injured in the accidents. What causes alcohol to change your brain? Alcohol
affects brain chemistry by altering levels of neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are chemical
messengers that transmit the signals throughout the body that control thought processes, behavior
and emotion. Neurotransmitters are either excitatory, meaning that they stimulate brain electrical
activity, or inhibitory, meaning that they decrease brain electrical activity. Alcohol increases the
effects of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA in the brain. GABA causes the sluggish
movements and slurred speech that often occur in alcoholics. At the same time, alcohol inhibits
the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate. Suppressing this stimulant results in a similar type of
physiological slowdown. In addition to increasing the GABA and decreasing the glutamate in the

brain, alcohol increases the amount of the chemical dopamine in the brain's reward center, which
creates the feeling of pleasure that occurs when someone takes a drink.(Watson) Alcohol causes
a psychological slow which is why drinking and driving is so dangerous. The psychological slow
down slows down your reaction time causing you to be more likely to crash. At the same time
the dopamine is increased and you get a feel good feeling. There are also many negative effects
of heavy drinking from a long term perspective such as reduced memory, reaction times,
concentration, balance and coordination, and speech. The negative effects of drinking will
generally reverse as the alcohol is processed and removed by your body, but if alcohol use is
continued on a regular basis, some of the effects become worse, and can even become
permanent.( Know the Facts.) These negative effects are about the same as having alcohol in
your system all the time. But there is still hope you can stop using alcohol and push yourself to
try not to drink.
The drugs that people are using around the world can affect the way their brains work.
Hopefully people will start to do research about what they put into their bodies before the use
something. The drugs in the above paragraphs are just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many
different drugs out there and all of them do something that affects the brain in different ways.
Hopefully you learned something about the drugs above and this will help you better decide
whether to use them or not.

Works Cited
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<http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/alcohol/drinking-anddriving.html>.
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