PSY 102 Week 2 DQ 2

PSY 102 Week 2 DQ 2 Select one drug classification, stimulants, hallucinogens, opiates, or depressants. Describe how drugs in this category affect/alter a person’s conscious state. Provide examples of drugs that fall into the category that you selected. Hello I am choosing opiates as my drug classification because it is the classification that has had the biggest impact on my life. I personally have never taken any sort of opiate, legal prescription or illegal narcotic. Even still, opiates have shifted and changed my life forever when my mother overdosed and passed away from prescription pain medicine August 1st, 2006. Opiates in my opinion truly are the worst drug class in that they are the most addictive and make the user dependent upon them. I do believe that if used correctly opiates can be very useful at the level of providing relief to intolerable pain. The risks of addiction and negative health effects are much higher when there is long term use. While at low doses opiates can be a great pain reliever, at higher doses the effects are sedative and overtake the person. A person that is on a heavy opiate drug is reported to feel states of intense euphoria then dwindling to a sense of relaxation and sedation. Some of the drugs that are categorized within “opiates” are oxycodone, hydrocodone, heroin, morphine, Vicodin, dilaudid, methadone, demeral, codeine. These opiates are able to get into the body through the bodies opioid receptors. The opioid reveptors are located in the brain, spinal cord and the gastrointestinal tract. Because of these receptors, these organs take a large amount of the abuse from these harsh drugs. Best Regards, Shayne Garza References Grison, S., & Gazzaniga, M. S. (2017). Psychology in Your Life Second Edition. P.108-111