Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division

Alcohol blocks the messages going to your brain and alters your perceptions and emotions, vision, hearing and coordination.

Drinking can cause serious injuries and death – over 38% of drownings are alcohol-related.

Long-term effects of heavy alcohol use include loss of appetite, vitamin deficiencies, stomach ailments, skin problems, sexual impotence, liver damage, heart and central nervous system damage, and memory loss.

Alcohol can give you bad breath and hangovers and has lots of calories.

Chances are if you’re even asking the question, you have a drinking problem. But here are some other factors:

• inability to control your drinking – it seems that regardless of what you decide beforehand, you frequently wind up drunk
• using alcohol to escape your problems
• changing from your usual reserved character into the
• a change in personality – does drinking turn you from Dr. Jekyl to Mr. Hyde?
• a high tolerance level – you can drink just about everybody under the table
• blackouts – sometimes you don
• problems at work or in school as a result of drinking
• concern shown by your family and friends about your drinking

If you have a drinking problem, or if you suspect you have a drinking problem, there are many others out there like you, and there is help available. Talk to a school counselor, a friend or a parent.

1. Know the law. Alcohol is illegal to buy or possess if you are under 21.
2. Get the facts right. One 12-ounce beer has as much alcohol as a 1.5 ounce shot of whiskey or a 5-ounce glass of wine.
3. Stay informed. Wine coolers look like juice sparklers but they have just as much alcohol as a 12-ounce beer.
4. Be aware of the risks. Drinking increases the risk of injury. Car crashes, falls, burns, drowning, and suicide are all linked to alcohol and other drug use.
5. Keep your edge. Alcohol can ruin your looks, give you bad breath, and make you gain weight.
6. Play it safe. Drinking can lead to intoxication and even death.
7. Do the smart thing. Drinking puts your health, education, family ties, and social life at risk.
8. Be a real friend. If you know someone with a drinking problem, be part of the solution. Urge your friend to get help.
9. Remain alert. Stay clear on claims that alcohol means glamour and adventure. Stay clear on what’s real and what’s illusion.
10. Sweep away the myths. Having a designated driver is no excuse to drink. Drinking only at home, or sticking only to beer does not make drinking any “safer.”

Fact: Using marijuana can diminish or even extinguish sexual pleasure.

• sleepiness and increased hunger
• difficulty keeping track of time, impaired or reduced short-term memory
• reduced ability to perform tasks requiring concentration and coordination, such as driving a car
• increased heart rate
• potential cardiac dangers for those with preexisting heart disease
• bloodshot eyes
• dry mouth and throat
• decreased social inhibitions
• paranoia, hallucinations

• enhanced cancer risk
• decrease in testosterone levels for men
• increase in testosterone levels for women
• lower sperm counts and difficulty having children in men
• increased risk of infertility in women
• diminished or extinguished sexual pleasure
• psychological dependence requiring more of the drug to get the same effect

1. Know the law. Marijuana is an illegal substance. Depending on where you are caught, you could face heavy-duty fine and jail time.
2. Get the facts right.You do not function normally and cannot do things which require concentration under the influence of marijuana.
3. Stay informed. Marijuana has been shown to lower sperm counts in men and increase the risk of infertility in women.
4. Be aware of the risks. Using drugs increases the risk of injury. Car crashes, falls, burns, drowning, and suicide are linked to drug use.
5. Keep your edge. Drug use can ruin your looks, make you depressed, and contribute to slipping grades.
6. Play it safe. One incident of drug use could make you do something that you will regret for a lifetime.
7. Do the smart thing. Using drugs puts your health, education, family ties, and social life at risk.
8. Get with the program. Doing drugs isn’t “in” anymore.
9. Face your problems. Using drugs won’t help you escape your problems, it will only create more.
10. Be a real friend. If you know someone with a drug problem, be part of the solution. Urge your friend to get help.

• increased heart rate and blood pressure
• sleeplessness and tremors
• lack of muscular coordination
• sparse, mangled, and incoherent speech
• decreased awareness of touch and pain that can result in self-inflicted injuries
• convulsions
• coma
• heart and lung failure

• a sense of distance and estrangement
• depression, anxiety, and paranoia
• violent behavior
• confusion, suspicion, and loss of control
• flashbacks
• behavior similar to schizophrenic psychosis
• catatonic syndrome whereby the user becomes mute, lethargic, disoriented, and makes meaningless repetitive movements

Is there any way to predict how I will react to taking LSD?

The effects of LSD are unpredictable. They depend on the amount taken, the user’s personality, mood and expectations, and the surroundings in which the drug is used. Usually, the user feels the first effects of the drug 30-90 minutes after taking it. These effects include diluted pupils, higher body temperature, increased heart rate and blood pressure, sweating, loss of appetite, sleeplessness, dry mouth, and tremors. Sensations and feelings change much more dramatically than the physical signs. The user may feel several different emotions at once or swing rapidly from one emotion to another. Depending on the dose, the drug can produce delusions and visual hallucinations, which can be frightening and cause panic. Users refer to their experience with these acute adverse reactions as a “bad trip”, and the effects typically last for about twelve hours. Terrifying thoughts and feelings, fear of insanity and death, injuries, and fatal accidents have occurred during states of LSD intoxication. Anyone can experience a bad trip and there is no way to predict what your own experience will be.

I’ve heard that hallucinogens aren’t even addictive. So what’s the big deal?

LSD does not produce compulsive drug seeking behavior like cocaine, alcohol, or nicotine, but LSD produces tolerance, so that users who take the drug repeatedly must take progressively higher and higher doses in order to achieve the same state of intoxication. This is an extremely dangerous practice, given the unpredictability of the drug, and can result in increased risk of convulsions, coma, heart and lung failure, and even death.

People using inhalants frequently do risky or
humiliating things they later regret.

Using inhalants, even one time, can kill you.

Short-term effects of inhalants include heart palpitations, breathing difficulty, dizziness, and headache.

• headache, muscle weakness, abdominal pain
• visual hallucinations and severe mood swings
• numbness and tingling of the hands and feet
• nausea and nosebleeds
• hepatitis
• violent behavior
• irregular heartbeat
• sudden death
• suffocation
• liver, lung, and kidney impairment
• brain damage
• nervous system damage
• dangerous chemical imbalances in the body
• involuntary passing of urine and feces

How can you possibly die from using inhalants?

The Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse reports that death can occur in at least five ways:

1. asphyxia – solvent gases can significantly limit available oxygen in the air, causing breathing to stop;
2. suffocation – typically seen with inhalant users who use bags;
3. choking on vomitus;
4. careless and dangerous behavior in potentially dangerous settings (one study showed that suicide, homicide, and injuries were responsible for 77 percent of the deaths of inhalant users); and
5. sudden sniffing death syndrome, presumably from cardiac arrest.

Are inhalants addictive?

When inhalant use continues over a period of time, a user will probably develop a tolerance to inhalants. This means that the user will need more frequent use and greater amounts of a substance to achieve the effect desired. This, in turn, leaves a user at much greater risk of suffering from possible negative effects of drug, such as liver, lung, and kidney impairment, brain damage, nervous system damage, and even death.

Physical dependence can also result, and when a user tries to give up the inhalant habit, withdrawal symptoms such as hallucinations, headaches, chills, delirium tremors, and stomach cramps may occur.

Nearly one in five high school males uses spit tobacco. Continuous intake of spit tobacco leads to cancers and a whole host of other diseases.

Although many people smoke because they believe cigarettes calm their nerves, smoking releases epinephrine, a hormone which creates physiological stress in the smoker, rather than relaxation. The addictive quality of the drug makes the user feel he must smoke more to calm down, when in effect the smoking itself is causing the agitation. The use of tobacco is addictive. Most users develop tolerance for nicotine and need greater amounts to produce a desired effect. Smokers became physically and psychologically dependent and will suffer withdrawal symptoms when use is stopped. Physical withdrawal symptoms include: changes in body temperature, heart rate, digestion, muscle tone, and appetite. Psychological symptoms include: irritability, anxiety, sleep disturbances, nervousness, headaches, fatigue, nausea, and cravings for tobacco that can last days, weeks, months, years, or an entire lifetime.

1. Use your head. Smoking is responsible for close to 420,000 deaths each year.
2. Stay active. Exercising and participating in sports is nearly impossible if you smoke cigarettes.
3. Stay informed. Young smokers are 100 times more likely to smoke pot and become addicted to other illicit substances such as heroin and cocaine.
4. Be aware of the risks. Smoking can lead to many physical problems, including emphysema, heart disease, stroke, and cancer.
5. Keep your edge. Smoking makes you smell bad, gives you bad breath, makes your finger turn yellow, and gives you premature wrinkles.
6. Play it safe. Experimenting with smoking could lead to full-fledged addiction and a lifetime of trying to quit.
7. Do the smart thing. Smoking puts your health and the health of those around you at risk.
8. Get with the program. Smoking isn’t “in” anymore.
9. Find ways to reduce anxiety. Smoking may actually contribute to your state of agitation.
10. Be a real friend. If you know someone who smokes, be part of the solution. Urge your friend to get help and quit.

Major side effects include:

• Liver tumors
• Jaundice
• Fluid retention
• High blood pressure
• Severe acne
• Yellowing of skin and eyes
• Trembling
• Weakening of tendons which may result in tearing or rupture

Males: Females:

• Testicular shrinkage – Facial Hair
• Reduced sperm count – Irregular menstrual cycle
• Infertility – Enlargement of the clitoris
• Baldness – Deepened voice
• Development of breasts

Adolescents:

• Stunted growth due to damaged growth areas on ends of bones

According to a recent survey, perception of the harmfulness of steroid use has decreased among both 12th graders and 8th graders. This fact is particularly disturbing because a person’s usage of any substance is highly dependent on his or her understanding of how harmful it is.

Many professional athletes have ruined their careers and lives due to steroid use. Do you want to make that same mistake?