DRUG DEPENDENCE

• Drug: any substance used in the composition or preparation of medicine or any substance used as medicine.
• Dangerous Drug: a drug whose use is attended by risk and therefore unsafe, perilous and hazardous to people
and/or to society.
• Drug dependence: a state of psychic or physical dependence, or both, on a dangerous drug, arising in a person
following administration or use of that drug on a periodic or continuous basis

DRUG ADDICTION
• a state of periodic or chronic intoxication produced by repeated consumption of a drug, whether synthetic or natural.
• Characteristics:
o An overpowering desire or need to continue taking the drug or to obtain it by any means.
o A tendency to increase the dose.
o A psychological and physical dependence on the effects of the drug.
o A detrimental effect to the society and to the individual.

DRUG HABITUATION
• Is the desire to have continuous use of the drug but with the capacity to refrain physically from using it
• Characteristics:
o The desire to use the drug is not compulsive but merely psychical.
o There is little or no tendency to increase the dose.
o The dependence is not physical merely psychical.
o The detrimental effect, if any, is primarily on the individual.
 PHARMACOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION OF DANGEROUS DRUGS
I. HYPNOTICS
• Opiates and their Derivatives - Opium is obtained from the milky exudates of the incised unripe seed
capsules of the poppy plant, Papaver Somniferum.
• Signs and Symptoms of Opium Administration
o Stage of excitement
o Stage of stupor
o Stage of Narcosis
• Evidences of Opium Addiction
o Main Liner - Multiple pigmented punctured marks along the course of the superficial veins.
o Skin popper - Scars of previous subcutaneous abscesses also along the course of the superficial veins
• Post-mortem Findings in Opium Poisoning
o Face and fingernails are livid
o Froth comes out of both nostrils and mouth
o Dark fluid blood is found in the heart and big blood vessels
o Trachea is congested and filled with froth
o Lungs are engorged, edematous and exudes frothy fluid
o Stomach may contain brownish lump of opium mixed with brownish viscid fluid, if opium was ingested
o Odor of opium may be present in the stomach content
o There is brain congestion
o Pupils are pinpoint-size
o Multiple scars and abscesses along the course of the superficial veins in the arms and forearms
o Chemical examination of the blood shows the presence of the drug