Drugs

Drugs are often thought of as “bad”. The question is why? Is it worse to take drugs or to deal drugs to others? We often think that personal use is the lesser evil to dealing drugs. As a society we think of different drugs being less “bad” than others. This is mainly due to the class system in place to separate the severity of punishment or crime level of different drugs.

Cannabis, which is a class B drug (classes can be seen here http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/drugs/drugs-law/Class-a-b-c/ ), seems to be the most talked about and most socially acceptable. It is also the most widely used, yet still illegal, drug in Britain. It can cause hallucinations and can act as a sedative causing a “chill out” mood or sleepiness. Hunger, sickness and laughing fits are also common side effects. Links have been made with prolonged regular use of cannabis and the development of psychotic and mental health problems. As with smoking it seems to be link with the idea of being rebellious, cool and even just for the feeling people get from it.

Heroin on the other hand is a class A drug. It seems like we find this much less acceptable/understand its users less than we do with cannabis. Both of these are illegal drugs and police will take action in either case. Heroin is a natural opiate that is formed from morphine. It is essentially an incredibly strong pain killer. Heroin is rapidly addictive, more so than cannabis and users have to increase their dosage to compensate for the lessened effects over time and to avoid withdrawal effects too.

Although heroin is more additive and a higher class it has been determined that they are still both illegal, it is a criminal offense to use and distribute/sell them and they can both lead to a prison sentence or an unlimited fine. Neither can really be classed as less “bad” than the other. More information about the different types of drugs can be found at http://www.talktofrank.com/atoz.aspx .