How Dangerous Are Drugs Really? Part 2

Imagine its power: an eyedropperful of LSD would be enough to produce a drug experience for 10,000 people. "By weight it is about three million times as potent as crude marijuana," says the book Mind Drugs.

In addition to the direct effect of the chemicals themselves, many drugs are administered by unsterilized hypodermic needles, adding the dangers of tetanus, phlebitis, hepatitis and inflammation of the lining of the heart and its valves. Sooner or later, too, if a person becomes addicted or dependent, he will find himself in the company of criminal elements and in dangerous neighborhoods as he seeks out sources of his drugs. All of these pose a threat to health and life.

What are your chances of survival on the highways these days with so many under the adverse influences of drugs? Would you be at ease if you knew that coming at you at night from the opposite direction on a highway was a young girl who, due to recurrent effects of a drug she once took, now sees 1,000 pairs of headlights ahead of her, resulting in her not knowing for sure which are your real ones and which are the illusions? In her case, the headlights trigger the recurrence of the drug effect.

And are you at ease on the highway knowing that one of the effects of marijuana is the impairment of the ability to judge distance and time? that coordination is slowed down and that ability to make decisions is affected? What would that mean to you and your family when you are on a busy highway with many cars passing one another? Dangerous? No doubt about it!

Imagine, too, on a job, the danger to persons other than the drug takers. Think of the threat to life from having people afflicted by dizziness, loss of control, blurred vision and hallucinations working on fast-moving machinery and equipment, operating cranes lifting heavy objects overhead, or handling dangerous liquids and explosives. They truly constitute a threat to their own lives and to those of fellow workers. Do people have a right thus to endanger the lives of others? This relatively new safety problem is of serious concern to employers and medical officers at large plants. No wonder some job applications inquire as to the applicant's previous use of drugs, if any!

There are those who would argue that they are doing better work now that they have used drugs to sharpen their awareness and creativity. But the facts argue otherwise. Take the case of a man who had been a successful international lawyer. For months after his experience with LSD he simply wandered about in the desert pondering his "experience" and its meaning.

A doctor's report to executives on problems due to the increase of marijuana smoking pointed out that its use has "an adverse effect on performance of high-level jobs. The user is frequently lethargic, lacks motivation, is prone to error, has trouble remembering important details, and cannot think practically about the future." How can a person's brain be really aided by something that interferes with perception?

In another case a doctor tells of a transformation in a formerly bright student, studying for his law degree and his Ph.D. The changes came with marijuana use.

In time, thinking became unclear, concentration on schoolwork became more and more difficult and there were problems in his ability to finish work. Later, hostile reactions showed up and there was suspicion of others. The student and two companions were killed a short time later when the small plane he was piloting crashed.

As for cocaine, a report in Psychology Today said that it "gives an often deceptive feeling of improved intellectual and physical capacity." It added: "The euphoria and confidence induced by cocaine can make the user attribute to the drug effects that have nothing to do with it, and cause him to overestimate the changes it does produce." Even though amphetamines, since they are stimulants, seem to improve performance of simple tasks, "they do not improve performance on more complex tasks," explained the same magazine.