How Dangerous Really Are Drugs? Part 3

The situation with drug use seems to be that the user thinks he is better than ever, but he really is not. The fact of life that must also be appreciated in this matter is that no drug is able in some magical way to develop a talent or an ability that was not there at the start.

Of real concern these days to medical men and many parents is the result of parental drug taking on the unborn. The route for nourishment to a baby is the mother's bloodstream. Thus the many things a mother eats, drinks or otherwise puts into her body eventually show up in the baby.

Who can forget the tragic results to the unborn in the case of the mothers who took thalidomide as a sleeping pill? Babies were born with malformed limbs or arms and legs missing. There are also cases reported where an infant of a drug-taking mother was born with withdrawal symptoms, and where the baby of an alcoholic mother was born an alcoholic. Now, also, tranquilizers are thought to pose dangers to the young.

No wonder more and more warnings are issued to pregnant women and those who plan pregnancies about the risks involved with drugs, smoking, even aspirin, tea and coffee. Dr. Conrad Schwarz, head of the psychiatric department at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, said that scientific results have shown that "in pregnancies, the active ingredient in marijuana passes through the placenta to the fetus," and that "the ingredient also passes through breast milk."

Add to that the adverse consequences to the kidneys, brain and liver in barbiturate abuse and the inhaling of fumes from various solvents. What a poor start in life drug-taking women give their children!

One of the almost certain results of starting on drugs is the eventual taking of other drugs. Thus, it is not uncommon to find that heroin users are also users of marijuana, that some who take amphetamines to get "high" later take a depressant to bring them "down," resorting to such drugs as tranquilizers or alcohol. The risk of mixing these drugs can be seen in this explanation:

The effect you desire from one drug, such as a depressant like a tranquilizer, may be canceled out by a stimulant taken at approximately the same time. For example, if one drinks six cups or more of caffeine-containing coffee the "benefit" of a tranquilizer will be nullified. On the other hand, the taking of two drugs of the same kind, such as two depressants or two stimulants, will heighten the effect-but not just a doubling of the effect. And here is where one encounters a very real danger. It is said that one alcoholic beverage plus one barbiturate can have the force of five or six alcoholic drinks. Or, as one pamphlet from a provincial ministry of health put it: "If you weigh 150 lbs., seven drinks in a couple of hours will probably make you intoxicated. If you have taken a cold capsule or some cough medicine as well, you may be unconscious. If you have also taken a barbiturate, you may find yourself in the emergency ward, or perhaps in the morgue."

What about those who are not drug addicts but who are merely 'taking what the doctor ordered'? They, too, must be careful and informed. You may be taking tranquilizers or perhaps have had one dose of a cough medicine purchased at the local pharmacy. Either of these mixed with one beer can have the impact of three or four drinks. One who is taking medication for blood pressure, heart problems, diabetes, epilepsy or allergies, should always ask a doctor or a pharmacist about whether any drug preparation he is to take is dangerous with coffee, tea, or alcoholic beverages. Also, tell your doctor or pharmacist what other drugs you are already taking when you have another prescribed or are buying one from your local druggist. Don't become a statistic in the files of fatalities from drug mixing!

Drugs alter bodily functions designed to continue life. Any interference with or altering of the body chemistry can be dangerous and even death-dealing. Drugs will cause some unbalance in your organism. Their careful use as a prescribed medicine may have the beneficial effect of counteracting some chemical imbalance, but continued experimental, recreational or nonmedical use of drugs is playing Russian roulette with your life. And, if doing so, you are, in the case of those who are working and driving, or in the case of expectant mothers, putting the lives of other persons, including innocent babies, in jeopardy. Is that love of neighbor? Really, is there any valid reason for the current bumper crop of drug abuse?