Access the Mouse Party interactive module. Select one mouse, influenced by the drug of your choice, and complete the simulation by viewing all of the relevant slides. Next, perform a web search on the drug you selected and locate additional resources that will help you answer the following:
- Briefly describe why you chose this drug and how many people are estimated to be using/abusing it.
- Explain how the drug influences both the brain and behavior.
- Discuss what you think (if anything) needs to be done to combat addiction to this substance and provide a rationale for your position.
The drug I choose to discuss here is
LSD or Lysergic acid diethylamide, because it is the most intense high
or trip known to man. It is unlike any other substance on earth. I
find it fascinating.
Scientist Albert Hoffman discovered it much by accident on November 16, 1938 while looking for a blood stimulant. Then, just a few years later on April 19, 1943, he reported the first intentional LSD trip saying, “I suddenly became strangely inebriated. The external world became changed as in a dream. Objects appeared to gain inrelief; they assumed unusual dimensions; and colors became more glowing. Even self-perception and the sense of time were changed. When the eyes were closed, colored pictures flashed past in a quickly changing kaleidoscope. After a few hours, the not unpleasant inebriation, which had been experienced whilst I was fully conscious, disappeared. what had caused this condition?”
In 1963 is when LSD doses are believed to have first appeared on the streets. By 1970, 1-2 million Americans reported using LSD. In 1988, the Psychedelic movement re-emerges along with popularity of raves, all night dance parties featuring synthesized music and use of hallucenogenic drugs. “National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) reports LSD statistics and facts saying more than 200,000 people use LSD for the first time each year. Indeed, only 9.7 percent of the population above the age of 12 has used LSD once in a lifetime” (LSD Statitics and Facts, 2009).
LSD acts almost exclusively on serotonin neurons. It chemically resembles serotonin and elicits its effect by binding itself to serotonin receptors. Sometimes LSD may inhibit serotonin receptors, and sometimes it may excite them. This is one reason why LSD has complex sensory effects. People may have a good trip or a bad trip or both. This makes the drug fairly, non addictive. Exciting the locus coeruleus, an area of the brain responsible for awareness, which acts to regulate the level of activity in the brain is what LSD does that causes hallucinations. It is said that the users of LSD become more ecological and feel at one with nature.
What needs to be done about this drug and other psychedelics is more, controlled research. It is being used by a few, but it is very rarely abused. It is way too serious. There even may be many therapeutic uses. CNN reported that the volunteers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine study participated in an experiment with psilocybin, a substance in magic mushrooms with similar effects to LSD, had lasting, positive, spiritual experiences. And, this same school says LSD and other psychedelics are not linked to mental health woes. LSD is the only known cure for cluster headaches, a crippling pain suffered by a few unfortunate individuals.
It's time to end the failed War on Drugs for many reasons.
References
http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/lsd/lsd.shtml
LSD Statistics and Facts. (2009) Retrieved from http://www.lsdaddiction.us/content/lsd-statistics.html
Magic mushrooms on CNN - Long lasting postive effects ..
The Mouse Party
Scientist Albert Hoffman discovered it much by accident on November 16, 1938 while looking for a blood stimulant. Then, just a few years later on April 19, 1943, he reported the first intentional LSD trip saying, “I suddenly became strangely inebriated. The external world became changed as in a dream. Objects appeared to gain inrelief; they assumed unusual dimensions; and colors became more glowing. Even self-perception and the sense of time were changed. When the eyes were closed, colored pictures flashed past in a quickly changing kaleidoscope. After a few hours, the not unpleasant inebriation, which had been experienced whilst I was fully conscious, disappeared. what had caused this condition?”
In 1963 is when LSD doses are believed to have first appeared on the streets. By 1970, 1-2 million Americans reported using LSD. In 1988, the Psychedelic movement re-emerges along with popularity of raves, all night dance parties featuring synthesized music and use of hallucenogenic drugs. “National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) reports LSD statistics and facts saying more than 200,000 people use LSD for the first time each year. Indeed, only 9.7 percent of the population above the age of 12 has used LSD once in a lifetime” (LSD Statitics and Facts, 2009).
LSD acts almost exclusively on serotonin neurons. It chemically resembles serotonin and elicits its effect by binding itself to serotonin receptors. Sometimes LSD may inhibit serotonin receptors, and sometimes it may excite them. This is one reason why LSD has complex sensory effects. People may have a good trip or a bad trip or both. This makes the drug fairly, non addictive. Exciting the locus coeruleus, an area of the brain responsible for awareness, which acts to regulate the level of activity in the brain is what LSD does that causes hallucinations. It is said that the users of LSD become more ecological and feel at one with nature.
What needs to be done about this drug and other psychedelics is more, controlled research. It is being used by a few, but it is very rarely abused. It is way too serious. There even may be many therapeutic uses. CNN reported that the volunteers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine study participated in an experiment with psilocybin, a substance in magic mushrooms with similar effects to LSD, had lasting, positive, spiritual experiences. And, this same school says LSD and other psychedelics are not linked to mental health woes. LSD is the only known cure for cluster headaches, a crippling pain suffered by a few unfortunate individuals.
It's time to end the failed War on Drugs for many reasons.
References
http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/lsd/lsd.shtml
LSD Statistics and Facts. (2009) Retrieved from http://www.lsdaddiction.us/content/lsd-statistics.html
Magic mushrooms on CNN - Long lasting postive effects ..
The Mouse Party
