Prescription opioid medicines are used to treat severe pain due to surgeries, serious sports injuries, or cancer. Such pains may persist for a long period and cause discomfort, thereby depreciating the life’s quality. Therefore, doctors frequently prescribe opioid painkillers to their patients in order to provide them with instant relief. However, the tendency has emerged as […]

Mescaline is a hallucinogenic substance obtained from inside the knobs of Peyote cactus and Fabaceae bean. A stimulating substance, it gives users an out-of-body experience or a trip that is either immensely pleasurable or exasperating. At times, people also use the substance as a catalytic agent to perform certain kinds of occult practices and treatment […]

Addiction is a scourge with debilitating effects. Wreaking havoc and precluding every prospect in one’s life, it becomes fatal under chronic and severe conditions. Drug overdoses regularly kill tens and thousands of people the world over, especially in the United States. According to a New York Times report, the number of Americans who died of […]

Just like different drugs trigger varied effects on the brain, their impact also differ based on gender. Despite being an important factor that needs to be taken into account to understand the problem of drug abuse, the latter factor has not gained much attention. As per trends, while males are prone to marijuana and alcohol […]

As with all drugs, an addiction to cocaine negatively affects a user psychologically, socially and emotionally. With cocaine, the downslide happens much faster and harder compared to other drugs. Since cocaine triggers a relatively short-term high, it leaves users craving for more. The tolerance for the illicit drug also develops very quickly that leads to […]

“In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea.” Samuel Taylor Coleridge

It may sound unbelievable to many that the popular soft drink brand Coca Cola had coca leaves and kola nuts (a source of caffeine) as its main ingredients when John Pemberton launched it in 1886. Cocaine had just started to gain popularity and there was no better time to capitalize on the opportunity, and probably […]

Drug addiction, also known as substance use disorder (SUD), is defined by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) as a chronic, relapsing brain disease that is characterized by compulsive drug-seeking and use despite its harmful and dangerous consequences. According to the World Drug Report 2015, North America experiences the highest drug-related mortality rate at 23 […]

Heroin use has increased in the American population at an astonishing rate. Interestingly, the biggest jump has been seen among white men with low income and education. Therefore, it is essential to understand the geographic and demographic patterns in case of substance abuse. One of the key findings of the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) […]

Tramadol is an opioid that is administered to patients to alleviate moderate to moderately severe pain. The properties of this drug are similar to that of opioid analgesics as it works in the brain to change how the body feels and reacts to pain.