A report on Cannabis (drug) and Psychoactive drug

Alcohol is a widely used and abused psychoactive drug. The global alcoholic drinks market was expected to exceed $1 trillion in 2013. Beer is the third-most popular drink overall, after water and tea.

Main short-term physical effects of cannabis

Zoloft (sertraline) is an SSRI antidepressant.

A joint prior to rolling, with a paper handmade filter on the left

Timothy Leary was a leading proponent of spiritual hallucinogen use.

Addiction experts in psychiatry, chemistry, pharmacology, forensic science, epidemiology, and the police and legal services engaged in delphic analysis regarding 20 popular recreational drugs. Cannabis was ranked 11th in dependence, 17th in physical harm, and 10th in social harm.

Illustration of the major elements of neurotransmission. Depending on its method of action, a psychoactive substance may block the receptors on the post-synaptic neuron (dendrite), or block reuptake or affect neurotransmitter synthesis in the pre-synaptic neuron (axon).

Comparison of the perceived harm for various psychoactive drugs from a poll among medical psychiatrists specialized in addiction treatment (David Nutt et al. 2007).

Present-day map of the Jirzankal Cemetery, site of the earliest evidence of cannabis smoking

Cannabis sativa from Vienna Dioscurides, c. 512 CE

Cannabis indica fluid extract, American Druggists Syndicate (pre-1937)

Process of making bhang in a Sikh village in Punjab, India. On the Hindu and Sikh festival of colors called Holi, it is a customary addition to some intoxicating drinks.

countries that have legalized medical use of cannabis

Example of a container and the recreational cannabis purchase in Canada.

Woman selling cannabis and bhang in Guwahati, Assam, India

Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the Cannabis plant.

- Cannabis (drug)

Popular campaigns to decriminalize or legalize the recreational use of certain drugs (e.g. cannabis) are also ongoing.

- Psychoactive drug

5 related topics with Alpha

Recreational drug use

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Bhang eaters from India c. 1790. Bhang is an edible preparation of cannabis native to the Indian subcontinent. It has been used in food and drink as early as 1000 BCE by Hindus in ancient India.

A man smoking cannabis in Kolkata, India

A rational harm assessment of drugs<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Blakemore|first1=Colin|last2=Saulsbury|first2=William|last3=King|first3=Leslie A.|last4=Nutt|first4=David|date=2007-03-24|title=Development of a rational scale to assess the harm of drugs of potential misuse|url=https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(07)60464-4/abstract|journal=The Lancet|language=en|volume=369|issue=9566|pages=1047–1053|doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(07)60464-4|issn=0140-6736|pmid=17382831|s2cid=5903121}}</ref>

This 1914 photo shows intoxicated men at a sobering-up room

alt=A chart showing dependence potential versus safety ratio.|An analysis of the dangers of drugs<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xpZhjBuDkuwC&pg=PA149|title=Drugs and Society: U.S. Public Policy|last=Fish|first=Jefferson M.|date=2006|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9780742542457|language=en}}</ref>

Total recorded alcohol per capita consumption (15+), in liters of pure alcohol

Caffeinated alcoholic beverages, such as Vodka Red Bull, are widespread and legal routes of administration for multiple drugs.

alt=A chart showing relative drug harm.|A chart showing relative drug harm.

Recreational drug use indicates the use of one or more psychoactive drugs to induce an altered state of consciousness either for pleasure or for some other casual purpose or pastime by modifying the perceptions, feelings, and emotions of the user.

Recreational drugs include alcohol, commonly found in beer, wine, and distilled spirits; cannabis and hashish (with legality of possession varying inter/intra-nationally); nicotine, commonly found in tobacco; caffeine, commonly found in coffee, tea, soft drinks, prescription drugs; the controlled substances listed as controlled drugs in the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (1961) and the Convention on Psychotropic Substances (1971) of the United Nations; and cocoa, commonly found in chocolate.

Mazatec people performing a Salvia ritual dance in Huautla de Jiménez

Entheogen

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Brugmansia suaveolens, one of a group of species referred to as angel’s trumpets. Brugmansia plants are rich in the chemical compound scopolamine, an example of an entheogen. Brugmansia has been cultivated by native tribes in South America for this reason.

Laboratory synthetic mescaline. Mescaline was the first (1887) psychedelic compound to be extracted and isolated from nature (from peyote).

Flowering San Pedro, an entheogenic cactus that has been used for over 3,000 years. Today the vast majority of extracted mescaline is from columnar cacti, not vulnerable peyote.

2C-B is an entactogen commonly used at public places, like rave parties.

The shrine at Tel Arad, where the earliest use of cannabis in the Near East is thought to have occurred during the Kingdom of Judah

Fresco of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, flanking an alleged "mushroom tree" at Plaincourault Chapel, a 12th-century chapel of the Knights Hospitaller in Mérigny, Indre, France.

A Native American peyote drummer Quanah Parker (c. 1927)

Mandala-like round window above the altar at Boston University's Marsh Chapel, site of Marsh Chapel Experiment

Entheogens are psychoactive substances that induce alterations in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition, or behavior for the purposes of engendering spiritual development or otherwise in sacred contexts.

Bhang is an edible preparation of cannabis native to the Indian subcontinent.

Cocaine

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Strong central nervous system (CNS) stimulant obtained from the leaves of two Coca species native to South America, Erythroxylum coca and Erythroxylum novogranatense.

A 2010 study ranking various illegal and legal drugs based on statements by drug-harm experts. Crack cocaine and cocaine was found to be the third and fifth overall most dangerous drugs respectively.

Biological source of cocaine molecule in the context of the tropane class of molecules. The biological source of each tropane alkaloid is indicated by species, and below that a phylogenetic map is provided.

Biosynthesis of N-methyl-pyrrolinium cation

"Cocaine toothache drops", 1885 advertisement of cocaine for dental pain in children

Advertisement in the January 1896 issue of McClure's Magazine for Burnett's Cocaine "for the hair".

Pope Leo XIII purportedly carried a hip flask of the coca-treated Vin Mariani with him, and awarded a Vatican gold medal to Angelo Mariani.

In this 1904 advice column from the Tacoma Times, "Madame Falloppe" recommended that cold sores be treated with a solution of borax, cocaine, and morphine.

Women purchase cocaine capsules in Berlin, 1929

D.C. Mayor Marion Barry captured on a surveillance camera smoking crack cocaine during a sting operation by the FBI and D.C. Police.

Drug overdoses killed more than 70,200 Americans in 2017, with cocaine overdoses making up 13,942 of those deaths.

United States CBP police inspect a seized shipment of cocaine

The U.S. Coast Guard in Miami offloading confiscated cocaine

Cocaine adulterated with fruit flavoring

Opioid involvement in cocaine overdose deaths. The green line is cocaine and any opioid (top line in 2017). The gray line is cocaine without any opioids (bottom line in 2017). The yellow line is cocaine and other (middle line in 2017).<ref name=NIDA-deaths>{{cite web | url = https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates | title = Overdose Death Rates | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151128091723/https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates| archive-date=28 November 2015 | work = By National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) }}</ref>

Delphic analysis regarding 20 popular recreational drugs based on expert opinion. Cocaine was ranked the 2nd in dependence and physical harm and 3rd in social harm.<ref name="Lancet">{{cite journal|vauthors = Nutt D, King LA, Saulsbury W, Blakemore C|title = Development of a rational scale to assess the harm of drugs of potential misuse|journal = Lancet|volume = 369|issue = 9566|pages = 1047–53|date = March 2007|pmid = 17382831|doi = 10.1016/S0140-6736(07)60464-4|s2cid = 5903121|author-link4 = Colin Blakemore|author-link1 = David Nutt }}</ref>

Bottle of cocaine solution, Germany, circa 1915

Analysis of the correlation between the use of 18 various psychoactive substances shows that cocaine use correlates with other "party drugs" (such as ecstasy or amphetamines), as well as with heroin and benzodiazepines use, and can be considered as a bridge between the use of different groups of drugs.

When smoked, cocaine is sometimes combined with other drugs, such as cannabis, often rolled into a joint or blunt.

The earliest known depiction of a Siberian shaman, by the Dutch Nicolaes Witsen, 17th century. Witsen called him a "priest of the Devil" and drew clawed feet for the supposed demonic qualities.

Shamanism

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Religious practice that involves a practitioner interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance.

A shaman, probably Khakas, Russian Empire, 1908

A tableau presenting figures of various cultures filling in mediator-like roles, often being termed as "shaman" in the literature. The tableau presents the diversity of this concept.

South Moluccan shaman in an exorcism ritual involving children, Buru, Indonesia (1920)

A shaman of the Itneg people in the Philippines renewing an offering to the spirit (anito) of a warrior's shield (kalasag) (1922)

A shaman doctor of Kyzyl, 2005. Attempts are being made to preserve and revitalize Tuvan shamanism: former authentic shamans have begun to practice again, and young apprentices are being educated in an organized way.

An entheogen ("generating the divine within") is a psychoactive substance used in a religious, shamanic, or spiritual context.

Examples of substances used by some cultures as entheogens include: peyote, psilocybin and Amanita muscaria (fly agaric) mushrooms, uncured tobacco, cannabis, ayahuasca, Salvia divinorum, and iboga.

Psychosis

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Condition of the mind that results in difficulties determining what is real and what is not real.

Other causes include: trauma, sleep deprivation, some medical conditions, certain medications, and drugs such as cannabis, hallucinogens, and stimulants.

Various psychoactive substances (both legal and illegal) have been implicated in causing, exacerbating, or precipitating psychotic states or disorders in users, with varying levels of evidence.