A report on Cannabis (drug) and Recreational drug use

Main short-term physical effects of cannabis

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

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.

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.

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

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

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>

Cannabis sativa from Vienna Dioscurides, c. 512 CE

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.

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.

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

Woman selling cannabis and bhang in Guwahati, Assam, India

Native to Central and South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various traditional medicines for centuries.

- Cannabis (drug)

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.

- Recreational drug use

8 related topics with Alpha

Psychoactive drug

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Psychoactive_Drugs_Legend.jpg: 1. caffeine

Zoloft (sertraline) is an SSRI antidepressant.

Timothy Leary was a leading proponent of spiritual hallucinogen use.

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).

These substances may be used medically, recreationally, or spiritually; to purposefully improve performance or alter one's consciousness; as entheogens for ritual, spiritual, or shamanic purposes, or for research.

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

Mazatec people performing a Salvia ritual dance in Huautla de Jiménez

Entheogen

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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.

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

In modern usage entheogen may be used synonymously with these terms, or it may be chosen to contrast with recreational use of the same drugs.

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

Synthetic cannabinoids

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Synthetic cannabinoids are a class of designer drug molecules that bind to the same receptors to which cannabinoids (THC, CBD and many others) in cannabis plants attach.

Dried flower buds sold as cannabis on the street may be laced.

A store selling synthetic cannabinoids in Riga in 2012

A large and complex variety of synthetic cannabinoids are designed in an attempt to avoid legal restrictions on cannabis, making synthetic cannabinoids designer drugs.

Some of the names of synthetic cannabinoids synthesized for recreational use were given names to help market the products.

Cannabinoid

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Anandamide, an endogenous ligand of CB1 and CB2

Cannabinoids are compounds found in the cannabis plant or synthetic compounds that can interact with the endocannabinoid system. The most notable cannabinoid is the phytocannabinoid tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) (Delta-9-THC), the primary intoxicating compound in cannabis.

Strains used in medicine are often bred for high CBD content, and strains used for recreational purposes are usually bred for high THC content or for a specific chemical balance.

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

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

In many countries, cocaine is a popular recreational drug.

Legality of cannabis

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[[File:Map-of-world-cannabis-laws.svg|thumb|400px|alt=Map of world cannabis laws for non-medical use|Legal status of cannabis possession for recreational use

The legality of cannabis for medical and recreational use varies by country, in terms of its possession, distribution, and cultivation, and (in regards to medical) how it can be consumed and what medical conditions it can be used for.

Cannabis is classified as a Schedule I drug under the Single Convention treaty, meaning that signatories can allow medical use but that it is considered to be an addictive drug with a serious risk of abuse.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents in a training exercise

Prohibition of drugs

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Huichol religion worshiped the god of Peyote, a drug.

A painting of opium ships sailing into China. Chinese attempts to suppress opium smuggling sparked the First Opium War.

Papaver somniferum. The sale of drugs in the UK was regulated by the Pharmacy Act of 1868.

Thomas Brassey was appointed the head of the Royal Opium Commission in 1893 to investigate the opium trade and make recommendations on its legality.

Newspaper article from The Daily Picayune, New Orleans, Louisiana in 1912 reporting on a drug arrest, a month after the International Opium Convention was signed and ratified at The Hague.

American drug law enforcement agents detain a man in 2005.

Opium poppies growing in Afghanistan, a major source of drugs today.

People marching in the streets of Cape Town against the prohibition of cannabis in South Africa, May 2015

Total incarceration in the United States by year

Dareton police search the vehicle of a suspected drug smuggler in Wentworth, New South Wales, Australia

Protest against the Philippine drug war. The protesters are holding placards which urge Rodrigo Duterte to stop killing drug users.

The prohibition of drugs through sumptuary legislation or religious law is a common means of attempting to prevent the recreational use of certain intoxicating substances.

A major campaign against hashish-eating Sufis were conducted in Egypt in the 11th and 12th centuries resulting among other things in the burning of fields of cannabis.

Cannabis sativa

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Annual herbaceous flowering plant indigenous to Eastern Asia, but now of cosmopolitan distribution due to widespread cultivation.

A female sativa cannabis strain in flowering or “budding” stage

Cannabis sativa, scientific drawing from c. 1900

It has been cultivated throughout recorded history, used as a source of industrial fiber, seed oil, food, recreation, religious and spiritual moods and medicine.

Cultivars grown for medicinal or recreational purposes, characterized by extensive branching to maximize the number of flowers.