OK, killas. Since we here at the Head are neuroscientists we feel it's time to give something back to the blog community. What would you be interested in? Population coding? Evolution of sensory systems? Growth factors?
Let's be real. The only thing you care about related to neuro is drugs. Some of them are awful for you and some of them are relatively benign. we've taken it upon ourselves to try and educate you little fiends. Not that we endorse any of this lifestyle but...
So without further ado, The Head's Primer of Recreational Drugs.
(Other neuro types please feel free to weigh in)
(Also, just because I say something is relatively benign doesn't mean it's not damaging. It's a sliding scale. Plus some people have weird sensitivities to some of these)
Um, don't do drugs.
First the
legal ones.
Alcohol - not exactly good for your body, but brain-wise it doesn't so as much damage as many would have you believe. No, every time you drink you don't kill 10,000 brain cells. I guess it can be addictive but for most more psychological that physical, but in some cases you can be physically addicted. Long-term, super-chronic use can result in brain damage (we're talking about serious,
Leaving Las Vegas-style drinking here, for decades). Within moderation or even somewhat over moderation you should be fine.
Cigarettes - Not good for you of course. See a spike in lung cancer incidence after about 30 pack years (pack year = pack a day for a year, so if you smoke 2 packs a day after 15 years you're at 30 pack years and rolling the dice w/ lung cancer). Good news is that if you stop before then (say at 10 pack years) within a relatively short period of time you can halt and even reverse the damage.
But we're concerned with the brain. Highly addictive of course, right up there with cocaine. There's evidence supporting that cigarettes can retard the onset of parkinson's disease. Also there's a few studies with nicotine and mental acuity but those are still sparse.
Caffeine - fine, no really, you're fine. Drink up!
The Illegal Drugs.
Marijuana - basically harmless. There's been some indication that heavy use may be linked to amotivational disorder but, let's be honest, with a lot of us there's a floor effect there. In all seriousness, this is most likely due to the long 1/2 life of the drug. Basically, you don't want to do shit the next day because some THC is still in your system, even though you don't feel high. The main thing I can think of (That Burroughs says so well in
Junky) is that you're basically completely unfit to drive a car.
Weed aslo has the funniest anti-drug commercials evah! Goes back decades - smoke reefer, kill your mom. Today it's - smoke weed, get pregnant. Hilarious!
Hallucinogenics - LSD, psylocibin, peyote, etc. These are the classic "If you can get through the effects without hurting yourself then you're fine" drugs. It's almost impossible to overdose on them (The LSD dose that is 50% lethal in a population is a few hundred tabs. At once.). And you don't get brain damage or go crazy the 5th (or 10th, 20th, etc. - it varies depending on who is telling you this story) time you trip. I think that a lot of people who were heavy into these and are weird can basically attribute a lot of it to the people they hung around.
Cocaine - can be nasty of course, but, unless you have a previous heart condition it's unlikely you'll die due to overdose (but don't take that as an excuse to spell out your whole name in coke and snort it - it's still more possible to die of this than a lot of other things). Will definitely damage your bank account and typically you'll be around a whole lot of assholes most of the time. Short-term low dose use will allow you to recover fine. High dose chronic use can be a real problem. Chronic use can cause a constellation of fun problems: affective disorders, schizophrenia-like symptoms, personality disorders, etc. Usually these can be recovered from within a couple days to months after stopping use.
Crack - it's fucking
crack people. Why the fuck are you asking me about it? Don't do it.
Opiates - biggest problem here is death by overdose. Typically by respiratory failure. And withdrawal. Also, a strong habit may result in you forgoing a lot of things that you're supposed to do: eat well, bathe (you stinky motherfucker), etc. If you're gonna do these stick to painkillers (vicodin, percocet, etc. and for Christ's sake, swallow the pill, don't crush it up and snort it. Once you're off it for good recovery should be normal (read: no severe long-term mental effects).
Ecstasy and
Methamphetamine - the worst out of all of these, brain-wise, and it's ironic because so many people think they are so safe. They're together because rolls are just ring-substituted meth. A lot of my friends seem to think that MDMA is safe while meth is not. They're idiots. The HUGE difference between these and the other drugs are that they are
directly neurotoxic. Cocaine will kill shit up in the ol' noodle after chronic, high-dose use but these little guys kill shit every time you use them. So, what's a little long-term cognitive deficit you say? It's just not in those areas, Jimmy. It primarily kills shit in serotonergic and dopaminergic pathways. Guess what these pathways are responsible for? Reward. As in, if you fuck them up, you'll never have the ability to feel pleasure. In fact, like I said, there's evidence that every time you roll you destroy some more of your ability to be happy. Imagine the mid-week blues, forever. Nothing will make you happy, fucking, eating, drugs, winning the big game - NOTHING. A lot of these effects are irreversible (no new neurons, remember?). Ever see a long term meth user at the VA? Now, reformed drunks, cokeheads, etc. still can function normally, usually. Other than the annoying stories and proselytizing. Former meth users? Completely fucked. I'm talking shells.
OK, hope you've learned something.
