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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 24, 1988)
c unosity A sense of alienation Medical reasons Escape from reality Search for self Peer pressure Pleasure Relaxation Recreation Sexual identification No, this is not the top ten list as to why people watch David Letterman. It is the top reasons people use drugs. Yep, drugs. Defined as “substances, other than food that affect the structure or function of the body of man or other animal. ” But you probably know them better by their street names. There is coke, crack, opiates, pep pills, bennies, speed, yellow jackets, red devils, angel dust, heroin, pot, LSD, pep, acid and angel dust. And the list goes on. ” But that’s old stuff. If you didn’t hear about drugs and the abuse of drugs in the bathroom at school, or at parties, you probably heard it in a health class at some point in your academic career. However, there are some things you may not know. Dr. Paul Elledge, a health education professor at Texas A&M, says abusing a substance is easier than people think. “Abuse is defined as using a drug or any other substance for something else than its intended use, ” he says. “For instance, as far as ethanol is concerned, its intended use is in uterine contractions and muscle relaxation. So technically, to drink alcohol is to abuse it. People don’t look at it that way, because drinking is socially acceptable, whereas using drugs generally isn’t. ” Elledge says he thinks marjuiana is the drug of choice among college students. “I say that because of some things that are good in the eyes of the user,” he says. “Users say there is no hangover from it, and they think it doesn’t do a great deal of damage to themselves. They convince themselves that it is a relatively safe drug.” Elledge says using marijuana does have some harmful side effects. “Actually the high level of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) in marijuana can cause chromosomal abberations in the user and possibly the offspring, and loss of sperm in males,” he says. “Some other effects are antimotivation and lung damage. Smoking one marijuana cigarette is equal to about 4-5 regular cigarettes. Elledge says one main problem with drugs, aside from the health problems they cause, is the lack of quality control. “A frequent adulterer of marijuana is horse manure,” he says. “Users say one way of telling if a bag of marijuana is pure is by the stems that will be present in the bottom of the bag. “Horse manure also contains stems, and dealers can cut the percentage down to 25% marijuana and 75% manure and it will still smell like marijuana. B, lut what about cocaine, the drug that has made the movies? Formerly a glamour drug, affordable only to the jet set, cocaine is now making quite an entrance onto the college scene. Elledge says the increased use simply boils down to economics. “Cocaine dealers brought the price down to make it a middle-price drug, so they could attract the college-aged kids,” he says. “Once this group of people is hooked on it, they will run the price back up. Drug dealers are unscrupulous, but they are smart.” These drugs have been around for centuries. The American Indians had their hallucinogens, and a book could have been written about opium in Hong Kong centuries ago. But a new innovation into the drug scene is the introduction of designer drugs. Synthetic look-alikes of high-demand drugs are made all the time, and you only need a basic knowledge of chemistry to make some of these drugs. But before you run out and buy a chemistry set, read on. Designer drugs are created by simply switching a few molecular links in a drug family chain. And the analogs produced emerge as desirable replacements for high-priced exotic imported drugs. Many of these drugs are legal, because they never existed before, and haven’t existed long enough for someone to pass laws against them. One of the most popular designer drugs is ecstasy. But the problem arising is that the shortcuts people use to make these drugs can often backfire. “A lot of times these drugs will be made under horrible conditions,” Elledge says “Several years ago, at the comer of Welsh and Southwest Parkway in College Station, some students started making drugs. And they were mixing them in slop jars. ” One of the worst problems with these designer drugs occured in the early 80’s with “China White. ” It was an ultra-potent synthetic copy of Southeast Asian herion, and the copy was almost perfect. It satisfied junk cravings and staved off withdrawal. It looked like heroin, and even fooled the experts for a while. But in the end, the only ones fooled were the users. “China White attacks and kills a part of the brain called the substantia nigra,” Elledge says. “That part controls the formation oi dopemine, which is essential to movement. Once that part of the brain is dead, no more dopamine is produced. “In California there were two brothers who, after shooting up with the drug, froze in the position they were in. They were conscious, but they couldn’t move, and it was two days before they were found. ” ^Jo obviously, drug education is important and, according to Dr. Elledge, it needs to be started at an early age. “College students today have been told from the earliest ages that smoking is bad for them, and is not as ‘cool’ as people once thought, ” he says. “Consequently, fewer people in college smoke cigarettes than the generation before. The same thing needs to be done with drug education, and I’ll bet you will see the same results. ” In an effort to educate the younger residents of the Bryan-College Station area, both public high schools have programs and counseling available for people with questions or problems with drugs. Rose Uranovsky, the sophomore counselor at Bryan High School, says their services range from drug dogs to counseling. “We have a student chapter of SADD (Students Against Driving Drunk) here, and we also have drug education in with the health classes, ” she says. “On April 19, SADD and the student council are holding a seminar on drug awareness. They are also going to hand out a survey which will get a feel for students and drugs on campus, and also students’ knowledge of drugs. ” Rowena Reed, a counselor at A&M Consolidated High School, says the See Drugs on page 11 Battalion File Photo Thursday, March 24,1988/At Ease/Page 9
