MODULE 6

UNIT 2

	Text: Drug trafficking.
	Grammar: Revision.

TYPES OF DRUGS

Drugs are probably as old as mankind. There have been drugs in practically all civilizations.

A distinction must be made between legal and illegal drugs, depending on the country and culture concerned. Alcohol, for instance, while popular in most parts of the world, is prohibited in many Muslim countries.

Legal drugsin Ukraine - and most Western countries - are caffeine (coffee), nicotine (tobacco) and alcohol (beer, wine, spirits) as well as certain medical tablets which can be obtained without prescription. Certain glues and solvents are likewise misused as drugs, especially among 12 to 16-year-olds.

There are four large groups of illegal drugs,three of which are based on plants (hemp, poppy and coca), with the fourth group being synthetic drugs.

Hemp (cannabis) is the raw material for hashish and marihuana. These drugs are mainly smoked mixed with tobacco as «joints». Consumption produces, among other things, hallucinations and mental disorders, and, like alcohol, impairs fitness to drive.

The opium poppy is the base for opium and heroin. Both drugs have been used as pain killers, but they are extremely addictive.

Opium is usually smoked while heroin is injected. Many heroin addicts contract AIDS because they share syringes. Long-term heroin abuse leads to physical breakdown and, eventually, death.

Cocaine is extracted from the leaves of the coca bush and is usually snorted. After a brief moment of euphoria, cocaine users suffer, among other things, from hallucinations, panic and persecution mania, which, in turn, often produce aggressiveness.

Crack (cocaine heated together with baking powder) causes addiction right from the beginning.

There are many synthetic drugs, like LSD and ecstasy, and nobody knows what drugs chemists will come up with next. The so-called designer drugs are specially designed variations of illegal drugs. The clandestine manufacturers seek to escape the provisions of the controlled substances acts in the consumers' countries.

Drug addicts who want to get clean often suffer from severe and painful withdrawal symptoms. This is why many rehabilitation schemes are not very successful. As drugs are extremely expensive, «junkies» often turn to crime like theft and burglary to finance their habit. Female addicts frequently «earn» the necessary money through prostitution.

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