Resources
The Substances
Learn key drug terms and more about the substances themselves…
Key Drug Terms
- Addiction:
- Occurs when the body undergoes a chemical change so that it needs the drug to function normally.
- Chief effect:
- The physical or mental change for which one takes a drug.
- Detoxification:
- The first step in treating drug abusers; a treatment program that involves a gradual but complete withdrawal from an abused drug.
- Drug:
- A chemical or substance that causes changes in the body or mind.
- Drug abuse:
- The intentional improper or unsafe use of a drug.
- Drug use:
- Taking drugs correctly.
- Effect:
- The physical and mental response the body has to the action of a drug.
- Illegal drugs:
- Substances for which possession and sales are forbidden by law because the harmful effects outweigh any useful purposes the drugs may have.
- Legal drugs:
- Those considered by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) to be useful enough to be available.
- Medicines:
- Drugs used to treat medical conditions.
- Nerve cell:
- Same term for a neuron, and is a cell of the nervous system that carries �messages� through an electrochemical process.
- Neurotransmitter:
- Chemicals that are released from one neuron.
- OTC (over-the-counter drugs):
- Drugs you can purchase without a doctor�s prescription.
- Overdose:
- Taking enough of a drug to cause shock, coma, or death.
- Prescription drugs:
- Drugs available only with a doctor�s recommendation.
- Psychoactive drugs:
- Drugs that alter the mind.
- Side effect:
- A different, unknown, or undesirable reaction to a drug.
- Synthetic drugs:
- Drugs created in laboratories by combining chemicals.
- Tolerance:
- A body�s resistance to the effects of a drug, often occurring during regular use; the user must then take larger doses of a drug to achieve the same effect.
- Withdrawal:
- Symptoms experienced when a drug that one is addicted to is taken away.