Question

How does the POTENCY of alcohol compare with other psychoactive substances, like cocaine, opioids, caffeine, cannabis, nicotine?

Answer 1

Phychoactive drug is a chemical substance that can result in alterations in brain functions like mood,behavior,consciousness etc.Alcohol, cocaine, opioids, caffeine, cannabis, nicotine etc are considered phychoactive drugs.Compared to any other drugs alcohol is the widely used one.In alcohol the active compound is Ethanol and consumed in liquid form.Most of the other drugs is smoked or inhaled. In this cocaine,nicotine and caffeine comes under a Central Nervous system stimulants category of drugs as it stimulates the mind and wakes one up by accelerating heart rate and pressure.Alcohol,opiods and cannabis are Central Nervous system depressants which causes sleep and perception changes by slowing down operations of the brain.Alcohol and other depressants work by increasing the production of neurotransmitter GABA and reducing the production of acetylcholine neurotransmitter.The alcohol can induce impaired judgment,dizziness,nausea,coordination loss and eventually the excess intake causes loss of consciousness.Also alcohol use impacts the inhibition of aggression .Addiction potential,physical dependence and phychological dependence of alcohol comparing to other drugs are moderate.For cocaine the side effects include decreased appetite and headaches.Caffeine also creates a stimulative energy but compared to other phychoactive drugs it has less phychological or addiction impacts.It may create a dependence.Opoids like morphins creates a lot of side effects like restlessness,nausea,vomiting and it can be highly addictive.Phychological dependence of opoids is higher than in alcohol.It may affect body functions such as constipation,respiratory issues,cardiac issues etc.Comparing to cannabis alcohol has more potency .Cannabis causes hallucinations ,loss of consciousness while alcohol creating a pain relief and calming effects.Phychological ,physical and addiction potentials of alcohol is more compared to cannabis.If any of these drugs are used for a prolonged period it causes very dangerous effects.As the use of these increases the dependence also increases.For Alcohol compared to other drugs this is higher.Regular intake causes a high dependency.When consumption is stopped a person shows withdrawal symptoms causing physical and mental illness. .The hallucinogens like cannabis is not as likely to get addictive as nicotine or alcohol.But the opoids injected usually is dangerous than other methods of taking these drugs because the shared contaminated needles causes infections like HIV,pericarditis,Hepatitis etc. which can be fatal.