A recurring narrative among first-time drug users is that they will always be in control and never get addicted to the substances they take. However, data shows that it is almost impossible to do so. The 2018 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) survey revealed that nearly 3 million Nigerians suffer from drug use disorder.
Research from scientists also show that most drugs or substances that have a physiological effect when ingested, don’t necessarily become harmful the moment they are used. Sometimes, they kick off with a positive sensation before slowly progressing into a negative outcome.
According to the National Institute of Health (NIH) publication on drug abuse, stimulants like cocaine often provide an intense feeling of pleasure, power, and increased energy, while drugs like heroin could give a relaxing effect. However, as users engage in frequent use, it leads to addiction, a compulsive desire for substance intake, and then the adverse effects begin to creep in.
Substances like marijuana, heroin, amphetamine, and cocaine tap into the brain system, causing the neurons to release large amounts of natural neurotransmitters which are chemical brain messengers that amplify a user’s craving for hard drugs.
With drug users indulging their cravings, the brain adapts to the surge in dopamine and other neurotransmitters by reducing the number of receptors, thus making the user take a higher dosage of drugs to get the desired euphoria.
Following drug users impaired brain activity, they begin to suffer negative consequences such as depression, anxiety, aggressiveness, and extensive damage to essential brain sections necessary to sustain life.
The NIH also revealed that areas of the brain that can become damaged due to drug usage include the brain stem, which controls regular heart rate, breathing, and sleeping, as well as the cerebral cortex which controls the human senses and the ability to make analytical decisions. The limbic system which contains the brain’s reward circuit can also become impaired.
Although drug addiction was seen mainly as a moral problem for many centuries, Nora D. Volkow, Managing Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, divulged that it is a brain disease.
A 2004 medical research led by Nobel Prize-winning neurobiologist, Dr. Paul Greengard found that the drugs work through a brain protein known as DARPP-32 which is a go-between the actions of virtually all neurotransmitters in all parts of the brain.
Addictions usually occur as a result of constant substance use, peer influence, medical conditions, mental disorders, emotional or other forms of abuse, and environmental or hereditary factors. Strangely, scientists estimate that 40 to 70 per cent of people with addiction tendency is as a result of genetics.
Marc G. Caron, Ph.D., an investigator who was part of the research team at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Duke University Medical Center in 2004, revealed that gene sequence PSD-95 plays a role in people’s addiction to illicit substances.
Thus, irrespective of a drug user’s desire to stay in control of its use, engaging in the activity can lead to addiction. This is why it is paramount to desist from drug usage, join the fight for a drug-free society by engaging in behavioural change initiatives like the MTN Anti-Substance Abuse Programme (ASAP), and educate others on the dangers of substance usage.