Decease… Death… Die…

I cannot agree with Daniel Shapiro in his statement that “It is possible that legalizing heroin and cocaine would make its use similar to the current use of cigarettes” (White, p. 303). Does this mean that people will use heroin or cocaine regularly in small doses and there will not be any overdose and there will not be any “wars” to get a dose? We can only hope for this but I think that it will never happen and legalizing will not help in the solving of the drug problems. The main point here is, to my mind, the differences of the influences of cocaine and heroin and cigarettes at the person’s mind. I never heard that people who are smoking simple cigarettes were affected by the cigarettes’ smoke and then went and performed murders. And as for the influence of cocaine and heroin, they have a huge influence at person’s mind.

I have read some facts about the influences of marijuana, cocaine and heroin, here they are.

For example, all kinds of marijuana influence at the state of mind and lead to the changes of the brain’s functioning. Continuous usage of marijuana can lead to the paranoid schizophrenia. Usually marijuana is smoked in cigarettes. The effect of influence depends on the previous experience of the smoker and also on what effect the smoker is waiting for, the place of usage. Some people during the smoking of marijuana feel nothing, some of them are feeling hunger, sexual drive or irrepressible attacks of laughter, the feeling of anxiety, suspiciousness, emptiness in the head, indifference, the space perception is distorted, the eyes are red, and the hallucinations appear. As the consequences, there appear the problems with memory and studying, cogitation and solving the problems. Contemporary researches confirm aroused suspicion that marijuana can provoke the occurrence of some kinds of cancer. Marijuana smokers get the cough and the problems with breathing, they more often catch cold and they are predisposed to the illnesses of lungs like pneumonia. The substance which is inside marijuana is destroying the immune cells of the organism. The drugs of hemp are considered to be light drugs but this is delusion. The majority of injection drug addicts were smoking help at first.
Any form of cocaine can cause the attacks of cardiovascular system which often leads to death.

During taking the cocaine causes the feeling of euphoria, the burst of energy, talkativeness, the state of mind is changed, especially during the perception of the visual images, sounds and sensations. A person also can continuously not feel the hunger and he can not want to sleep for a long time, the blood vessels are grow narrow, the pupils are widening, the temperature is rising. The long-term effects of the cocaine usage are addiction from the drug, irritability, the changes of the mood, anxiety, paranoia, the worsening of hearing and hallucinations. Cocaine directly influences at the brain and destroys it.

As for the heroin, the users very often cannot know the real power of the drug and they often have a risk to get the overdose and blood contamination. And there is also a threat to be infected by AIDS or other hard infectious illnesses. During the usage, the heroin is hitting the brain and changes the state of perception. Usually the heroin users have a feeling with is close to the feeling of flight, the breathing is slow, there is almost no pain, sometimes there can be nausea, strong itching, the pupils become narrow, and there is a placidity. The long-term effects of the heroin usage are addiction from the drug, destruction of veins, the robustness is reduced, there occur purulent abscesses, the illnesses of the cardiac valves and the valves’ walls, different kinds of arthritis and rheumatism, the skin becomes pale and wrinkled, there is almost no enamel on the teeth, the teeth begin to rot, break and fall out, the intellect is reduced, and premature aging.

These drugs are not better than simple cigarette smoking, but as I know cigarette smoking doesn’t provoke people to kill other people to get the dose…