The Encyclopedia of ADDICTIVE DRUGS

500 Pages·2007·4.99 MB·English

The
Encyclopedia of
ADDICTIVE DRUGS
RICHARD LAWRENCE MILLER
GREENWOOD PRESS
The
Encyclopedia of
ADDICTIVE DRUGS

The
Encyclopedia of
ADDICTIVE DRUGS
RICHARD LAWRENCE MILLER
GREENWOODPRESS
Westport,Connecticut • London
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Miller,RichardLawrence.
Theencyclopediaofaddictivedrugs/RichardLawrenceMiller.
p.cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0–313–31807–7(alk.paper)
1. Drugsofabuse—Handbooks,manuals,etc. I. Title.
RM316.M555 2002
615'.78—dc21 2002075332
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationDataisavailable.
Copyright(cid:1)2002byRichardLawrenceMiller
Allrightsreserved.Noportionofthisbookmaybe
reproduced,byanyprocessortechnique,without
theexpresswrittenconsentofthepublisher.
LibraryofCongressCatalogCardNumber:2002075332
ISBN:0–313–31807–7
Firstpublishedin2002
GreenwoodPress,88PostRoadWest,Westport,CT06881
AnimprintofGreenwoodPublishingGroup,Inc.
www.greenwood.com
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Introduction 1
Drug Types 11
Alphabetical Listings of Drugs 31
Sources for More Information 445
Drug Name Index 453
Subject Index 489

Introduction
The Encyclopedia of Addictive Drugs will save readers many hours of time that
would otherwise be spent tracking down basic facts in science journals and
libraries. This book is useful to a wide variety of persons—from a student
doing a term paper to reporters preparing a story, from parents reading that
story to a narcotics law enforcement officer needing extra information for a
public presentation.
In writing this book the approach has been multidisciplinary,meaningthat
perspectives from several fields of research have been pulled together. The
same substance may mean different things to a chemist, a biologist, a physi-
cian, or an anthropologist. Thousands of scientific reports were sifted for in-
formation and concepts that will be meaningful to readers seeking basic
information about specific substances and about drugs in general.
The core of this book is an alphabetical listing of substances. Some are not
ordinarily thought of as drugs, but all have been misused in ways indistin-
guishable from drug abuse. While information in the individual listings and
elsewhere may refer to various physical effects, such information does not
constitute medical advice. Anyone with a medical difficulty needs to consult
a medical practitioner, not this book.
In addition to meaty information about what drugs do, this book includes
triviathatmightinterest,forexample,astudentpreparingareportorahome-
work assignment. For instance, some individual listings of drugs mention
little-known military usage that might intrigue teens interested in the armed
forces. Some experiments are mentioned not because they are necessary to
know about, but because they might add depth to a term paper or inspire a
student to pursue a new angle. Material about effects on pregnancy is inher-
ently important but might also have special interest for female readers.
Inadditiontoalphabeticallistingsofsubstances,thisbookincludesasection
aboutdrugtypesinwhichsubstancesarearrangedingeneralcategories,such
2 TheEncyclopediaofAddictiveDrugs
as stimulants, with further grouping by classes of stimulants (amphetamine,
anorectic, cocaine, pyridine alkaloid). Such an arranging of drugs puts them
in a broader context of information. A chemist knows that a certain element
has particular characteristics because of its place in the periodic table, and a
biologist knows that a certain organism will have particular characteristics
because of its species classification. A reader of this book can automatically
glean information about an individual substancebecauseofthewayitisclas-
sified. For example, everything said in this book about stimulants applies to
the class of stimulants known as amphetamines; everything said about am-
phetamines applies to the particular drug methamphetamine. (Substances
printedinboldhavemainentriesinthisbook’salphabeticalsection.)Areader
familiarwithbasicsaboutstimulantsandwhoonlyneedsafewspecificsabout
methamphetamine can quickly find those details. A reader who needs to un-
derstand more about the general nature of stimulants can find that back-
groundinformationaswell.Personsdesiringtogodeeperthanthesummaries
of scientific information in alphabetical entries can consult reliable sources
listedattheendofeachentry.Manyofthosesourcesliststillmorereferences.
This book concludes with a guide to finding general information about
drugs. Here readers are directed not only to ostensibly neutral sources of
informationbutalsotosourcestakingexplicitanddifferingstancesonvarious
aspects of drug use.
The index lists street names and other alternate names (used in various
communities at various times), giving page numbers where information can
be found about those drugs.
Descriptions of individual drugs in the alphabetical section of this book
present the scientific consensus about those substances, based mainly upon
reports from refereed science journals. A refereed journal is onethat doesnot
merely accept an author’s word but instead has the articles critiqued and
approved by assorted experts prior to publication. Articles in such journals
are fundamental sources of scientificinformation.Althoughfindingsreported
in this book come from scientific investigations around the world, not every-
one agrees with what scientists discover about drugs. Sometimes scientists
themselves disagree with one another. The history of science is filled with
detection of errors, and future research will no doubt provide new under-
standings of these drugs. This book, however, presents scientific consensus
concerning these drugs as the twenty-first century begins.
DRUGABUSE
Drugabuseisanemotionallychargedtopicinvolvingmorethanfactsabout
pharmaceuticals. Personal and moral values are involved, as are fears that
sometimes transform into anger. The author of this book has studied drug
abuse questions since the 1980s; visited with prosecutors, judges, and health
care givers, along with drug abusers and their families; drafted drug control
legislation introduced by Republican and Democratic legislators; testified be-
forelegislativecommittees;andgivenpublicpresentations.Inallsettings,facts
have rapidly disappeared in discussion of the topic.
For most of the twentieth century, addiction was considered a physical ef-
Introduction 3
fect of some drugs. If a drug failed to produce physical symptomsassociated
with addiction, the substance was classified as nonaddictive. In the 1980s,
however, some researchers began arguing that addiction could exist without
associated physical symptoms, that mental craving alone was enough to
power addiction.1 An important boost to acceptance of that concept came in
1987 when the American Psychiatric Association declared that “cocaine de-
pendence” did not require physical dependence for diagnosis.2 The APA
stated, “Continuing use of cocaine appears to be driven by persistentcraving
and urges for the substance rather than attempts to avoid or alleviate with-
drawal symptoms.”3 That approach yielded a broader understanding: that
people could be addicted to things other than drugs, a newandcontroversial
concept but one that was becoming more accepted as thetwenty-firstcentury
began.
Regardless of whether addiction can be more of a mental process than a
physical one, the likelihood of a user developing a harmful relationship with
drugs is greater with some substances than with others. The harm may be
physical. The harm may be disruption of a user’s life. Experience shows, for
example, that cocaine is far more risky to use than caffeine.
Some drugs can be used so much that they and a person’s body develop
what may be called a physical resonance. That is not a standard drug abuse
term, but it communicates the concept more vividly than other terminology.
Resonance means that an individual’s body has adapted to the drug in such a
way that stopping use of the drug makes a person feel ill. Symptomsdepend
on the drug and can range from a runny nose to convulsions. Not all drugs
can produce such a state, but those that can are traditionally calledaddictive.
Indeed, appearance or nonappearance of an “abstinence” or “withdrawal”
syndrome of illness upon sudden end to drug dosage used to be considered
adefinitivetestofwhetheradrugisaddictiveandwhetherauserisanaddict.
Some specialists might use the term neuroadaptation for the mechanism that
createsresonance,butheremoreconservativelanguagethatassertslessabout
roles of the brain and nervous system will be used.
Resonance is typically, and somewhat misleadingly, called “dependence”
bymanypersons.Anaddictwhotemporarilyfeelssickuponstoppingadrug
but who later feels better is not really “dependent” on it, in the ordinary
dictionary sense of that word’s meaning. Granted, physicaldependenceupon
a drug is possible, in the dictionary sense, regardless of whether the under-
lying mechanism is neuroadaptation. An example is a diabetic who needs
insulin. Cutting off insulin supply would make the diabetic sickerandsicker,
so the person truly is dependent on the drug. Its presence is necessary for
good health. Normally, however, that is not what is meant by saying a drug
abuser is dependent on a substance; rather, one means the abuser will feel
temporarily ill if dosage suddenly stops. Nonetheless, some drug addictions
can involve the dictionary meaning of dependence. For example, persons ex-
tremely addicted to alcohol orbarbituratescandieifcutofffromtheirsupply.
Death typically comes from cascading problems culminating in convulsions.
That dismal outcome is uncommon but possible. In addition, dependence is
sometimes used in contexts making it synonymous with addiction, perhaps
referringtopersonsundergoingtreatmenttobreakdependenceonsomedrug