Drug Dependence is a Condition Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Drug Dependence is a Condition - Essay Example Different types of drugs have different mechanisms of action. Depending on the type of drug and the form in which it is administered can cause a wide range of variation of symptoms. Almost all drugs, however, interact with the dopaminergic reward system. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter which is often a pleasure producing chemical. Drugs can either act as agonists or antagonists on receptors, which impact the secretion of this rewarding chemical. As a result, drug users use this in order to achieve the euphoria. Eventually, it takes more and more of the drug in order to achieve the same level of euphoria. This is the beginning of addiction. For drug users who have been using for years, this addiction becomes life essential to the point that it has altered their physiology and if they were to stop using, it would result in death. Thus this addiction moves from becoming a criminal intention to a medical condition. For example, methamphetamines are an extremely powerful drug, which can le ad to the chemical addiction as mentioned above. The withdrawal symptoms can have severe physiological symptoms as well as lead to death due to the lack of medication. This lead to the production of a medicine known as methadone, which is a pharmaceutical which can keep the side effects from methamphetamine occurring, but itself is addicting. In addition, the war on drugs has been occurring for many years, but illegal drugs still are being used and will still make their way onto the streets. As long as there are buyers and sellers, the drug trades and cartels will continue to exist as they find better and more covert ways of initiating their drug transactions.