There are two main groups of drugs. The legal and the illegal. Most of the Drugs are illegal for example coccaine, heroine, cannabis, LSD, extasy... etc. The legal drugs are alcohol, tobaco, cofeine, cannabis and all sorts of medicine and chemicals such as glues. In this essay I`ll try to explain influence of the legal and light drugs on human body. The Alcohol(-OH) – Alcohol has a long history. It is dated to 10,000 B.C. Every ancient civilization has alcohol in it’s history. Egyptian, Babylon, Greece, Chinese civilizations used alcoholic beverages for pleasure, nutrition, medicine, ritual, remuneration and funerary purposes. Even today it’s popular that people get drunk just because they’re feeling happy or they met their relatives or friends. The two types of alcohol are ethanol(C2H5OH) and methanol (CH3OH). It’s usually ethanol what we drink because methanol is toxic. Methanol is the simplest alcohol and is colorless, flammable, poisonous liquid with a distinctive odor. It is used as an antifreeze, solvent, fuel, and as a denaturant for ethyl alcohol. Methanol is dangerous for human body because it could cause blindness by destructing optic nerves in your eye. People drink alcohol because it has a long tradition in our society and also because it makes people relaxed, happier and fearless. People stops being shy. They behave in a way they would never do without alcohol. But people often forget about the side effects of this drug. The side effect after consuming too much alcohol is mainly called “hangover”. The most commonly reported characteristics of a hangover include headache, nausea, sensitivity to light and noise, lethargy, depression, trouble sleeping and thirstiness. Headache, lethargy and thirstiness are caused by dehydration. Ethanol has a diuretic effect which stimulates urine production so you get dehydrated. But these symptoms could be prevented by drinking sufficient amount of water after consuming alcohol. Nausea is caused by two symptoms. The first one is increased NADH (Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) production during metabolism of ethanol by the enzymes alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase, excess NADH can build up and slow down gluconeogenesis in the liver, thus causing hypoglycemia. And the second one is caused by dehydration when your brain shrinks away from your skull slightly. Hypoglicemia is one of the most dangerous “hangover” symptoms. It occurs when the brain has not enough glucose or sugar. It could permanently damage brain. Alcohol has also got some positive effects. Alcohol sensitizes the NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) system of the brain, making it more receptive to the neurotransmitter glutamate. Stimulated areas of brain are the cortex, hippocampus and nucleus accumbens they are responsible for thinking and pleasure seeking. Another one of alcohol's agreeable effects is body relaxation, possibly caused by heightened alpha brain waves. Alpha waves are released when the body is relaxed. Heightened pulses are thought to correspond to higher levels of enjoyment which could be used against depressions. Although this effect can’t be used as a medicine because patients would get addicted to alcohol and also because of it’s side effects. Ethanol is also used as disinfectant in modern medicine. The Cannabis (tetrahydrocannabinol)- Cannabis is also known as marijuana or ganja. Marihuana has got it’s roots in a neolitic age. It has been used for it’s psychotropic effects during rituals. Nowadays it’s the most common drug. There are many types of cannabis. The differences are in quality or the ammount of THC in them and in apperance. Few types of cannabis : Skunk, White widow, Northern Lights, Purple Haze, Blue Berries...etc. The active chemical compound in cannabis is tetrahydrocannabinol and rarely tetrahydrocannabivarin. Classification of cannabis is: Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Rosales Family: Cannabaceae Genus: Cannabis What are the effects of cannabis? Cannabis hasn’t got any uniformal effects. Everything depends on the mood of user before taking the drug and on the amount of drug taken and it also depends on each user because everyone has different “high”. Cannabis can’t be classificated as stimulant, depressant, hallucinogen, or antipsychotic because it is mix of all of them because it is containing both THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (Cannabidiol) my personal opinion is that it should be classificated as stimulant and hallucinogen. After taking the drug users feel mild euphoria, feelings of well-being usually occurs as well, relaxation or stress reduction occurs when the user is at the highest point of “highness”, lethargy is the side effect of cannabis, increased appreciation of humor, music or art are usually reasons why people use cannabis, joviality, metacognition and introspection, enhanced recollection of episodic memory, increased sensuality, increased awareness of sensation, creative or philosophical thinking is sometimes reason for taking this drug, disruption of linear memory, paranoia is the worst side effect of cannabis, users feel this if they’re mood before taking the drug was bad or if they are afraid of punishment for taking drug. They might hear voices or see someone watching them even if there are no people around. Hungriness thirstiness or even anxiety for food and drinks are also effects of cannabis. Potentiation of other psychedelics and increased awareness of patterns and colors. What are the health hazards? There aren’t many. I think that there are too few reasons for illegalization of cannabis. Some studies have announced that cannabis might increase the risk of getting the lung, neck, tongue, mouth, throat, or esophagus cancer. But advanced studies have declined this claim. According to a United Kingdom government report, using cannabis is less dangerous than tobacco, prescription drugs, and alcohol in social harms, physical harm and addiction. You can’t even get addicted to cannabis! There aren’t any reports of deaths or permanent injuries caused as a result of overdosing cannabis. It is practically impossible to get mortal amount of cannabis. Because the user would fall asleep or would get incapacitated from the effects of the drug before being able to consume enough THC to be mortally toxic. The mortal amount is 600 mg of THC per kilogram. Cannabis has been linked with schizophrenia but the studies have been declined because it has not been verified by other studies. The Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study published research showing an increased risk of psychosis for cannabis users with a certain genetic predisposition held by 25% of the population. Cannabis even has preventive effects against progressive degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. Some scientists say that marijuana is “gateway drug” because teenagers who smoke weed in their 15’s are 15 times more likely to take amphetamine in their 20’s. But it is only hypothesis because there is much more factors which could have influenced these people. The cannabis has been outlawed at the beginning of the 20th century. But studies of effects of cannabis at the beginning of 21st century have reduced restrictions for using and dealing the drug. It has been legalized in Netherlands and in some countries you get only fined for using this drug rather than being imprisoned. I think it should be legalized worldwide. Sources : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug http://paveldanko.com/alkohol/ http://www.zdravotnictvo.sk/buxus/generate_page.php?page_id=691 http://fit.server.sk/---zdravie-zivotny-styl-droga-s-nazvom-alkohol--category-je-11-x-id-je-255 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol http://profit.etrend.sk/80811/kariera-a-zdravie/alkohol-utoci-na-cloveka http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_alcohol http://www.thcradio.net/index.php?jazyk=cz http://grower.cz/ http://drugs.host.sk/mary.php http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_(drug) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis http://cannabis.net/hist/index.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabidiol