...Commonly abused drugs and their effects. 1. Alcohol- With over half (52.5%) of U.S. population identified as drinkers, alcohol is the #1 abused substance in America. An estimated 135.5 million people drink alcohol, but of those people, 86 million are considered to be abusers, which include heavy drinking, binge drinking and underage drinking. Twenty-three percent of the population participates in binge drinking (59.7 million) and 6.5% of the population reported heavy drinking (17.0 million). An estimated 81.4% of people who drank alcohol for the first time were younger than age 21 at the time they started drinking, and 9.3 million underage people aged 12 to 20 were current drinkers. Short term effects of alcohol include: * Slurred speech * Drowsiness * Relaxation * Feelings of pleasure * Distorted vision * Impaired judgment and slowed thinking * Decreased perception and coordination * Unconsciousness * Blackouts (memory lapses where the drinker cannot remember events that occurred while under the influence) Long term effects of alcohol include: * Liver failure * Brain damage * Sexual dysfunction * Fetal alcohol syndrome and other birth defects during pregnancy * Stomach ulcers * Malnutrition * Weight gain * Risk of cancer in the mouth and throat * High blood pressure * Increased risk for stroke and heart-related diseases * Tolerance and physical dependence * Addiction 2. Tobacco- In...
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...Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia | [hide]This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. | This article lends undue weight to certain ideas, incidents, or controversies. (December 2013) | This article is outdated. (December 2013) | This article needs additional citations for verification. (October 2014) | | | Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs | Governments of opium-producing Parties are required to "purchase and take physical possession of such crops as soon as possible" after harvest to prevent diversion into the illicit market. | Signed | 30 March 1961 | Location | New York City | Effective | 8 August 1975 [1] | Condition | 40 ratifications | Parties | 185[1] | Depositary | Secretary-General of the United Nations | Languages | Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish | Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs at Wikisource | The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 is an international treaty to prohibit production and supply of specific (nominally narcotic) drugs and of drugs with similar effects except under licence for specific purposes, such as medical treatment and research. As noted below, its major effects included updating the Paris Convention of 13 July 1931 to include the vast number of synthetic opioids invented in the intervening thirty years and a mechanism for more easily including new ones. From 1931 to 1961, most of the families of synthetic...
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