The Encyclopedia of ADDICTIVE DRUGS

The Encyclopedia of ADDICTIVE DRUGS RICHARD LAWRENCE MILLER GREENWOOD PRESS The Encyclopedia of ADDICTIVE DRUGS The Encyclopedia of ADDICTIVE DRUGS RICHARD LAWRENCE MILLER GREENWOOD PRESS Westport, Connecticut • London Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Miller, Richard Lawrence. The encyclopedia of addictive drugs / Richard Lawrence Miller. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–313–31807–7 (alk. paper) 1. Drugs of abuse—Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title. RM316.M555 2002 615'.78—dc21 2002075332 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright ᭧ 2002 by Richard Lawrence Miller All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2002075332 ISBN: 0–313–31807–7 First published in 2002 Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.greenwood.com Printed in the United States of America TM The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984). 10987654321 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, meaning that 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 information 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 trivia that might interest, for example, a student preparing a report or a home- 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. In addition to alphabetical listings of substances, this book includes a section about drug types in which substances are arranged in general categories, such 2 The Encyclopedia of Addictive Drugs 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 substance because of the way it is classified. For example, everything said in this book about stimulants applies to the class of stimulants known as amphetamines; everything said about amphetamines applies to the particular drug methamphetamine. (Substances printed in bold have main entries in this book’s alphabetical section.) A reader familiar with basics about stimulants and who only needs a few specifics about methamphetamine can quickly find those details. A reader who needs to un- derstand more about the general nature of stimulants can find that back- ground information as well. Persons desiring to go deeper than the summaries of scientific information in alphabetical entries can consult reliable sources listed at the end of each entry. Many of those sources list still more references. This book concludes with a guide to finding general information about drugs. Here readers are directed not only to ostensibly neutral sources of information but also to sources taking explicit and differing stances on various 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 one that does not 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 scientific information. Although findings reported 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. DRUG ABUSE Drug abuse is an emotionally charged topic involving more than facts about 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- fore legislative committees; and given public presentations. In all settings, 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 symptoms associated 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 dependence” did not require physical dependence for diagnosis.2 The APA stated, “Continuing use of cocaine appears to be driven by persistent craving and urges for the substance rather than attempts to avoid or alleviate withdrawal symptoms.”3 That approach yielded a broader understanding: that people could be addicted to things other than drugs, a new and controversial concept but one that was becoming more accepted as the twenty-first century 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. Symptoms depend 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 called addictive. Indeed, appearance or nonappearance of an “abstinence” or “withdrawal” syndrome of illness upon sudden end to drug dosage used to be considered a definitive test of whether a drug is addictive and whether a user is an addict. Some specialists might use the term neuroadaptation for the mechanism that creates resonance, but here more conservative language that asserts less about roles of the brain and nervous system will be used. Resonance is typically, and somewhat misleadingly, called “dependence” by many persons. An addict who temporarily feels sick upon stopping a drug but who later feels better is not really “dependent” on it, in the ordinary dictionary sense of that word’s meaning. Granted, physical dependence upon 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 sicker and sicker, 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 or barbiturates can die if cut off from their supply. 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 referring to persons undergoing treatment to break dependence on some drug 4 The Encyclopedia of Addictive Drugs they crave and are unable to stop taking.

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