Health
10 Most Popular Drug Myths That Everyone Believes
Drug users around the world have a clever way of disregarding all the well-researched advice that medical experts and drug administrators issue about how bad drugs are. Despite well documented adverse effects of drug use, people continue to believe in the following ridiculous drug myths.
1. Legal “drugs” aren’t bad or addictive
The pill popping shrewish socialite may be a staple in most sitcoms these days but most people that are prescribed narcotics simply refuse to believe that they can be addictive or bad for you. In fact, more than 20% people in the US alone are known to use painkillers or cough medicines with codeine in them recreationally and believe that since these are “legal” they aren’t bad for health or addictive.
2. You can mix drugs or drugs and alcohol safely
Anyone who has ever smoked cannabis while being drunk will tell you that the mix produces an ethereal high. Around the world, junkies and recreational users experiment with mixing drugs or mix drugs with alcohol casually assuming that as long as they don’t take too much of the drug, they won’t experience any side effects.
3. Some drugs enhance creativity
Thanks to the artists that created chart topping music and epoch making artwork during the 1960s and 1970s have left drug users with the impression that psychedelic drugs boost creativity and in extreme cases, productivity as well.
4. Snorting cocaine is less dangerous than smoking crack cocaine
Crack cocaine became associated with the scum of society in the 1980s when the drug became the high of choice for poor inner city junkies and the higher class of junkies automatically assumed that snorting cocaine is less dangerous than smoking the rock.
5. You can’t overdose if it is your first time trying a drug
A lot of recreational drug users believe that they actually cannot overdose on a drug that is trying for the first time. This ridiculous myth stems from the belief that junkies actually have enough self control to know when they have gotten “too high” and can thus prevent themselves from overdoing.
6. Ecstasy makes holes in the brain
Ecstasy during a 2001 show, Dr. Dominick Conca told showed audiences of the Oprah Winfrey Show the images of the brain of an ecstasy user. She claimed that what looks like holes were regions where the brain wasn’t functioning normally anymore. That of course transpired into popular culture as “ecstasy rots your brain and makes holes in it”.
7. Cocaine is an ingredient in Coca-Cola
Coca-cola has done well to protect its secret recipe from the prying hands of crafty rivals so far. However, that hasn’t prevented junkies and rivals from citing a 1920 Supreme Court decision that claimed that the coca leaf used in the drink’s recipe left traces of cocaine in the beverage!
8. Smoking pot is a safer alternative to drinking or using other drugs
Potheads often defend their filthy habit by claiming that smoking marijuana isn’t as dangerous as drinking alcohol or using other drugs since it has a strong sedative effect. while the sedative properties of marijuana remain unquestioned, junkies often fail to account for the fact that drug can trigger asthmatic attacks in patients, that is just as bad for your lungs as tobacco smoking and that the hunger pangs induced by smoking pot can actually lead to obesity.
9. Marijuana isn’t addictive
A lot of casual drug users that like to smoke pot at social gatherings like to think that if they only smoke a joint or two every now and then, they don’t run the risk of becoming addicted it. This theory of course does not explain why we have so many pot addicts in the world today!
10. You can trick a drug test by drinking lots of water
Drug testing has become commonplace in most offices and in most DUI arrests. This of course doesn’t bode well for recreational drug users. However, a popular drug myth has people believing that they can trick a drug test if they drink lots of water before it. The inaccurate logic behind this myth stems from the belief that drug tests can only pick up traces of a particular drug in your system if it is really concentrated and since water dilutes urine, it should be able to mask the presence of banned substances in your system.