Family Encyclopedia >> Health

Drugs and health:what you need to know

Drugs and health:what you need to know Drugs are a sensitive subject, so we will limit ourselves to drugs described as "soft" even if their impact is not less for all that:more widespread, financially accessible in comparison with hard drugs, cannabis is an integral part of the news, in Europe and especially in France with the debate around legalization. Report on risks and their prevention.

What is a soft drug?

The term "soft drug" refers almost exclusively to cannabis, because it induces a weak physical and psychological dependence compared to "hard" drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

Moreover, the risk of death by overdose in the case of cannabis is nil. However, the ambiguity of the adjective "soft" for a drug such as marijuana, in view of the long-term repercussions that we know of it, leads to the preference for the expression "slow drug". In its strictest sense, the word "drug" means a psychoactive substance that can lead to addiction and whose use alters mood, states of consciousness, will and judgment.

What are the risks?

Psychoactive substances can be legal and regulated (this is the case for alcohol, tobacco and drugs) or illegal. However, it is important to specify that not all drugs have the same effect:among legal substances, tobacco and alcohol are no less dangerous than cannabis.

It is necessary to take into account the occasional risk while driving, for example, and the toxicity for the organism in the long term (including also the effects on the mind). Cannabis, alcohol and tobacco in the case of so-called “at risk” use (frequent to daily use) or addiction (daily to several daily use) are, more or less, on an equal footing.

A trivialized drug

Drugs and health:what you need to know

Cannabis is the most widely consumed illicit product in France, and by far the most widely used drug in the world. However, it would have a much lower impact on health than heroin, the most lethal drug, and the most addictive amphetamines.

In fact, hashish addiction is more of an addiction linked to a favorable social environment:dating, smoking parents, boredom... Its use can also be an attempt at unconscious self-medication, in response to a psychological problem such as depression or certain neuroses. Like most drugs, cannabis disinhibits and "facilitates" social relationships.

Real impacts

The health consequences of marijuana remain much less than those of smoking and alcohol:to die of an overdose of cannabis, one would have to consume a dose of THC (its active substance) 4000 times higher in one go than in a normal gasket. Alcohol and tobacco accounted for 10% of total mortality in 2010, compared to 1% for drugs of all substances.

The real risk of cannabis is an annihilation of the will and the ability to concentrate, and a withdrawal into oneself contrary to the "socializing" effect initially sought. The person must then be taken care of without delay and accompanied in their solitude in the face of this state.