Journal of Addiction Research & Therapy
Open Access

Drugs are addictive chemical substances that are consumed by humans for few medical purposes and pleasure purposes. These drugs or chemical substances are even produced using natural substances from the environment. There are two different categories of drugssocially acceptable and socially unacceptable drugs. Few organizations like Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), Central Drug Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), etc. have set up certain rules and regulations [1]. These regulatory agencies have set up few policies in exploiting these naturally occurring plant derivatives like opium seeds (opioids-mostly observed in southern Asian countries for cooking and medical purpose); Cannabis and etc. which are used in few traditional practices.

Few naturally occurring drugs are modified and used for a good cause and these can be termed as semi-synthetic drugs. These modified or altered forms have a positive impact in treating various infections and diseases. Naturally occurring drugs will have less specificity and their functioning have a quite broad spectrum as well as the effects of these drugs will be long lasted [2]. Semi-synthetic drugs are modified forms of naturally occurring drugs. Under laboratory conditions, these naturally occurring plant and animal extracts will be altered and a chemical constituent that is highly specific and reactive is clubbed such that its mode of action will be on a desired cell/tissue. These have moderate specificity and the mode of action will be only understood by the reaction they produce. Synthetic and chemical drugs are prepared under laboratory conditions. These chemical substances are prepared by mixing two or more reactive elements. Their structural composition is well known. They are chemically and Biochemically stable and they have high specificity and rate of reaction depending on the quantity that is consumed by the person. And most of these synthetic/ artificial drugs are legally produced for medical purposes and as therapeutics and they have a higher affinity to act as anti-depressants, painkillers, anti-histamines, and a few as sedatives. But these have high chances of missing these synthetic constituents due to some illegal practices performed by few people [3,4].

Drugs have both short-term and long-term effects. Both types of effects are serious and can affect the users' life for a prolonged period of time. During the initial stages, consumption of these drugs has mild side effects. But eventually consuming these drugs on a regular basis, one gets addicted and shows adverse effects. Initially, people use these drugs for treating sleep disorders, getting rid of pain, escaping from the real world, and at certain levels, consumption may lead to overdose and their over-dose will have various adverse effects like anxiety, depression, stress, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, insomnia, stomach pain, ulcers, reeling sensation, liver damages, renal dysfunction or kidney damage and etc [5]. In few cases, an addict loses his/her state of mental health (hallucination, delusions) and tries to self-harm or harm people who stop them from consumption of these addictive agents. Addicts have to undergo counselling treatment, cognitive behavioral therapy, medicines in order to get rid of these addictions.

Acknowledgment

The authors are grateful to the journal editor and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

1. Kimura H, Sakai Y, Fujii T (2018) Organ/body-on-a-chip based on microfluidic technology for drug discovery. Drug Metab Pharmacokinet 33:43-48.

Indexed at, Google Scholar,  Crossref

2. Skardal A, Aleman J, Forsythe S, Rajan S, Murphy S, et al. (2020) Drug compound screening in single and integrated multi-organoid body-on-a-chip systems. Biofabrication 12:025017.

Indexed at, Google Scholar,  Crossref

3. Klotz U (2009) Pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism in the elderly. Drug Metab Rev 41:67-76.

Indexed at, Google Scholar,  Crossref

4. Jing-Bao N, Jones DG (2019) Confucian Ethics on the Commercial Use of Human Bodies and Body Parts: Yi (Righteousness) or/and Li (Profit)?.  Anat Sci Educ 12:444-453.

Indexed at, Google Scholar,  Crossref

5. Drenth-van Maanen AC, Wilting I, Jansen PAF (2020) Prescribing medicines to older people-How to consider the impact of ageing on human organ and body functions.  Br J Clin Pharmacol 86:1921-1930.

Indexed at, Google Scholar, Crossref