Impact on People Using Hallucinogens
This is an excerpt from the paper...
There are two different kinds of hallucinogens. Both LSD and MDMA (Ecstasy) are synthetic, made in laboratories, while mescaline is a non-human-made substance obtained from cactus. As peyote, it is ingested in religious ceremonies by Native Americans. Each of these substances has short-term effects, which are characterized as "high" and "psychedelic" experiences. In essence, they affect the brain and nervous system through the neurotransmitters, leading to alterations in the brains processing of information. They also activate different regions of brain, leading to visual and auditory hallucinations, and to feelings of pleasure, or paranoia, as the case may be. They can be fatal, with one use sometimes leading to drug toxicity or problems such as Mallory-Weiss syndrome and botulism. Long-term use tends to do more damage to the nervous system, leading to problems with memory, learning, language, and other neurotransmitter irregularities, such as seizures. Although LSD is not as visible in the news or the popular culture as it was during the 1960s and 1970s, it is still one of the available hallucinogens that people use and abuse. It may be even more potent than earlier varieties of LSD, and on the street, the chances of obtaining pure forms of it, or any of the hallucinogens, are very low. In the following pages, the intention is to explore the composition of some hallucinogens, their impact on people, and the consequences of their use for individua
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the central nervous system to the extent that the user may lose the capacity for both speech and the visual processing of language. LSD impacts intake of information, processing of information, and interpretation of information.
Mescaline
Composition
Mescaline has a somewhat different history than other hallucinogens because it is associated with Native American religious ceremonies. It is also a natural, rather than created, substance. It is an extract from the peyote, which is ingested for its psychedelic impact.
Impact
In the context of religious ritual, mescaline produces ecstatic and shamanic effects which are contextualized. However, most drug use since the 1960s has been non-contextualized, although users have claimed to be seeking spiritual insight with use.
Unfortunately, for the casual drug user, the drug still has many deleterious effects. It is obtained from the peyote cactus and processed in order to produce the psychedelic potion. In general, this makes people feel very ill. It creates hallucinations, as does LSD, by acting on the nerve center in the brain.
There are occasions in which peyote ingestion is fatal. In one report, this was associated with Mallory-Weiss lacerations leading to gastroi
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Approximate Word count = 1743
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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