Poly User and Cross Tolerance essay

PolyUser and Cross Tolerance

Poly-substanceabuse is a situation where a person consumes two or more combinedpsychoactive drugs to gain a desired feeling (Maisto,Galizio, &amp Connors, 2015).The greatest problem of being a poly user is that you live a life ofaddiction without regard to your personal health. The craving drivesa user to explore more drugs, and he/she is at increased risk ofbeing addicted to other drugs. Furthermore, people who live this kindof life are at risk of negative behavioral issues when the drugsdeplete the brain’s feel good and calming chemical (Maisto,Galizio, &amp Connors, 2015).Also, they are at risk of `combine drug intoxication` effects. Forinstance, the combination of alcohol and cocaine results in increasedrisk of criminal activities, violent behavior, suicidal tendencies,liver and immune system damage (Narcononn.d).Alcohol and ecstasy use results in impaired judgment, strains kidneysand liver, which causes nausea and vomiting, and dehydration that maycause heatstroke(Narconon n.d).Also, there is an increased risk of being a drug dependent and crosstolerant person.

Cross-toleranceis a situation that happens when an individual who is tolerant to theimpacts of a particular substance likewise develops a tolerance toanother. This scenario usually occurs among two substances withsimilar effects, for instance, those that affect similar cellreceptors or neurotransmitters(Maisto, Galizio, &amp Connors, 2015).For example, people who take heroin, and are tolerant to it also willbe tolerant to some opioids including methadone. The implicationwould be that the abusers who are tolerant would need higher doses ofopioids to produce the desired feeling compared to non-tolerantindividuals. Likewise, an abuser being treated with high levels ofmethadone is likely to become cross tolerant to some opioids andheroin requiring him /her to use higher doses to attain intoxication(Maisto,Galizio, &amp Connors, 2015).

References

Maisto,&nbspS.&nbspA.,Galizio,&nbspM., &amp Connors,&nbspG.&nbspJ. (2015). Druguse and abuse(7th&nbsped.). Stamford, CT: Cengage.

Narconon.(n.d.). Why is Polydrug Abuse so Dangerous? Retrieved fromhttp://www.narconon.org/drug-abuse/polydrug/reports.html