<TITLE> Safety and Drug Use</TITLE>
<META NAME = "keywords" CONTENT = "drug use, safety, safe use, responsibility, recreational drugs, Duncanian, moderation">
<META NAME = "description" CONTENT = "Examines the safety responsibilities of the recreational drug user..>
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1. Avoid performing complex tasks while using recreational drugs, such as driving a motor vehicle or operating any large or complicated machinery. Response time, perceptions of time and space, and the normal reasoning process are all affected by psychoactive drugs. Alterations in any one of these elements may mean the difference between our ability to operate a vehicle or machine safely and our inability to do so.
2. Avoid riding with a driver who is using recreational drugs and discourage that person from operating a motor vehicle. Whct~ir’~ not you are the driver, the use of psychoactive drugs and driving do not mix. Do not allow yourself to be coerced into a motor vehicle when the driver is intoxicated. Do not encourage others to drive when they are intoxicated by accepting rides from them.
3. Recognize that one’s own drug-taking behavior and attitudes will influ-ence others, especially children. Whatever we do in the presence of others affects them in some way. Drug taking is no exception. Therefore we should be careful about our actions—particularly with substances that have the potential for doing harm. Our own responsible use of recre-ational drugs will foster responsible use by others. Indiscriminate use encourages others to do the same. This is most apparent in impression-able children. We should not be cavalier around youngsters when we are exercising our rights to use drugs.
4. Use recreational drugs only in relaxed and responsible social situations. Here, again, setting is important. Even if we use a drug that we have had a great deal of experience with, altered consciousness is inappropriate in potentially dangerous or unknown settings.
5. Use recreational drugs in moderation, even though you may think your tolerance is high. As we now know, one’s tolerance for psychoactive drugs is not at a constant level. It changes with the set and setting. It is important to use whatever drugs we choose to use in moderation. To exceed our tolerance, even accidently, increases the potential for bad reactions to the drugs themselves or for being in a potentially dangerous situation from which there is no easy way out.
6. Take the smallest dose of a recreational drug that will produce the desired effects. The concepts of one’s own limit, or one’s tolerance, are again important here. In addition, we are adding a new element—effective dose. It is not important to use a psychoactive drug to our limits every time we use it. We are better off in the long run if we minimize the dose we take, If we take just enough to cause the desired effects, the potential side effects are minimized, as is the potential for dangerously com-promising situations. We should try to remember at least four crucial questions when we are using drugs recreationally.
(a) What is the effective dose of the drug we are taking? In other words what is the smallest amount I can take and still get the effects for which I am looking?
(b) What is the lethal dose of the drug? Theoretically, every drug has some legal dose level. That dose level is known for many drugs, but not for all psychoactive drugs that may be used recreationally. Regardless of what we think our own tolerance may be, we do not want to chance taking a dose level approaching lethal limits.
(c) What is the margin of safety for the drug of choice? The greater the difference between the effective and the lethal dose levels, the less likely we are to have toxic or fatal reactions to a drug when we use one. This is the concept of therapeutic index, which was dis-cussed in Chapter 3.
(d) At the effective dose level, what effects other than those that we seek will also occur? We have said many times that all drugs have many effects, some of which we are aware of, and some of which we are not. Sometimes the effects that occur are inconsequential. At other times, they are potentially very important. You must be aware that multiple effects is a given in any drug experience. You must also be aware that even at low dose levels, some effects that may be potentially dangerous can occur along with the desired effects.
7. Learn the usual side effects that can occur with the recreational drugs of your choice and be alert to any expected or unexpected side effects that pose a potential threat to yourself or to other users. Be aware of situations that require assistance from trained medical personnel.
8. Know basic first-aid techniques and take responsibility for applying them appropriately in cases of drug emergencies. Although these techniques are beyond the scope of this book, be aware that there are times when unconsciousness can occur when using drugs. These are times when we must be particularly alert to the needs of the unconscious person. This may mean anything from providing a safe place to “sleep it off” to performing mouth-to-mouth rescusitation for an unconscious person who is not breathing spontaneously. Be alert and take responsibility for preventing such occurrences; if they are needed, take responsibility for first aid in drug emergencies.
9. Know your source. There are many stories about the black market for recreational drugs. Be aware that among the greatest ‘horror stories’ are those related to the content of the drugs sold on the black market. Many of these stories are untrue or exaggerated, but there are also many cases of potentially dangerous black market deceptions. Often the drugs sold are not what they are purported to be. Occasionally, they are not only not what we thought, but they also contain very dangerous chemical mixtures. Your ‘source” is the person who will be providingy ou with chemicals that you are going to put into your own body. Do not assume that the quality of those drugs is high, and do not take your own safety for granted.
10. Avoid unfamiliar drugs. Do not trust someone else with the responsibility for your health and safety. All of the factors that we have outlined thus far imply that safe and responsible drug use requires respect for drugs and knowledge about them and about yourself. Do not compromise these requirements by using substances with which you are unfamiliar and for which you have no respected role models or guides.
11. Avoid mixing drugs, particularly unknown drugs. More dangerous than trusting your safety to unknown drugs is trusting your safety and well--being to mixtures of drugs, particularly if some of the drugs in the mixture are unfamiliar. Predictable drug outcomes are the result of responsible use of those drugs. Using unknowns minimizes the predictability of outcomes and therefore increases the potential for hazard associated with such use.
12. Avoid injecting drugs
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