Summary: The Controlled Substances Act

Words: 1954
Pages: 8

People do not realize the effects of hallucinogenic drugs until it begins to ruin their lives. Whether for pharmaceutical use or just recreational use, drugs have been around for centuries now, and have been serving different purposes. Pharmaceutical drugs are of course the type of drug that would be prescribed from a doctor, or just something used to cure a sickness or improve health. Recreational drugs could also do the same as pharmaceuticals, but most of the time is used to get “high” and for pleasure. Hallucinogenic drugs are just one species of all the different types of pleasure enhancers that there are in the world. Basically, what these types of drugs do is they alter the user's thoughts and perceptions into seeing things that are …show more content…
An article called “The Controlled Substances Act (CSA): Overview” gives one exactly what the title says; a brief overview of this act. The Controlled Substances Act (CSA) was signed by President Richard Nixon in 1970. The article states, “The Controlled Substances Act is the federal drug policy that regulates the manufacture and distribution of controlled substances such as hallucinogens, narcotics, depressants, and stimulants.” To be clear, any drugs that weren’t banned up to this point were now contained. These drugs were also then separated into five different “Schedules” where schedule 1 drugs were the most harmful with no medical benefits and schedule 5 had the least harmful. Schedule 1 included LSD, Ecstasy, Heroin and even Marijuana, despite research on the medical benefits from it. These schedules are used to determine the type of prison sentence you are given if you were discovered in possession with one of these drugs. Schedule 1 drugs would give you the hardest sentence. Despite minor changes for some drugs like marijuana, this act has generally stayed in tact (Controlled Substances Act). These drugs have been contained for many years now and it needs to stay this way. Hallucinogenic drugs should remain illegal in the U.S. due to the irreversible effects on the human body and therefore there needs to be more stringent enforcement on illegal sales and …show more content…
First off, these drugs will act on the serotonin in the brain. According to staff from UHN daily, serotonin is a powerful brain chemical that affects your mood and ultimately determines the way you act and controls your emotions (UHN Staff). The serotonin system actually controls some of the behavioral and regulatory systems which become triggered from the drugs (Hallucinogens). If in the wrong situation, something like this could make someone do something regrettable where they wouldn’t even have the focus to control it. A serotonin deficiency can also have you feeling pessimistic, sad, distrustful, or ready to have a panic attack (UHN staff). Not knowing how to control your brain could be a scary thing which could really put you in a bad state of mind in the future even after the trip is over. Also, these drugs will alter one’s sense of reality and perception which could also be very dangerous. When you are high on these drugs, you believe you are in a whole other dimension. You see things that are out of this world crazy and could never exist in a normal reality. One example of this is, many users of these drugs claimed to have “seen sounds” or “heard colors” (Ebbitt). Just by hearing something like that, it is instantly noticeable how intense these drugs are. Many users have also experienced whole personality changes (Ebbitt). If these drugs have the capability to entirely change