Different drugs affect the body in different ways. And long term health problems vary from drug to drug. Cocaine damages the heart, blood vessels, lungs and brain while ecstasy damages the heart, jaw, stomach and brain. Though some of the parts of the body are the same, the damage can be different. Methamphetamine increases heart rate and blood pressure, causes irregular heartbeat, decreases appetite often to the point of anorexia and causes problems with breathing, to name a few issues.

Heroin severely slows breathing and heart rate, often to the point of death. It is extremely addictive and can lead to fatal overdose and miscarriage. In addition to the possible health effects, heroin users often share needles which spreads hepatitis and HIV. People that are addicted and use often have collapsed veins and infections in the lining of the heart, among other things.

There is no safe way to use illegal drugs and even non-synthetic drugs such as marijuana are addictive. When someone starts to abuse, becomes dependent on or addicted to any substance, long term drug treatment is necessary for a recovery.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 8:48 am by marie and is filed under Substance Abuse Treatment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.