Three main vices in the world.
sábado, 26 de mayo de 2012
sábado, 14 de abril de 2012
Alcoholic Beverages
There are three types of alcohol:
- Beer: is one of the world's oldest and most widely consumed alcoholic beverages and the third most popular drink after water and tea.
The alcoholic strength of beer is usually 4% to 6% alcohol by volume (ABV), but it may be less than 2% or as much as 12%.
- Wine: Is produced from grapes, plums, charries or apples. It involves a long fermetation like beer and results in an alcohol content 9%-16% ABV.
- Spirits: these are unsweeted, distilled, alcoholic beverages that have an alcohol content of a least 20% ABV.
For the most common distilled beverages, such as whiskey and vodka, the alcohol content is around 40%.
There are legally consumed in most countries, and over 100 countries have laws regullating producing, sale and cosumption. In most countries, alcoholic beverages are sold only to adults (minimum 18 in most nations).
Alcohol is a psychoactive drug that has a depressant effect. A high blood alcohol content is usually considered to be legal drunkeness because it reduces attention and slows reaction speed. Alcohol can be addictive, and the state of addiction to alcohol is known as alcoholism.
Here's the alcohol consumption by country
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib2m0hTJYdbN_Jf7T4_1O97bZfC7p9MMGt-hIvjA-tCHFhLQuBnUOHYimBxUmbstqdktRgOFQF3lvWOZKcdmCdXXf9fYOOz9_JPxugPdelWgYM2OgtOWqP9Y0mY4RgEGpqekEFuelPXUn_/s320/800px-Alcohol_by_Country.png)
viernes, 9 de marzo de 2012
Drugs
A drug, broadly speaking, is any substance that, when absorbed into the body of a living organism, alters normal bodily function. There is no single, precise definition, as there are different meanings in drug control law, government regulations, medicine, and colloquial usage.
Recreational drugs are chemical substances that affect the central nervous system, such as opioids or hallucinogens. They may be used for perceived beneficial effects on perception, consciousness, personality, and behavior. Some drugs can cause addiction and/or habituation.
Recreational drug use
Recreational drugs use is the use of psychoactive substances to have fun, for the experience, or to enhance an already positive experience. National laws prohibit the use of many different recreational drugs and medicinal drugs that have the potential for recreational use are heavily regulated. Many other recreational drugs on the other hand are legal, widely culturally accepted, and at the most have an age restriction on using and/or purchasing them. These include alcohol, tobacco, betel nut, and caffeine products in the west, and in other localised areas of the world drugs such as Khat are common. Because of the legal status of many drugs, recreational drug use is controversial, with many governments not recognising spiritual or other perceived uses for drugs and classing them under illegal recreational use.
Administering drugs
Drugs, both medicinal and recreational, can be administered in a number of ways. Many drugs can be administered in a variety of ways rather than just one.
§ Bolus
§ Inhaled, (breathed into the lungs), as an aerosol or dry powder. (This includes smoking a substance)
§ Injected as a solution, suspension or emulsion either: intramuscular, intravenous, intraperitoneal, intraosseous.
§ Insufflation, or snorted into the nose.
§ Orally, as a liquid or solid, that is absorbed through the intestines.
§ Rectally as a suppository, that is absorbed by the rectum or colon.
§ Sublingually, diffusing into the blood through tissues under the tongue.
§ Topically, usually as a cream or ointment. A drug administered in this manner may be given to act locally or systemically.
§ Vaginally as a suppository, primarily to treat vaginal infections.
Legal definition of drugs
Some governments define the term drug by law. In the United States, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act definition of "drug" includes "articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in man or other animals" and "articles (other than food) intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals”. Consistent with that definition, the U.S. separately defines narcotic drugs and controlled substances, which may include non-drugs, and explicitly excludes tobacco, caffeine and alcoholic beverages.
viernes, 17 de febrero de 2012
viernes, 10 de febrero de 2012
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Smoking
Smoking is a practice in which a substance, most commonly tobacco and/or cannabis, is burned and the smoke is tasted or inhaled. This is primarily practised as a route of administration for recreational drug use, as combustion releases the active substances in drugs such as nicotine and makes them available for absorption through the lungs. It can also be done as a part of rituals, to induce trances and spiritual enlightenment.
The most common method of smoking today is through cigarettes, primarily industrially manufactured but also hand-rolled from loose tobacco and rolling paper. Other smoking implements include pipes, cigars, bidis, hookahs, vaporizers and bongs. It has been suggested that smoking-related disease kills one half of all long term smokers but these diseases may also be contracted by non-smokers. A 2007 report states that about 4.9 million people worldwide each year die as a result of smoking.
Smoking is one of the most common forms of recreational drug use. Tobacco smoking is today by far the most popular form of smoking and is practiced by over one billion people in the majority of all human societies. Less common drugs for smoking include cannabis and opium. Some of the substances are classified as hard narcotics, like heroin, but the use of these is very limited as they are often not commercially available.
Health effects
Tobacco-related diseases are some of the biggest killers in the world today and are cited as one of the biggest causes of premature death in industrialized countries. In the United States about 500,000 deaths per year are attributed to smoking-related diseases and a recent study estimated that as much as 1/3 of China's male population will have significantly shortened life-spans due to smoking. Male and female smokers lose an average of 13.2 and 14.5 years of life, respectively. At least half of all lifelong smokers die earlier as a result of smoking. The risk of dying from lung cancer before age 85 is 22.1% for a male smoker and 11.9% for a female current smoker, in the absence of competing causes of death. The corresponding estimates for lifelong nonsmokers are a 1.1% probability of dying from lung cancer before age 85 for a man of European descent, and a 0.8% probability for a woman. Smoking one cigarette a day results in a risk of heart disease that is halfway between that of a smoker and a non-smoker. The non-linear dose response relationship is explained by smoking's effect on platelet aggregation.
Among the diseases that can be caused by smoking are vascular stenosis, lung cancer, heart attacks and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.