Psychotropic

Uses of the term in Right

The psychotropic term has a definition in Droit to indicate a whole of substances classified in tables I, II, III or IV of the Convention of 1971 of UNO.

The existence of these two definitions often brings a confusion in the use of the term: all the pharmacological group is supposed to be subjected to regulation whereas the legal term designates only one small portion of these substances. In the language running, in fact the pharmacological direction is prevalent.

One indicates also sometimes certain psychotropic under the term of Stupéfiant or Drogue , if they illegal or are subjected to a regulation, the term narcotic having had to him also two definitions often bringing a confusion in his use.

UNO does not give a definition of the psychotropic term in its conventions, being satisfied to list the substances thus categorized, this absence of definition is at the origin of the confusion which takes place sometimes between the two definitions.

Because of its use in international conventions, this term was taken again in particular by the legislations of the Belgium, the France and the Suisse to indicate a whole of products generally listed in nondefinite appendix of the legislative texts but.

History of the use of the psychotropic ones

An ancestral use

The psychotropic products exist in a natural state in various Plante S or Champignon S, even Venin S; thus, throughout the history of humanity, the majority of human civilizations used psychotropic substances with aims spiritual, divinatoires or medicinal.

The man finds in his natural environment three types of plants:

the food plants which have a high nutritive capacity and are used for the Alimentation;
the toxic plants, which kills it and is used to kill or make hunting;
the psychotropic plants, which modify its state of consciousness and are used to deteriorate perceptions.

According to work of Robert Gordon Wasson and W. the Bar, the use of the psychotropic plants goes to at least 15.000 or 20.000 years before our era and back to at least 100.000 years (first known burial) for Peter T. Furst who regards as necessarily contemporary the practice of the Chamanisme and the ritualisation of the Mort. According to these authors, the psychotropic plants would be essential in the ideology and the religious practice on the whole of the surface of planet and the extreme seniority of their use would be determined by their uniformity of practice and set of themes in spite of the ethnic and geographical differences. This uniformity would testify to an unconscious structuring culturally programmed to accept the extatic experiment within the framework of an organized worship. Thus, the hunters of the Paléolithique arrived in America were culturally predisposed to collect psychotropic plants and with the préparer.
The Sédentarisation due to the revolution of the Neolithic would have allowed the institutionalization of the Religion occulting little by little the ic origin Chaman the point to forget it as it is the case in Europe, where few of these ritual have persisté.
Contrary, other authors, consider the use of psychotropic substances as a degeneration of the original ic practices Chaman which would be founded on pure spontaneous religious experiment .

At all events, these plants have, for the ethnos groups which use them, a magic image of plant or flesh of the gods equipped with supernatural capacities which are shared by that which them consomme.
The fact that they are integrated in a social ritual, mystical or monk enables them to profit from a sociocultural tolerance which is accompanied by a tradition - often oral - use of this substance. This tradition conveys the regulations of use, the quantities to be used, the dangers relating to the use and makes it possible to install a kind of relative balance between the product and the users.

As soon as the man can leave traces of his passage, the psychotropic plants are represented that it is in pictorial art, the Sculpture S or the first written S, which testifies to their importance in the company. The culture of the poppy to Opium was known in Mésopotamie 4.000 years before the Christian era. The use of mushrooms hallucinogens in America would go back to at least 3.000 years, just like the use of the Tabac and the San Pedro of which there exist representations on fabrics of the time chavin. The use of the Peyotl is represented on parts of funerary art précolombien of the Western Mexico going back 2.000 years. Throughout the century, pharmacological progress will make it possible to obtain more powerful products and often more powerful. aiming at imposing a prohibition these substances. This situation in which the countries in the process of development of the southern hemisphere are stygmatisés as producer of drugs and the industrialized countries of the northern hemisphere appear the consumers persists until the Années 1990. Universalization redefines the roles then the producer countries which become them even consumers and the consumer countries which become producers.

At the end of the Second world war, the prohibition seems to have been right of the drug problem in the Western countries.

In the Years 1960, the Western countries see an increase important in the consumption which leaves the artistic mediums and scientists to touch the whole of the population as well as traffic what decide them to set up a regulation internationale.
A relation of causality between the protest movements of the Years 1960 and consumption the psychotropic ones is proposed by the Western policies of the time which will repress one to stop the other. as well by consumption the psychotropic illegal ones as psychotropic drugs, one then describes it like a social phenomenon of escape vis-a-vis the normal activities quotidiennes.
The term Drogue takes care of a pejorative value distant from its original direction which testifies to a significant linguistic evolution of a major cultural rupture when to the relationship of the man with the psychotropic ones.

In the Years 1980, the appearance of the AIDS and new substances push the Western countries of a policy almost only repressive worms of the prevention policies and reduction of the risks. with products consumed with an aim of medication of comfort for the psychotropic drugs and that of designer drugs for the Narcotic S.

Reasons for consumption

Psychotropic can be consumed of a entertaining manner with an aim of deteriorating the conscience intentionally, for example the Café, the alcohol, the Cocaïne or the Cannabis.
It can be consumed like a Enthéogène with a spiritual aim for example the Mescaline or the Psilocybine.
Psychotropic can be consumed like Thérapie, for example the use of Narcotique S in order to control the Douleur, of Stimulant S in order to treat the Narcolepsie S or the overdrawn Troubles of the attention but also of the Antidépresseur S or Antipsychotique S in order to treat diseases Neurologique S or Psychiatrique S, they are often called the psychotropic drugs. The regulation of psychotropic can sometimes induce a use diverted.
It can be also consumed to improve the performances physical or intellectual, one then speaks about produced doping.
It can be consumed with an aim of appeasing a compulsif need within the framework of the Toxicomanie.
It can be involuntarily consumed with a chemical aim of Soumission: Drug of rape, Truth drug.

The consumption of a certain type of product can be related to a fashion or a means of affirming its membership of such or such social.
group For certain consumers, the consumption of psychotropic fits in a lifestyle hedonist or antisocial, before adopted their initiation with drugs, the research of the pleasure being the base or the goal of the vie.
For others, consumption the psychotropic ones constitutes a defensive method against anguishes and tensions against which they do not manage to fight with their only psychic resources; these people qualify sometimes their consumption of Automédication without that being able to have a justification médicale.

Modes of action

The psychotropic ones deteriorate the Homéostasie central Nervous system while acting on the Neuromédiateur S.

According to the products, there exist three mode of action:

the psychotropic substance resembles a neurotransmitter and replaces him on the receivers (for example, the Nicotine replaces the Acétylcholine into engrossing its receivers);
the psychotropic substance activates the secretion of a neurotransmitter (for example, MDMA increases the secretion of Dopamine and Sérotonine);
the psychotropic substance blocks the action of a neurotransmitter (for example, the Caféine blocks the action of the Adénosine).

This action on the concentration of neurotransmitters in synaptic space would have as a long-term consequence to modify the receptivity of the Synapse.

Consequences of the use of psychotropic

The repeated use can lead to a dependence psychic, even physical for certain substances like the Opiacé S or the alcohol. The dependence constitutes the whole of the Symptôme S related to the catch of a specific substance; in the event of physical dependence, the weaning in fact part.

The use repeated and prolonged psychotropic substances can involve an adaptation of the organization called Accoutumance.

If this use is not controlled - of compulsif type -, it is question of Toxicomanie whose treatment generally aims to the Abstinence via detoxification therapies and Post-cure S or of programs of substitution.

The felt effects can sometimes be unpleasant and involve a Bad trip , in particular concerning the products Hallucinogène S which can generate durable disorders gathered under the name of “persistent post-hallucinatory syndrome”.
Concerning the Hallucinogen S, there exists also a phenomenon of effect return or flash back which can briefly replace the user in the state generated by the use of psychotropic without consuming some, and this several month after the last catch.

Classifications of the psychotropic ones

The Venn diagram according to tries to organize the psychotropic ones in order to provide an overall picture of the most known elements through groups and sub-groups based on their pharmacological classification and their effects. The products of each sub-group are close and have similar modes of action. They are placed according to the legend hereafter. The primary intersections are announced by a mixture of color.

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Other classifications

There exist many classifications of the psychotropic ones. These classifications were established during the 20th century by taking into account their effects, their pharmacological family, their activity on the nervous system, their dangerosity (according to the physical, psychic dependence and of the tolerance), their social implications or their legal status.

See also: Classification of psychotropic the