Alcohol is a Drug

What about other drugs?

Other drugs can be just as deadly as alcohol. It affects your ability to drive smart and drive safe. Every drug has some effect on the functioning of your body. Driving requires the application of all of your faculties, mental and physical. If your doctor prescribes medication for you, ask about any side effects and how they might affect your driving. You may have to change when you drive if you are taking prescribed medications. Read labels and follow the directions on any over-the-counter or prescribed medications. Be sure to follow any warnings the label has concerning driving.

 

What do these drugs do?

Drugs fall into three general categories:

• Prescription - Medications prescribed by a doctor and supplied by a pharmacist.
• Non-prescription or over-the-counter - Medications you can buy without a doctor's prescription.
• Street - Illegal drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and marijuana.

Drugs can also be classified as:

• Depressants (alcohol, nicotine)
  These drugs slow down your body functions such as your central nervous system, which controls your vision, hearing, reflexes and reactions.
• Stimulants (coffee, amphetamines)
  These drugs speed up your body functions and your central nervous system. You feel "wired" and excited. These drugs increase nervousness and impair your judgment. They cover up the "symptoms" of fatigue, but you are still fatigued.
• Narcotics (heroin, codeine, morphine)
  These drugs dull the senses, reduce pain, and induce sleep. They also impair body functions. Is it any wonder narcotics are given to patients suffering from severe burns, cancers, and amputations? This is the reason why.
• Hallucinogens (marijuana, peyote, LSD, PCP, mescaline)
  These drugs alter the information coming into the brain. They cause hallucinations and can seriously impair your decision-making and reasoning abilities.

Taking drugs and drinking alcohol at the same time is dumb and illegal for safe and smart driving. Drugs and alcohol do kill your brain cells. When you hear the saying "it will fry your brain," they aren't kidding. Alcohol and drugs are deadly.

How certain drugs might affect your ability to drive.

What would happen if I was drinking and took a drug?

Taking two or more different drugs (Alcohol is a drug, remember?) together, can produce violent side effects. Alcohol and any other drug produces a "synergistic effect" and could be fatal. Alcohol is a drug. This means that if you take another drug while drinking, your body will concentrate on the alcohol and ignore the other substance. The other drug would then produce a greater effect than if taken alone. Alcohol may also react with other drugs to produce a new chemical combination.