Narcotics are drugs that relieve pain.
They also make people feel relaxed and drowsy, When a person takes a narcotic, the reactions of his body are slowed down.
He speaks and moves more slowly and becomes sleepy.
If he is in pain, he is no longer so aware of his pain.
But narcotics have a great danger.
When a person takes a narcotic for any length of time, his body becomes used to it, and he must keep taking it.
Without the drug he becomes sick.
This is called addiction to a narcotic.
A person who is addicted to a narcotic is known as a narcotics addict.
Because narcotics have the power to deaden the feeling of pain, they are extremely useful in the practice of medicine.
But because they cause addiction, they are dangerous drugs.
As a result, laws have been passed so that they cannot be bought and sold freely.
Legally they may be used only for medical reasons.
Doctors are allowed to order narcotics for patients who are in pain.
There are people, however, who use narcotics illegally.
They break the law and buy narcotics without a doctor's prescription.
These people do not take narcotics to relieve physical pain, but for other reasons.
Usually they are people who have many unsolved problems in their lives.
When they take narcotics, they feel relaxed.
For a short time their problems no longer seem so real or so upsetting.
The oldest narcotic is opium.
More than 2,000 years ago people in Asia Minor prepared it from the opium poppy.
They made the drug by drying and then powdering a certain milky juice of the plant.
For hundreds of years doctors used opium for the treatment of pain.
Then, in the 19th century, morphine, a new narcotic drug, appeared.
This was prepared from opium.
Two other narcotics, codeine and heroin, were later made from morphine.
Heroin is much stronger than morphine.
In the United States amounts, for research, Chemists have also amounts, for research, Chemists have also been able to make narcotics that act like the drugs of the opium family.
Anyone who takes narcotics regularly faces the serious problem of addiction.
When a person starts to take drugs, a small amount may give him the effect he wants.
Then gradually he must have larger and larger amounts in order to feel the same effect.
This is called tolerance of a drug.
In time the addict feels a great need for the drug.
He is unable to get along without it and this feeling keeps increasing.
This is called emotional dependence.
At the same time his body becomes so used to the narcotic that he needs it in order to keep from getting sick.
This is called physical dependence.
If the addict stops receiving the drug, he actually becomes sick.
This sickness is known as withdrawal.
From 48 to 72 hours after the drug is stopped, withdrawal is at its peak, and the addict goes through great discomfort.
Then he begins to improve.