Alphabetical Listings of Drugs 33Drug descriptions occasionally mention the following concepts:
One drug may be stronger than another, but such a comparison depends
not only on the effect being measured but on the animal species being tested.
Frogs, chickens, and rats may react very differently than humans would to an
equivalent dose of various drugs. For example,bufotenineandLSDeffects
are thousands of times stronger in humans than in monkeys; a dose that leaves
a small monkey unfazed might devastate a human. Animal experiments are
useful to know about, but the results do not necessarily extrapolate to humans.
When this book compares strengths of drugs, the comparison simply gives a
rough idea of strengths and has no bearing on determining what size dose of
one drug would be equivalent to another size dose of a different substance.
When one drug is said to “boost” the effect of another, this means the
increase is more than would be expected from simply adding the effect of one
drug to the other (1 1 2) but instead involves synergistic chemical and
biological processes yielding a total that is more than the combination of parts
(1 1 3).
“Flashback” is an ability (voluntary or involuntary) to reexperience a drug
state without taking the substance. Some details about flashback are given in
this book’s description ofLSD, although the phenomenon is not limited to
that drug (see also, for example, this book’s listings aboutmethamphetamine
andpsilocybin).
“Polydrug” abuse is a typical element of setting. For example,heroinad-
dicts normally abuse other drugs as well. Someone who takesMDMAat a
dance club may well takecocaineat the same time, just as some persons
simultaneously smoke tobacco and drinkalcohol. Even if all the compounds
inside an illicit user can be verified, determining which is responsible for
which effect can be challenging. This book’s alphabetical section presents both
the conclusions and doubts that scientists express about polydrug use, along
with some classic interactions that occur when more than one drug is taken
at the same time. Individuals who get into a medical emergency after drug
use should bring samples of substances to health care providers; an item may
not be what a user thinks it is, and effective treatment must be based on
chemical reality rather than consumer belief.
Animal experiments may show that a drug can cause cancer or birth defects.
The practical meaning of such results is sometimes clouded because the same
drug may affect different species in different ways. Also animal tests some-
times involve many times the recommended human dose, perhaps levels high
enough to poison the animals. These kinds of tests are not meaningless but
may involve levels of risk unlikely to be experienced by humans. And yet
large doses having no effect on animals do not guarantee a drug’s safety for
pregnant women. In some countries a compound called thalidomide was ap-
proved for human use after animal tests revealed no potential for causing birth
defects, but in humans the substance produced severe congenital malforma-
tions such as missing or highly deformed limbs.
Experiments testing a drug occasionally produce conflicting results—some
may say a drug does something; some may indicate the drug will not do it.
These kinds of uncertainties are unsatisfying, but that is the way scientific
research operates. Perhaps conflicting results come from differences in dosage