Effects of Drugs & Alcohol
Explain the effects of recreational drugs including alcohol, tobacco, and illegal substances on behaviour, health, and body systems, and distinguish between depressants, stimulants, and hallucinogens
What a learner can do afterwards
- Categorises common recreational drugs as depressants, stimulants, or hallucinogens
- Explains specific effects of alcohol and tobacco on the body (e.g. liver damage, lung cancer)
- Discusses the difference between physical and psychological dependence
The lesson
Alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drugs are chemicals that change how your brain and body work. Scientists sort them into three groups by their effect. Depressants slow your brain and body down. Stimulants speed them up. Hallucinogens change what your senses tell you, so a person might see or hear things that are not really there.
Tom's grandfather smoked cigarettes for thirty years. Tar in the smoke settled in his lungs and slowly damaged the cells there. Years later, doctors found early lung damage, which raised his risk of lung cancer.
Dependence on a drug can be physical or psychological. Physical dependence means the body itself has adjusted, so a person feels ill, shaky, or sweaty without the drug. Psychological dependence means the mind feels it needs the drug to cope or feel normal, even with no body symptoms.
Depressants slow you down, stimulants speed you up, hallucinogens change your senses, and dependence can be physical, psychological, or both.
Watch it
Where it sits
This opens up
Nothing builds on it yet.
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.