How Drugs and Alcohol Work

Alcohol & Drug Information
How Drugs and Alcohol Work

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Terminology

How do drugs and alcohol work?

Classification of Drugs and Alcohol

Drugs and alcohol affect the central nervous system, which simply put is made up of your brain and all the nerves that connect muscles and organs of your body to your brain. Nerves carry messages from your brain to your body to tell it to move your fingers, digest your supper, breathe and pump blood. Nerves also carry messages back to your brain from your senses such as sight, touch, sound, smell, taste, pain, and whether you are feeling warm, cold, full after eating a meal, or the need to urinate. Your brain and nerves are made up of cells called neurons. Within your brain neurons connect to other neurons and fire messages back and forth constantly. They carry your thoughts and feelings.

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Drugs and alcohol imitate or interfere with the messages within your brain and between your brain and your body. Alcohol can slow down the messages between your brain and muscles, making your leg slower to respond to an emergency and slower to get to the brake pedal of your car. Cocaine can speed messages within the brain up, making you feel more awake and full of energy. Marijuana mixes everything up, sometimes speeding up messages and sometimes slowing down messages, confusing your brain. Heroin slows down messages and blocks the pain message from travelling from your body to your brain.

The neurons do not actually touch each other. There is a space in between and this space is called a synapse. It is in this space, or the synapse, that alcohol and drugs have their effect.

Messages are carried down the length of the neuron in the form of an electrical signal. When a message reaches the end of the neuron, the electrical signal cannot cross the gap between it and the next neuron. To pass the message on, the first neuron releases chemicals called neurotransmitters into the gap which float across the synapse and make contact with the next neuron. These chemicals make the next neuron fire, starting a new electrical signal that travels down the length of the second neuron. Once they have done their job, the chemicals float back across to the first neuron to wait for the next electrical message signal.

Alcohol and drugs have their effect by interfering with the neurotransmitters, the chemical messengers that travel back and forth between neurons in your brain, and carrying messages between your brain and body.

For more information on how specific classes of drugs work, see the Drug Classification page.

Sources:

(1). Straight Facts About Drugs & Drug Abuse, Revised Edition, Health and Welfare Canada, copyright Minister of Supply and Services Canada, 1990

(2). Drugs and Alcohol Behaviour: An Introduction to Behavioral Pharmacology, Second Edition, by William A. McKim, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Prentice Hall, 1991

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