Los Angeles Addiction Treatment Centers

1. Benzodiazepines

Benzodiazepines have been marketed and used since the 60s, as an anti-anxiety medication. The most widely known benzodiazepine is valium, and much like alcohol, it reduces inhibition and causes a mild sedative effect, due to it enhancing the effects of a neurotransmitter known as GABA.

Because it acts similar to alcohol, it is also extremely dangerous in certain dosage or in cases of substance abuse, both due to its addictiveness and the fact that benzodiazepine withdrawal can kill a person, unlike most drug withdrawals.

Benzodiazepines count as sedative drugs, weaker alternatives to the much more powerful and much more dangerous barbiturates, and they carry with them a series of side effects such as potential amnesia and elevated risk of suicide.

Aside from being extremely dangerous when addicted to, benzos, as they are known, are also commonly combined with drugs that increase the substance’s deadliness, including opioids such as OxyContin, and alcohol.

Benzodiazepines are commonly prescribed as an anti-anxiety medication and should under no circumstance be used outside of a prescription. These are not lightweight drugs – yet the high rate at which they are prescribed means many pills of one of the worst drugs end up in the wrong hands, or in the black market, sold on the streets for a quick high and a chance of death.

2. Amphetamines

While methamphetamine is known as the malice that has spread throughout the US, especially across the Midwest, due to how easy it is to produce in a makeshift lab, amphetamines can be just as dangerous and difficult to break as an addiction – and many people, especially kids, struggle with it.

Commonly used as a mental and physical performance-enhancing drug and as a major ingredient in ADHD medicine, common prescription drugs that include amphetamine are Adderall, Dexedrine and Evekeo, as well as others. Amphetamines work differently to methamphetamine, but still, count as stimulants – and are still highly addictive. The availability of amphetamines, especially for purposes that lie well outside any medical reasoning (such as for academic success) has in recent years fueled a new addiction, especially among teens.

Amphetamines have their uses in the fields of medicine, and they can be invaluable for certain cases of mental illness – but getting addicted to amphetamines can send you into a rubber banding experience of increased intelligence and motivation, coupled by terrible crashes brought about by one of the worst drugs to get hooked one. And for many who originally got into the habit and saw it as a risky yet effective way to make it through the academic grind, it often is that habit that sends them into a downward spiral, far away from their original and previous ambitions.

3. Opioids

Opioids are some of the worst drugs in existence due to their sheer addictiveness – more addictive than almost any other drug, opioids are a class of drugs that affect the brain’s opioid receptors, killing pain while inducing feelings of euphoria. Opioids range from simple opium tea, cooked traditionally to relieve pain, to opium itself, and refined versions of the plant’s compounds, including morphine, codeine, and heroin, as well as synthetic drugs like fentanyl and carfentanil.

In recent times, opioids have grown to the top of the country’s list of concerning illicit drugs due to an explosion in usage across all groups, and a rise in overdoses and deaths. A number of factors caused this issue, most of which have been building up for decades, brought to the tipping point by the creation and distribution of low-quality heroin cut with the extremely dangerous and almost toxic fentanyl, one of the worst drugs to ever hit the country.

Other factors include a rise in wealth inequality and struggling industries, a rise in opioids on the street caused by homemade and imported heroin as well as prescription drugs, and most significantly, the rise in the use of prescription painkillers in the 80s, the effects of which created a new generation of people addicted to painkillers.

4. Nicotine

Although it might be a surprising addition to some on the list, nicotine is widely considered to be one of the worst drugs to be addicted to due to how hard the addiction is to break – and while the short-term effects are negligible for most, the long-term effects, as well as general availability and ease-of-access to tobacco products, makes smoking one of the hardest things to quit. In fact, while opioids are far more addictive, they’re statistically easier to break away from permanently.

The one thing nicotine has going for it is that it does not kill as quickly as other drugs might. While nicotine itself is incredibly toxic so much so that a small amount of pure undiluted nicotine on the skin can be enough to make you sick – the amounts present in cigarettes is unlikely to put you in the grave. On the other hand, the tar of smoking tobacco will cause long-lasting damage to your health, most notably an increased risk of cancer for yourself and everyone inhaling your smoke.

4. Synthetic drugs

Synthetic drugs are some of the worst drugs. These drugs are nothing new, but they have become a challenging new addition to the list of worst drugs for law enforcement agencies trying to catch up to all of the new chemical combinations coming up both on the streets and in legitimate stores.

Synthetic cannabis is a great example: while the dangers of cannabis are questionable to some, synthetic cannabis is a completely different beast, capable of causing massive harm and even accidental overdoses due to the uneven application of synthetic cannabinoids to dried plant matter.

The long-term side effects of many of these synthetic drugs are difficult to pinpoint, due to how varied the products can be, and due to the lack of a larger sample size. Most synthetic drugs, however, including cannabinoids and cathinones (bath salts) should be avoided at all costs.

All addictions can lead to death. These are some of the worst drugs to be addicted to for no good reason.

6. Heroin

Heroin is a drug which is made from morphine. This is a natural substance removed from the seed pod of the different opium poppy plants. The plants are grown in Southeast and Southwest Asia, Mexico, and Colombia.

Heroin can be a white or brown powder. It is also found in a black sticky substance referred to as black tar heroin. Other familiar names for heroin include; the big H, the horse, the hell dust, or the smack.

People can inject, sniff, snort, or even smoke heroin just as the cigar. Some people mix heroin with crack cocaine and referring it to as speed balling.

Heroin enters the human brain quickly then binds to opioid receptors on cells located in several areas. They also affect cells more so those involved in feelings of pain and pleasure, in controlling heart rate, sleeping, and breathing.

Short-Term Effects

People using heroin report a feeling of intense pleasure, also known as euphoria.

However, there are other common effects, such as:

• Dry mouth
• Warm flushing of the skin
• Heavy feeling in the arms together with the legs
• Nausea and vomiting
• Severe itching
• Clouded mental functioning
• The state of being conscious and semiconscious

Long-Term Effects

People who use heroin over the long-term develop:

• Insomnia
• Collapsed veins for people who inject the drug
• Damaged tissue inside the nose for people who sniff or snort it
• Infection of the heart lining and valves
• Abscesses (swollen tissue filled with pus)
• Constipation and stomach cramping
• Liver and kidney disease
• Lung complications, including pneumonia
• Mental disorders such as depression and antisocial personality disorder
• Sexual dysfunction in men
• Irregular menstrual cycles for women