Jeff Smith Arrested Again For Drugs, Why Is It Hard For Addicts To Stop Using Narcotics?

Illustration of why addicts find it difficult to stop using drugs (Unsplash/Mishal Ibrahim)

JAKARTA – JS artist, Jeff Smith, was arrested for the second time for using drugs. In April, for the first time, Mark Jeffrey Smith was arrested for drug consumption. Yesterday, Wednesday, December 8, the Head of Public Relations of the Polda Metro Jaya Kombes E. Zulpan explained that JS was arrested again for using narcotics.

Launching the National Narcotics Agency, Thursday, December 8, narcotics are substances or drugs, whether natural, synthetic or semi-synthetic, which cause a decrease in consciousness, hallucinations, and excitability. Narcotics have a major impact on life and health. Once you get close and become addicted, here are the reasons why it's so hard to get out of this vicious cycle of destruction.

Mastering brain performance

According to Nicole Lee, professor at the National Drug and Research Institute, Cutin University, regardless of how alcohol and drug consumption leads to addiction, it will eventually enter the brain through the bloodstream. When they reach the brain, they will affect how messages are sent through the brain.

The brain is a large communication center that sends messages back and forth to regulate what we think, feel and do, explains Lee. Drugs that work in various ways have the effect of increasing or decreasing neurotransmitters such as dopamine (pleasure), noradrenaline (fighting or running, and serotonin (mood), meaning that each drug affects neurotransmitter pathways.

Controlling emotions, motivation, and feelings of pleasure

Because the production of the neurotransmitter dopamine by the brain is controlled by drugs, to control emotions, motivation, and feelings of pleasure, you are dependent on these narcotic drugs. Someone as a drug addict so do not have the self-power to control his mood even more emotional trigger.

Professor Lee provides analogies, such as when wanting something like chocolate. Every time I want it, I think about it until I taste it again. Even so with narcotics which encourage ten times stronger desire so that they return to using drugs.

Influence decisions and consequences

When the dopamine system in the brain is damaged by narcotics, it affects the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain used for thinking. The effect will be much more difficult to think about the consequences and consider the decisions to be made.

For drug addicts, many risk factors are experienced, such as having genetic susceptibility, mental health problems, and loss of self-control. It's not impossible to quit addiction, although the process can be very painful because the narcotics overwhelm the body's natural functions, Lee said. However, many drug addicts have managed to get out of addiction.