Narcotic Drugs A category of addictive drugs that reduce the perception of pain and induce euphoria. A narcotic is a depressant that produces a stuporous state in the person who takes it. Narcotics, while often inducing a state of euphoria or feeling of...

(from Greek, narke: sleep, numbness) A group of compounds, derived from OPIUM or synthesized, with similar structure and pharmacological actions. Narcotics are also known as NARCOTIC ANALGESICS or OPIATES. This term was originally meant to distinguish...

Since the earliest times, people have used opium, the parent drug of a group of chemicals called narcotics. Like almost anything, narcotics can be used for good or bad purposes. When used properly, narcotics are valued medications in the treatment of...

One of the greatest challenges facing science today is understanding the physical basis of thought. The brain is a physical entity filled with cells that interact chemically via biochemical pathways. Research during the past fifty years has made...

The term narcotic (ναρκωτικός) is believed to have been coined by Galen to refer to agents that benumb or deaden, causing gain of feeling or paralysis. The term is based on the Greek word ναρκωσις (narcosis), the term used by...

Atlanta's police chief is replacing the entire narcotics unit that was scandalized last fall by the shooting death of a 92-year-old woman during a drug raid.The narcotics unit's training standards also will be rewritten to adopt federal drug agency practices, and 14 investigators are being...

Emergency room doctors are prescribing strong narcotics more often to patients who complain of pain, but minorities are less likely to get them than whites, a new study finds. Even for the severe pain of kidney stones, minorities were prescribed narcotics such as oxycodone and...

Emergency room doctors are prescribing strong narcotics more often to patients who complain of pain, but minorities are less likely to get them than whites, a new study finds.Even for the severe pain of kidney stones, minorities were prescribed narcotics such as oxycodone and morphine...

Abuse of prescription drugs is about to exceed the use of illicit street narcotics worldwide, and the shift has spawned a lethal new trade in counterfeit painkillers, sedatives and other medicines potent enough to kill, a global watchdog warned Wednesday.Prescription drug abuse already has outstripped...

An overview of narcotic drugs, their history, and usage, including heroin, opium, morphine, methadone, and codeine.