Barbiturates
What Kind of Drug Is It?
Barbiturates (pronounced bar-BIH-chuh-rits) are drugs that act as DEPRESSANTS and are used as SEDATIVES or sleeping pills. Because they are depressants, they are often called "downers." According to Lawrence Clayton in Barbiturates and Other Depressants, "Any depressant will kill if taken in a large enough quantity." Accidental overdose can occur quite easily among barbiturate users.
The effects of barbiturates are very similar to those of alcohol and include increased feelings of relaxation, sleepiness, and a decrease in INHIBITIONS. Barbiturates are habit-forming drugs and should not be used on an everyday basis. They can cause depression in high doses and addiction when taken over a long period of time.
Overview
Barbiturates have an extremely high potential for abuse. Ever since their introduction in the early 1900s, barbiturates have been considered addictive drugs. Barbiturates slow down both the mind and the body. In his book A Brief History of Drugs: From the Stone Age to the Stoned Age, Antonio Escohotado pointed to their "high capacity to produce numbness" by putting the user in a state somewhere between drunkenness and sleep. Aside from those effects, he continued, is their "almost inevitable ability to kill in high doses: a detail that converted these drugs into the most common means of committing suicide" from the 1940s through the 1960s.
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