Drug categories and their expected symptoms

• Author: Nathan Baker
• Pages: 57-64

CHAPTER

5

Drug

Categories

and

Their

Expected

Symptoms

There

are

seven

drug

categories

which

the

DRE

program

considers.

These

are

not

the

same

as

pharmacological

categories

of

similar

names

and

although

knowledge

of

pharmacology

can

be

very

beneficial,

it

is

import



ant

to

not

strictly

limit

the

category

in

pharmacological

terms.

The

seven

categories

are:

♦

Central

Nervous

System

(CNS)

Depressants

♦

CNS

Stimulants

♦

Hallucinogens

♦

Dissociative

Anesthetics

♦

Narcotic

Analgesics

♦

Inhalants

♦

Cannabis

The

matrix,

reviewed

in

Chapter

4,

provides

the

expected

results

on

each

of

the

nine

classification

tests.

However,

beyond

those

tests,

each

category

of

drug

is

likely

to

produce

other

typical

signs

of

impairment

associated

with

each

class

of

drug.

A

sometimes

useful

way

of

considering

each

class

is

by

way

of

a

drug

which

the

lawyer

may

have

come

into

contact

with

in

other

prosecutions

or

popular

culture

and

will

be

reviewed

with

each

drug

category.

Common

signs

and

effect

of

a

drug

category

are

useful

tools

in

assess



ing

the

kind

of

drug

present

in

a

person

’

s

system.

However,

the

presence

or

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