Narcotic
The term narcotic originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with numbing or paralyzing properties. In the United States, it has since become associated with opiates and opioids, commonly morphine and heroin, as well as derivatives of many of the compounds found within raw opium latex. The primary three are morphine, codeine, and thebaine.
Legally speaking, the term "narcotic" may be imprecisely defined and typically has negative connotations. When used in a legal context in the U.S., a narcotic drug is totally prohibited, such as heroin, or one that is used in violation of legal regulation.
In the medical community, the term is more precisely defined as a synonym of opioids and generally does not carry the same negative connotations.
Statutory classification of a drug as a narcotic often increases the penalties for violation of drug control statutes. For example, although U.S. federal law classifies both cocaine and amphetamines as "Schedule II" drugs, the penalty for possession of cocaine is greater than the penalty for possession of amphetamines because cocaine, unlike amphetamines, is classified as a narcotic.
Research acknowledges that alcohol can have similar effects to narcotics in head or trunk trauma situations.
United Nations
Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961
The adoption of this convention is regarded as a milestone in the history of the international drug ban. The Single Convention codified all existing multilateral treaties on drug control and extended the existing control systems to include the cultivation of plants that were grown as the raw material of narcotic drugs. The principal objectives of the convention are to limit the possession, use, trade, distribution, import, export, manufacture, and production of drugs exclusively for medical and scientific purposes, and to address drug trafficking through international cooperation to deter and discourage drug traffickers. The convention also established the International Narcotics Control Board, merging the Permanent Central Board and the Drug Supervisory Board.The 1961 Convention seeks to control over 116 drugs that it classifies as narcotic. These include:
- plant-based products such as opium and its derivatives morphine, codeine, and heroin ;
- synthetic narcotics such as methadone and pethidine; and
- cannabis, coca, and cocaine.
INCB Yellow List
This document contains the current list of narcotic drugs under international control and additionalinformation to assist governments in filling in the International Narcotics Control Board questionnaires
related to narcotic drugs, namely, form A, form B and form C.
In medicine, a chemical agent that induces stupor, coma, or insensibility to pain
.
In the context of international drug control, "narcotic drug" means any drug
defined as such under the 1961 Convention.
World Health Organization
Lexicon of alcohol and drug terms published by the World Health Organization
The term usually refers to opiates or opioids, which are called narcotic analgesics. In common parlance and legal usage, it is often used imprecisely to mean illicit drugs, irrespective of their pharmacology. For example, narcotics control legislation in Canada, the US, and certain other countries includes cocaine and cannabis as well as opioids. Because of this variation in usage, the term is best replaced by one with a more specific meaning.United States
Section 1300.01 Definitions relating to controlled substances:A 1984 amendment to 21 USC, Section 802
expanded and revised definition of "narcotic drug", including within term poppy straw, cocaine, and ecgonine.
''U.S. v. Stieren''
608 F.2d 1135History
The term "narcotic" is believed to have been coined by the Greek physician Galen to refer to agents that numb or deaden, causing paralysis or loss of feeling. It is based on the Greek word ναρκωσις '', the term used by Hippocrates for the process of numbing or the numbed state. Galen listed mandrake root, altercus, seeds, and poppy juice as the chief examples. It originally referred to any substance that relieved pain, dulled the senses, or induced sleep. Now, the term is used in many ways. Some people might define narcotics as substances that bind at opioid receptors, while others refer to any illicit substance as a narcotic. From a U.S. legal'' perspective, narcotics refer to opium, opium derivatives, and their semi-synthetic substitutes, though in U.S. law, due to its numbing properties, cocaine is also considered a narcotic.The definition encompassing "any illegal drug" was first recorded in 1926. Its first use as an adjective is first attested to. There are many different types of narcotics. The two most common forms of narcotic drugs are morphine and codeine. Both are synthesized from opium for medicinal use. The most commonly used drug for recreational purposes created from opium is heroin. Synthesized drugs created with an opium base for use in pain management are fentanyl, oxycodone, tramadol, pethidine, hydrocodone, methadone, and hydromorphone.
New forms of existing pain medications are being created regularly. The newest formulation to come out was in 2014 when zohydro, an increased dosage formula of hydrocodone, was released; this is so far the strongest hydrocodone formulation created for pain management, on par with a moderate dose of oxycodone.