1.
Convention on Psychotropic Substances
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The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 could not ban the many newly discovered psychotropics, since its scope was limited to drugs with cannabis, coca, and opium-like effects. The Convention, which contains import and export restrictions and other rules aimed at limiting drug use to scientific and medical purposes, as of 2013,183 member states are Parties to the treaty. Many laws have passed to implement the Convention, including the U. S. Psychotropic Substances Act, the UK Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. Adolf Lande, under the direction of the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs, the Commentary, published in 1976, is an invaluable aid to interpreting the treaty and constitutes a key part of its legislative history. This treaty, signed in 1988, regulates precursor chemicals to drugs controlled by the Single Convention and it also strengthens provisions against money laundering and other drug-related crimes. International drug control began with the 1912 International Opium Convention, a treaty which adopted import and export restrictions on the opium poppys psychoactive derivatives, after the United Nations was formed in 1945, those enforcement functions passed to the UN. During the 1960s, drug use increased in Western developed nations, young people began using hallucinogenic, stimulant, and other drugs on a widespread scale that has continued to the present. In many jurisdictions, police had no laws under which to prosecute users and traffickers of these new drugs, LSD, the language of the Single Convention and its legislative history precluded any interpretation that would allow international regulation of these drugs under that treaty. A new convention, with a scope, would be required in order to bring those substances under control. Using the Single Convention as a template, the Commission prepared a draft convention which was forwarded to all UN member states, the Secretary-General of the United Nations scheduled a conference for early 1971 to finalize the treaty. Meanwhile, countries had already begun passing legislation to implement the draft treaty, in 1969, Canada added Part IV to its Food and Drugs Act, placing a set of restricted substances, including LSD, DMT, and MDA, under federal control. In 1970, the United States completely revamped its existing drug laws by enacting the Controlled Substances Act. In 1971, the United Kingdom passed the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, a host of other nations followed suit. The conference convened on 11 January 1971, Nations split into two rival factions, based on their interests. According to a Senate of Canada report, One group included mostly developed nations with powerful pharmaceutical industries, the other group consisted of developing states. with few psychotropic manufacturing facilities. The organic drugmaking states that had suffered economically from the Single Conventions restrictions on cannabis, coca, the synthetic drug-producing states opposed those restrictions. The Conventions adoption marked a milestone in the development of the global drug control regime. As of June 2013, there are 183 state parties to the convention and this total includes 182 member states of the United Nations and the Holy See
2.
Benzodiazepine
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Benzodiazepines, sometimes called benzos, are a class of psychoactive drugs whose core chemical structure is the fusion of a benzene ring and a diazepine ring. In 1977 benzodiazepines were globally the most prescribed medications, Benzodiazepines enhance the effect of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid at the GABAA receptor, resulting in sedative, hypnotic, anxiolytic, anticonvulsant, and muscle relaxant properties. High doses of many shorter-acting benzodiazepines may also cause anterograde amnesia and these properties make benzodiazepines useful in treating anxiety, insomnia, agitation, seizures, muscle spasms, alcohol withdrawal and as a premedication for medical or dental procedures. Benzodiazepines are categorized as either short-, intermediate-, or long-acting, short- and intermediate-acting benzodiazepines are preferred for the treatment of insomnia, longer-acting benzodiazepines are recommended for the treatment of anxiety. Benzodiazepines are generally viewed as safe and effective for use, although cognitive impairment. A minority of people can have paradoxical reactions such as worsened agitation or panic, long-term use is controversial because of concerns about adverse psychological and physical effects, decreasing effectiveness, and physical dependence and withdrawal. As a result of adverse effects associated with the use of benzodiazepines, withdrawal from benzodiazepines, in general. There is controversy concerning the safety of benzodiazepines in pregnancy, Benzodiazepines can be taken in overdoses and can cause dangerous deep unconsciousness. However, they are less toxic than their predecessors, the barbiturates, when combined with other central nervous system depressants such as ethanol and opioids, the potential for toxicity and fatal overdose increases. Benzodiazepines are commonly misused and taken in combination with other drugs of abuse, most are administered orally, however, they can also be given intravenously, intramuscularly, or rectally. In general, benzodiazepines are well-tolerated and are safe and effective drugs in the term for a wide range of conditions. Tolerance can develop to their effects and there is also a risk of dependence and these factors, combined with other possible secondary effects after prolonged use such as psychomotor, cognitive, or memory impairments, limit their long-term applicability. The effects of use or misuse include the tendency to cause or worsen cognitive deficits, depression. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia recommends discontinuing the usage of benzodiazepines in those on opioids, because of their effectiveness, tolerability, and rapid onset of anxiolytic action, benzodiazepines are frequently used for the treatment of anxiety associated with panic disorder. However, there is disagreement among expert bodies regarding the use of benzodiazepines for panic disorder. APA states that there is insufficient evidence to recommend any of the established panic disorder treatments over another, one advantage of benzodiazepines is that they alleviate the anxiety symptoms much faster than antidepressants, and therefore may be preferred in patients for whom rapid symptom control is critical. However, this advantage is offset by the possibility of developing benzodiazepine dependence, APA does not recommend benzodiazepines for persons with depressive symptoms or a recent history of substance abuse. Although major concerns about benzodiazepine tolerance and withdrawal have been raised, for many such patients stable doses of benzodiazepines retain their efficacy over several years
3.
Opioid
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Opioids are substances that act on opioid receptors to produce morphine-like effects. Opioids are most often used medically to relieve pain, and by people addicted to opioids, opioids include opiates, an older term that refers to such drugs derived from opium, including morphine itself. Other opioids are semi-synthetic and synthetic drugs such as hydrocodone, oxycodone and fentanyl, antagonist drugs such as naloxone, the terms opiate and narcotic are sometimes encountered as synonyms for opioid. Opiate is properly limited to the alkaloids found in the resin of the opium poppy although some include semi-synthetic derivatives. In some jurisdictions all controlled drugs are classified as narcotics. The term can have pejorative connotations and its use is discouraged where that is the case. Primarily used for relief, including anesthesia they are also used to suppress cough, suppress diarrhea, treat addiction, reverse opioid overdose. Extremely strong opioids are approved only for use such as immobilizing large mammals. Opioids act by binding to receptors, which are found principally in the central and peripheral nervous system. These receptors mediate both the psychoactive and the effects of opioids. The side effects of opioids may include itchiness, sedation, nausea, respiratory depression, constipation, Tolerance and dependence will develop with continuous use, requiring increasing doses and leading to a withdrawal syndrome upon abrupt discontinuation. The euphoria attracts recreational use, and frequent, escalating recreational use of opioids typically results in addiction, accidental overdose or concurrent use with other depressant drugs commonly results in death from respiratory depression. Because of opioid drugs reputation for addiction and fatal overdose, most are controlled substances, illicit production, smuggling, and addiction to opioids prompted treaties, laws and policing which have realized limited success. In 2013 between 28 and 38 million people used opioids illicitly, in 2011 an estimated 4 million people in the United States used opioids recreationally or were dependent on them. Current increased rates of use and addiction are attributed to over-prescription of opioid medications. Conversely, fears about over-prescribing, exaggerated side effects and addiction from opioids are similarly blamed for under-treatment of pain, the term opioid originated in the 1950s. It combines opium + -oid meaning opiate-like, by the late 1960s, research found that opiate effects are mediated by activation of specific molecular receptors in the nervous system, which were termed opioid receptors. The definition of opioid was later refined to refer to substances that have activities that are mediated by the activation of opioid receptors
4.
Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
5.
Malaysia
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Malaysia is a federal constitutional monarchy located in Southeast Asia. Peninsular Malaysia shares a land and maritime border with Thailand and maritime borders with Singapore, Vietnam, East Malaysia shares land and maritime borders with Brunei and Indonesia and a maritime border with the Philippines and Vietnam. The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government, with a population of over 30 million, Malaysia is the 44th most populous country. The southernmost point of continental Eurasia, Tanjung Piai, is in Malaysia, located in the tropics, Malaysia is one of 17 megadiverse countries on earth, with large numbers of endemic species. Malaysia has its origins in the Malay kingdoms present in the area which, from the 18th century, the first British territories were known as the Straits Settlements, whose establishment was followed by the Malay kingdoms becoming British protectorates. The territories on Peninsular Malaysia were first unified as the Malayan Union in 1946, Malaya was restructured as the Federation of Malaya in 1948, and achieved independence on 31 August 1957. Malaya united with North Borneo, Sarawak, and Singapore on 16 September 1963 to become Malaysia, less than two years later in 1965, Singapore was expelled from the federation. The country is multi-ethnic and multi-cultural, which plays a role in politics. About half the population is ethnically Malay, with minorities of Malaysian Chinese, Malaysian Indians. The constitution declares Islam the state religion while allowing freedom of religion for non-Muslims, the government system is closely modelled on the Westminster parliamentary system and the legal system is based on common law. The head of state is the king, known as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and he is an elected monarch chosen from the hereditary rulers of the nine Malay states every five years. The head of government is the prime minister, since its independence, Malaysia has had one of the best economic records in Asia, with its GDP growing at an average of 6. 5% per annum for almost 50 years. The economy has traditionally been fuelled by its resources, but is expanding in the sectors of science, tourism, commerce. Today, Malaysia has a newly industrialised market economy, ranked third largest in Southeast Asia, the name Malaysia is a combination of the word Malay and the Latin-Greek suffix -sia/-σία. The word melayu in Malay may derive from the Tamil words malai and ur meaning mountain and city, land, malayadvipa was the word used by ancient Indian traders when referring to the Malay Peninsula. Whether or not it originated from these roots, the word melayu or mlayu may have used in early Malay/Javanese to mean to steadily accelerate or run. This term was applied to describe the current of the river Melayu in Sumatra. The name was adopted by the Melayu Kingdom that existed in the seventh century on Sumatra
6.
Food and Drug Administration
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The Food and Drug Administration is a federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments. As of 2017, 3/4th of the FDA budget is funded by the pharmaceutical companies due to the Prescription drug user fee act and these include regulating lasers, cellular phones, condoms and control of disease on products ranging from certain household pets to sperm donation for assisted reproduction. The FDA is led by the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, appointed by the President with the advice, the Commissioner reports to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Dr. Robert M. Califf, MD is the current commissioner, who took over in February 2016 for Dr. Stephen Ostroff, the FDA has its headquarters in unincorporated White Oak, Maryland. The agency also has 223 field offices and 13 laboratories located throughout the 50 states, the United States Virgin Islands, in 2008, the FDA began to post employees to foreign countries, including China, India, Costa Rica, Chile, Belgium, and the United Kingdom. The site was renamed from the White Oak Naval Surface Warfare Center to the Federal Research Center at White Oak, the first building, the Life Sciences Laboratory, was dedicated and opened with 104 employees on the campus in December 2003. Only one original building from the facility was kept. All other buildings are new construction, the project is slated to be completed by 2017, assuming future Congressional funding While most of the Centers are located in the Washington, D. C. The Office of Regulatory Affairs is considered the eyes and ears of the agency, the Office of Regulatory Affairs is divided into five regions, which are further divided into 20 districts. Districts are based roughly on the divisions of the federal court system. Each district comprises a main office and a number of Resident Posts. ORA also includes the Agencys network of laboratories, which analyze any physical samples taken. Though samples are usually food-related, some laboratories are equipped to analyze drugs, cosmetics, the Office of Criminal Investigations was established in 1991 to investigate criminal cases. Unlike ORA Investigators, OCI Special Agents are armed, and dont focus on aspects of the regulated industries. In many cases, OCI pursues cases involving Title 18 violations, OCI Special Agents often come from other criminal investigations backgrounds, and work closely with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Assistant Attorney General, and even Interpol. OCI receives cases from a variety of sources—including ORA, local agencies, OCI is a smaller branch, comprising about 200 agents nationwide. The FDA frequently works with federal agencies, including the Department of Agriculture, Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs and Border Protection. Often local and state government agencies also work with the FDA to provide regulatory inspections, the FDA regulates more than US$1 trillion worth of consumer goods, about 25% of consumer expenditures in the United States
7.
Drug Enforcement Administration
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The Drug Enforcement Administration is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the U. S. Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States. S. It has sole responsibility for coordinating and pursuing U. S. drug investigations both domestic, and abroad, the Drug Enforcement Administration was established on July 1,1973, by Reorganization Plan No.2 of 1973, signed by President Richard Nixon on July 28. It proposed the creation of a federal agency to enforce the federal drug laws as well as consolidate and coordinate the governments drug control activities. Congress accepted the proposal, as they were concerned with the availability of drugs. From the early 1970s, DEA headquarters was located at 1405 I Street NW in downtown Washington, however, then–Attorney General Edwin Meese determined that the headquarters had to be located in close proximity to the Attorney Generals office. Thus, in 1989, the relocated to 600–700 Army-Navy Drive in the Pentagon City area of Arlington, Virginia. On April 19,1995, Timothy McVeigh attacked the Alfred P, security measures include hydraulic steel roadplates to enforce standoff distance from the building, metal detectors, and guard stations. In February 2003, the DEA established a Digital Evidence Laboratory within its Office of Forensic Sciences, the DEA is headed by an Administrator of Drug Enforcement appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the U. S. Senate. The Administrator reports to the Attorney General through the Deputy Attorney General, the Administrator is assisted by a Deputy Administrator, the Chief of Operations, the Chief Inspector, and three Assistant Administrators. Other senior staff include the financial officer and the Chief Counsel. The Administrator and Deputy Administrator are the only presidentially-appointed personnel in the DEA, DEAs headquarters is located in Arlington, Virginia across from the Pentagon. It maintains its own DEA Academy located on the United States Marine Corps base at Quantico and it maintains 21 domestic field divisions with 227 field offices and 86 foreign offices in 62 countries. With a budget exceeding 2 billion dollars, DEA employs over 10,800 people, becoming a Special Agent or Intelligence Analyst with the DEA is a competitive process. DEA agents starting salary is $49, 746–$55,483, after four years working as an agent, the salary jumps to above $92,592. Upon graduation, recruits earn themselves the title of DEA Special Agent, the DEA excludes from consideration job-applicants who have a history of any use of narcotics or illicit drugs. Investigation usually includes a polygraph test for special-agent, diversion-investigator, exceptions to this policy may be made for applicants who admit to limited youthful and experimental use of marijuana. The DEAs relatively firm stance on this issue contrasts with that of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the DEA Aviation Division or Office of Aviation Operations is an airborne division based in Fort Worth Alliance Airport, Texas. The current OA fleet consists of 106 aircraft and 124 DEA pilots, rapid Response Teams was decommissioned by DEA Administrator Chuck Rosenburg on March 2017 via memorandum
8.
Singapore
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Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, sometimes referred to as the Lion City or the Little Red Dot, is a sovereign city-state in Southeast Asia. It lies one degree north of the equator, at the tip of peninsular Malaysia. Singapores territory consists of one island along with 62 other islets. Since independence, extensive land reclamation has increased its size by 23%. During the Second World War, Singapore was occupied by Japan, after early years of turbulence, and despite lacking natural resources and a hinterland, the nation developed rapidly as an Asian Tiger economy, based on external trade and its workforce. Singapore is a global commerce, finance and transport hub, the country has also been identified as a tax haven. Singapore ranks 5th internationally and first in Asia on the UN Human Development Index and it is ranked highly in education, healthcare, life expectancy, quality of life, personal safety, and housing, but does not fare well on the Democracy index. Although income inequality is high, 90% of homes are owner-occupied, 38% of Singapores 5.6 million residents are permanent residents and other foreign nationals. There are four languages on the island, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil. English is its language, most Singaporeans are bilingual. Singapore is a multiparty parliamentary republic, with a Westminster system of unicameral parliamentary government. The Peoples Action Party has won every election since self-government in 1959, however, it is unlikely that lions ever lived on the island, Sang Nila Utama, the Srivijayan prince said to have founded and named the island Singapura, perhaps saw a Malayan tiger. There are however other suggestions for the origin of the name, the central island has also been called Pulau Ujong as far back as the third century CE, literally island at the end in Malay. In 1299, according to the Malay Annals, the Kingdom of Singapura was founded on the island by Sang Nila Utama and these Indianized Kingdoms, a term coined by George Cœdès were characterized by surprising resilience, political integrity and administrative stability. In 1613, Portuguese raiders burned down the settlement, which by then was part of the Johor Sultanate. The wider maritime region and much trade was under Dutch control for the following period, in 1824 the entire island, as well as the Temenggong, became a British possession after a further treaty with the Sultan. In 1826, Singapore became part of the Straits Settlements, under the jurisdiction of British India, prior to Raffles arrival, there were only about a thousand people living on the island, mostly indigenous Malays along with a handful of Chinese. By 1860 the population had swelled to over 80,000, many of these early immigrants came to work on the pepper and gambier plantations
9.
Hong Kong
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Hong Kong, officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the Peoples Republic of China, is an autonomous territory on the Pearl River Delta of East Asia. Macau lies across the delta to the west, and the Chinese province of Guangdong borders the territory to the north. With a total area of 1,106 square kilometres. Hong Kong was later occupied by Japan during World War II until British control resumed in 1945, under the principle of one country, two systems, Hong Kong maintains a separate political and economic system from China. Except in military defence and foreign affairs, Hong Kong maintains its independent executive, legislative, in addition, Hong Kong develops relations directly with foreign states and international organisations in a broad range of appropriate fields. Hong Kong is one of the worlds most significant financial centres, with the highest Financial Development Index score and consistently ranks as the worlds most competitive and freest economic entity. As the worlds 8th largest trading entity, its legal tender, Hong Kongs tertiary sector dominated economy is characterised by simple taxation with a competitive level of corporate tax and supported by its independent judiciary system. However, while Hong Kong has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world and it has a very high Human Development Index ranking and the worlds longest life expectancy. Over 90% of the population use of well-developed public transportation. Seasonal air pollution with origins from neighbouring areas of Mainland China. Hong Kong was officially recorded in the 1842 Treaty of Nanking to encompass the entirety of the island, before 1842, the name referred to a small inlet—now Aberdeen Harbour, literally means Little Hong Kong)—between Aberdeen Island and the southern coast of Hong Kong Island. Aberdeen was a point of contact between British sailors and local fishermen. Detailed and accurate romanisation systems for Cantonese were available and in use at the time, fragrance may refer to the sweet taste of the harbours fresh water estuarine influx of the Pearl River or to the incense from factories lining the coast of northern Kowloon. The incense was stored near Aberdeen Harbour for export before Hong Kong developed Victoria Harbour, the name had often been written as the single word Hongkong until the government adopted the current form in 1926. Nevertheless, a number of century-old institutions still retain the form, such as the Hongkong Post, Hongkong Electric. As of 1997, its name is the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the Peoples Republic of China. This is the title as mentioned in the Hong Kong Basic Law. Hong Kong has carried many nicknames, the most famous among those is the Pearl of the Orient, which reflected the impressive nightscape of the citys light decorations on the skyscrapers along both sides of the Victoria Harbour
10.
Jmol
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Jmol is computer software for molecular modelling chemical structures in 3-dimensions. Jmol returns a 3D representation of a molecule that may be used as a teaching tool and it is written in the programming language Java, so it can run on the operating systems Windows, macOS, Linux, and Unix, if Java is installed. It is free and open-source software released under a GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.0, a standalone application and a software development kit exist that can be integrated into other Java applications, such as Bioclipse and Taverna. A popular feature is an applet that can be integrated into web pages to display molecules in a variety of ways, for example, molecules can be displayed as ball-and-stick models, space-filling models, ribbon diagrams, etc. Jmol supports a range of chemical file formats, including Protein Data Bank, Crystallographic Information File, MDL Molfile. There is also a JavaScript-only version, JSmol, that can be used on computers with no Java, the Jmol applet, among other abilities, offers an alternative to the Chime plug-in, which is no longer under active development. While Jmol has many features that Chime lacks, it does not claim to reproduce all Chime functions, most notably, Chime requires plug-in installation and Internet Explorer 6.0 or Firefox 2.0 on Microsoft Windows, or Netscape Communicator 4.8 on Mac OS9. Jmol requires Java installation and operates on a variety of platforms. For example, Jmol is fully functional in Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Google Chrome, fast and Scriptable Molecular Graphics in Web Browsers without Java3D
11.
Flunitrazepam
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Flunitrazepam, also known as Rohypnol among others, is an intermediate acting benzodiazepine used in some countries to treat severe insomnia and in fever, early in anesthesia. Just as with other hypnotics, flunitrazepam should be used only on a short-term basis or by those with chronic insomnia on an occasional basis. Flunitrazepam has been referred to as a date rape drug even though its incidence is rare in cases that have been reported. In countries where the drug is used, it is used for treatment of insomnia, and in some countries to begin anesthesia as well. Because of the latter, flunitrazepam is commonly used in suicide, when used in pregnancy, it might cause hypotonia. Flunitrazepam as with other benzodiazepines can lead to drug dependence and benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome, discontinuation may result in the appearance of withdrawal symptoms when the drug is discontinued. Abrupt withdrawal may lead to a withdrawal syndrome characterised by seizures, psychosis, insomnia. Rebound insomnia, worse than baseline insomnia, typically occur after discontinuation of flunitrazepam even after short-term single nightly dose therapy, flunitrazepam produces a decrease in delta wave activity. The effect of drugs on delta waves, however, may not be mediated via benzodiazepine receptors. Delta activity is an indicator of depth of sleep within non-REM sleep, thus, flunitrazepam and other benzodiazepines cause a deterioration in sleep quality. Cyproheptadine may be superior to benzodiazepines in the treatment of insomnia as it enhances sleep quality based on EEG studies, paradoxical adverse effects may even lead to criminal behaviour. Benzodiazepines such as flunitrazepam are lipophilic and rapidly penetrate membranes and, therefore, use of benzodiazepines including flunitrazepam in late pregnancy, especially high doses, may result in hypotonia, also known as floppy baby syndrome. This may appear as lack of concentration, confusion and anterograde amnesia and it can be described as a hangover-like effect which can persist to the next day. It also impairs psychomotor functions similar to benzodiazepines and nonbenzodiazepine hypnotic drugs, falls. The combination with alcohol increases these impairments, partial, but incomplete tolerance develops to these impairments. Impairment of driving skills with a resultant increased risk of traffic accidents is probably the most important adverse effect. This side-effect is not unique to flunitrazepam but also occurs with other hypnotic drugs, flunitrazepam seems to have a particularly high risk of road traffic accidents compared to other hypnotic drugs. Extreme caution should be exercised by drivers after taking flunitrazepam, the use of flunitrazepam in combination with alcoholic beverages synergizes the adverse effects, and can lead to toxicity and death
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