Substance abuse and addiction can affect each and every part of the human body. It can have an impact on vison and the eye sight even to a state of blindness. Although, damage to the eye sight caused by addiction is not something that is commonly thought of.

People are mostly aware of the danger addiction poses on body parts like the heart, liver, lungs kidney. However, it is necessary to know that addiction can cause a damaging effect even to the smallest aspect of the human body.

The eye is a very delicate part of the body and the impact of addiction on it is not a negligible one. There are some signs that shows the damage addiction is causing to the eye such as reddening of the eye, presence of large black holes on the pupils causing partial visibility just to mention a few.

There are some commonly abused drugs that have special negative impact on the health of the eye:

• Cocaine

Cocaine is a rampant drug that is usually abused. A peculiarity of this drug is that the effect of the drug on the eye is not easily noticed. It is usually regarded as an eye anesthetic. However, there are issues such as itching of the eye, scratching and even soreness to the corneal causing severe pain, blurred visions and at the worst case, a permanent loss of sight.

• Heroin

The effect of addiction to heroin on the eye is usually constriction and reduction in the size of the eye pupil. As a result of this, the ability of the pupils to respond to dim light would be lost. Also cases of blurred vision or permanent loss of sight can occur due to shrinking of the blood vessels that feeds the eye.

• Amphetamine

Amphetamine which is usually regarded as a performance enhancing drug can cause redness to the eye or dilation of the eye pupils. This can lead to a reduction in visibility and an increased risk of acute-angle closure glaucoma which is dangerous eye defect that can lead to loss of eye sight.

• Marijuana

Marijuana is known to increase the heart rate, blood pressure and the activity of the nervous system. It has the ability of reducing visual performance and decreases smooth pursuit eye movement which causes a difficulty to read, color blindness and variations in the size of the pupil.

The health of the eye is something that must not be taken with levity and to avoid damage to the eye, it is important you desist from substance abuse. x