Stimulants can be natural, refined, or synthetic. Chronic stimulant users may experience a wide range of shifting emotions, irritation, outbursts of anger, violent or assaultive behavior, paranoia, delusional thinking, visual and auditory hallucinations, or any combination of these symptoms. Hallucinogens Hallucinogenic drugs alter sensations and perceptions. Hallucinogens stimulate a shift in the perception of reality. These changes range from mild to wild.
Sensation is the raw information from sensory organs that our nervous system sends to the brain.
For example, when we see or hear something, receptor cells from our eyes or ears send a message to the brain. Perception is the result of how the brain assembles this sensory information into recognizable experiences. Marijuana is a psychostimulant that has properties of both stimulants and hallucinogens. Stimulants energize the central nervous system while hallucinogens can disorient sensory information and perception. In spite of marijuana's stimulating properties, marijuana users often report feeling more relaxed and less stimulated, though they also report stimulation of perceptual experiences.