Drugs can be used in many different ways, as detailed below.
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People can use drugs to relieve pain or discomfort or to cure or prevent disease.
Recreational drug use is the use of psychoactive drugs for recreational purposes rather than for work, medical or spiritual purposes, although the distinction is not always clear. At least one psychopharmacologist who has studied this field refers to it as the 'Fourth Drive,' arguing that the human instinct to seek mind-altering substances has so much force and persistence that it functions like the human drives for hunger, thirst and shelter.[1]
The gateway drug theory is the hypothesis that the use of soft drugs leads to a higher, future risk of hard drug use and crime.[2] The term is also used to describe introductory experiences to addictive substances. Some believe[3][4][5] tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana are gateway drugs.
Some research suggests that serious drug abusers adopt a typical drug use sequence with use of other drugs initiated before marijuana or alcohol.[6] There are many pharmacological similarities between various drugs of abuse. Individual social histories show that "hard" drug users do progress from one drug to another, but the reasons are not clear enough to generalise a gateway.[7]
Some people have suggested that "soft" drugs such as marijuana are only a gateway because the same people selling marijuana are also the ones selling hard drugs, and that association is more to blame than the drugs themselves. This cannot be proven, however, as no credible research has been done on the topic.
Drug addiction is a condition characterized by compulsive drug intake, craving and seeking, despite what the majority of society may perceive as the negative consequences associated with drug use.[8]
Drug abuse has a wide range of definitions related to taking a psychoactive drug or performance enhancing drug for a non-therapeutic or non-medical effect. Some of the most commonly abused drugs include alcohol, tobacco, amphetamines, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, cocaine, and opiates, opioids, and their derivatives which typically have opioid agonist actions though some don't (e.g. morphine and it's derivatives like heroin (3,6-diacetylmorphine), codeine, dextromethorphan an NMDA antagonist opioid with no opioid activity.) Use of these drugs may lead to criminal penalty in addition to possible physical, social, and psychological harm, both strongly depending on local jurisdiction.[9]Although there is criticism on making drug use illegal and throwing non-violent drug offenders in jail. Other definitions of drug abuse fall into four main categories: public health definitions, mass communication and vernacular usage, medical definitions, and political and criminal justice definitions.
   | Sequence of drug use among serious drug users: typical vs atypical progression. - Sequence of drug use among serious drug users: typ...[Drug Alcohol Depend. 1997] - PubMed Result |
| | Gateway and Steppingstone Substances - Gateway and Steppingstone Substances |
| | The road to ruin? Sequences of initiation into drug use and offending by young people in Britain - The road to ruin? Sequences of initiation into drug use and offending by young people in Britain |
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