Dictionary:

drug

  (drŭg)

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1. 1. A substance used in the diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of a disease or as a component of a medication.
   2. Such a substance as recognized or defined by the U.S. Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
2. A chemical substance, such as a narcotic or hallucinogen, that affects the central nervous system, causing changes in behavior and often addiction.
3. Obsolete. A chemical or dye.

1. To administer a drug to.
2. To poison or mix (food or drink) with a drug.
3. To stupefy or dull with or as if with a drug: drugged with sleep.

[Middle English drogge, from Old French drogue, drug, perhaps from Middle Dutch droge (vate), dry (cases), pl. of drog, dry.]

The term ‘drug’ has become something of a misnomer. Strictly, a drug is a chemical substance used to treat disease in animals, including man. Today, a drug is a pure chemical substance whose structure is known and is formulated, by mixing it with other materials, into a preparation suitable for administration. This results in the familiar tablets, pills, injections, liquid mixtures, emulsions, and syrups; ointments, creams, and salves; infusions and tinctures; drops for eyes, ears, and noses; sprays for inhalation, gases delivered by machine, supositories, and the like. In earlier times drugs were not always pure, single substances, but mixtures of substances together with many unknown constituents, and were derived from medicinal plants. Here the dried leaves, roots, stems, bark, or rhizomes of plants were ground into powders or used to prepare infusions, tinctures, syrups etc. For example, malaria was treated with infusions made from cinchona bark, and constipation by extracts of casacara sagrada bark. Today, the same diseases might be treated with tablets containing quinine or emodins, respectively.

Approved drugs are those which have passed all the stringent tests for safety and efficacy granted by organizations such as the Committee on the Safety of Drugs (in the UK) and the Federal Drugs Administration (FDA) (in the US). Approved drugs then become listed in National Formularies and pharmacopoeias of various countries. The designation BP, USP, or EP after the name of a drug implies it conforms to the standards described in the British, US, or European Pharmacopoeias. Even crude drugs, made from medicinal plants, were standardized during preparation to give galenicals having the same potency from batch to batch and as given in the pharmacopoeias.

With the advances in science and medicine it became appropriate to extract and purify drugs of plant origin, separating them from other plant constituents so that they could be formulated as with pure drugs. As the chemical structures of drugs were discovered it became clear that it could be economically sound to synthesize the compound chemically, rather than to rely on its synthesis by plants, together with all the attendant problems of extraction and purification. The commonly-held view that drugs produced naturally are good while synthetics are bad is a myth. The same substance produced by nature or by chemical synthesis is identical in its actions. The idea of vital force, believed to be locked away in molecules of natural origin, was destroyed in 1828 when Wohler produced the naturally-occuring substance urea from inorganic starting materials.

Open any newspaper or listen to any news broadcast and you are likely to read or hear about drugs — drug problems, drug abuse, drug culture, drug barons, drug smuggling. While it is true that Harry Lime smuggled penicillin in the Third Man, the film portraying racketeering in post World War II Europe, today's references refer almost exclusively to drugs of abuse which lead to addiction. It is entirely possible for a drug to be a useful therapeutic agent as well as a drug of abuse. Properly used, morphine and its derivative heroin are excellent analgesics, which can be used without causing addiction. In former times cocaine was the local anaesthetic used by most dentists, and currently cannabinoids (from marajhuana) are being examined for their usefulness in multiple sclerosis.

Chemical modification of a drug can be made without necessarily affecting either its biological effects or its potency. In this way a new substance is produced which is not covered by any legislation. So-called designer drugs produced from drugs used for their abuse potential thus enter the illicit marketplace. In these situations rapid actions are necessary to prevent the rapid spread of their use.

The potential of chemical substances to modify biological function in disease states is still a largely untapped area. The appearance of new diseases (e.g. HIV, BSE) creates urgent demands for drug discovery. The cloning of the human genome, and identification of genes and their functions, combined with high throughput screening methods and combinatorial chemistry, will lead to a revolution in drug discovery programmes. The control of drug abuse is likely to be a more intractable problem.

— Alan W. Cuthbert

See also addiction; drug abuse; drug administration.

Drugs are substances that alter the body's actions and natural chemical environment. They include medications and narcotics. In sport, drugs are used to enhance physical or mental abilities (see stimulants); to gain weight (see anabolic steroids); to lose weight (see amphetamines and diuretics); or to reduce pain (see narcotic). They are often taken by sports people to gain an unfair advantage over competitors. Drugs taken to prevent or cure a disease, or to alleviate a body disorder are referred to as medicines.

Most drugs are potentially harmful. For example, anabolic steroids can cause aggressive behaviour; amphetamines may induce depression; diuretics may increase the risk of cardiovascular disorders; and narcotic analgesics such as morphine can cause loss of appetite, constipation, and nausea. Chronic use of certain drugs can lead to physiological and psychological dependence. Withdrawal from drug use may then induce unpleasant symptoms which act as a disincentive to give up the drug. In addition, drug tolerance increases with repeated use, so larger doses are needed to maintain the same effects. See also banned substances.

noun

1. A substance used in the treatment of disease: medicament, medication, medicine, pharmaceutical. See drugs/temperance.
2. A substance that affects the central nervous system and is often addictive: hallucinogen, narcotic, opiate. Informal dope. See drugs/temperance.

verb

To administer or add a drug to: dose, medicate, narcotize, opiate, physic. Informal dope (up). See drugs/temperance.

A substance used in the prevention, cure, or alleviation of disease or pain or as an aid in some diagnostic procedures.

For more information on drug, visit Britannica.com.

Any substance that alters the body's actions and natural chemical environment. In sport, drugs are often misused to enhance physical or mental performance. Drugs taken to prevent or cure a disease or other body disorder are often called medicines to distinguish them from addictive substances, such as narcotic analgesics, taken illegally for some other purpose. See also doping.

Drugs have never been absent from American life, but the type and level of use have varied over time. Legal responses to drugs were profoundly influenced by the evolving interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, which, until the twentieth century, reserved to the states the police powers to regulate the health professions and drug availability. The result was a generally free economy in drugs until late in the nineteenth century when an ineffective patchwork of state antidrug laws were enacted.

Excluding alcohol and tobacco, opium was the major mood-altering substance available to Americans in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Crude opium, the dried juice of the poppy, has been available for millennia, and from it various medicines have been concocted. Alcoholic extracts of opium include laudanum and paragoric; extraction with acetic acid was known as black drop or Quaker's opium. Opium prepared for smoking was closely linked in popular thought with Chinese immigrants.

About 10 percent of crude opium is the alkaloid morphine, its most powerful mood-altering ingredient. Morphine was isolated from opium in 1805 by the German pharmacist F. W. A. Sertuerner, although commercial production did not begin for about two decades. It was first produced in the United States in Philadelphia during the 1830s. The impact of the purified active ingredient was enormous. Morphine could be taken by mouth, as were crude opium compounds, but it could also be dusted into wounds, sprinkled on blistered skin, and after the development of the hypodermic syringe and needle, injected into the body's tissues with a powerful effect. Heroin, a derivative of morphine, was commercially introduced by the Bayer Company in 1898.

The extraction of purified active ingredients and their direct injection into the body marked a fundamental change in the relationship of drugs to society. After popularization of the hypodermic syringe in the 1860s, the use of opiates rose by the 1890s to a per capita level rivaled only by that of the early 1970s. Initially, physicians thought morphine by injection was a protection against addiction because the amount required for a given level of pain relief was less than when the drug was taken by mouth. That this erroneous belief persisted for about two decades illustrates the difficulty even trained observers have when evaluating new procedures. By the beginning of the twentieth century physicians were being widely blamed for having created addicts through careless prescribing. Both public and professional pressure thereafter led to extreme caution in the provision of pain relief to patients.

Another drug in use for centuries was contained in the coca leaf, which people living in the growing regions of the high Andes chewed as a way to obtain more energy and endurance. Cocaine was isolated from coca leaves in 1860 by A. Niemann of Vienna. An alcoholic extract was introduced shortly thereafter by Angelo Mariani as Vin Mariani, a tonic that proved popular until about the turn of the century. Testimonials from such celebrities as Thomas Edison, as well as a gold medal from Pope Leo XIII, came to Mariani for his coca extracts. Coca-Cola was modeled after Vin Mariani except that the alcohol was removed to make it a temperance beverage. Cocaine was removed from the soft drink about 1900.

Cocaine became available commercially in the 1880s and rapidly found favor with the public. The drug was taken in many forms, including hypodermic injection. Initially, there were no restrictions on its sale or distribution. And as in the case of morphine, many physicians be- lieved that cocaine was harmless and so advised the public.

Over a decade passed before concern about cocaine began to outweigh the assurances of safety. Due to cocaine's ability to stimulate violence and paranoia, the reaction against the drug was dramatic and changed the acclaimed tonic into an extremely feared substance by 1900. Americans, too, along with their other social concerns of the Progressive Era, were growing increasingly worried about narcotics being surreptitiously included in patent medicines (easily available through mail-order houses) and about their being wrongly prescribed or overprescribed by physicians.

Some were also uneasy about opium smuggling into the newly acquired Philippine Islands. Partly because of this concern, but also to curry favor with the Chinese government, the United States convened the Shanghai Opium Commission in 1909. The thirteen nations assembled considered ways to help China with its opium problem, and although the conclusions were vague and not binding, the commission paved the way for an international conference, also called by the United States, which met two years later at The Hague. In January 1912, The Hague Opium Treaty, which also proposed to regulate cocaine, was completed by the dozen nations represented and submitted to all the world's powers for ratification.

The Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914 was the United States' implementation of The Hague treaty. The act's restriction took the form of a tax, and its purpose was to stop careless prescribing and easy availability of opiates and cocaine. This attempt to establish a national antinarcotic law controlling the health professions encountered serious constitutional impediments, however, and was not upheld by the Supreme Court as a legal prohibition of simple addiction maintenance until 1919.

The laws against narcotics at the local, state, and national levels early in the twentieth century reflected a strong antagonism to drug use. By 1937 intolerance and fear of drugs had reached such dimensions that the Marijuana Tax Act was passed with little debate. As use of drugs decreased, punishment increased until by 1955 the death penalty for providing heroin to anyone under eighteen was added to federal statutes. Narcotic use retreated to the margins of American society.

But, beginning in the 1960s, drugs became increasingly popular for recreational use, particularly among young people. The favored drug was marijuana, but hallucinatory substances such as lsd and peyote, depressants such as barbiturates, and opiates, particularly heroin, were also widely used. The clash between the extremely punitive laws that had evolved since the Harrison Act and the large number of new drug users led to softened penalties and a coalescence of federal drug laws under the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Act of 1970.

Toleration of drug use continued to rise until it reached a peak about 1978. Popular music and such entertainments as rock concerts and movies often glorified and sanctioned drug use. Campaigns to legalize drugs argued that they were harmless and that legalization would end black markets and reduce crime. They achieved a de facto decriminalization of marijuana for the user, but eradication and interdiction campaigns persisted.

After the late 1970s fear of drug use rose while toleration of drugs decreased, partly as a result of observation of the effects of drug use. Extensive antidrug campaigns were conducted in the media and by activist groups collectively termed "the parents' movement." The Reagan administration strongly supported the antidrug mood and First Lady Nancy Reagan introduced the motto of the antidrug movement, "Just say no."

During the 1980s the use of cocaine, especially a conveniently inhalable form called crack, reached alarming levels, and by 1989 public opinion polls were reporting that Americans believed that drugs were the most serious problem facing the nation. Increased homicides, violence, and damage to fetuses of crack-using pregnant women were common allegations. The fear of lifelong damage to children of drug-using mothers created a new concern in the war on drugs. In 1986 and 1988 increasingly severe federal antidrug laws were enacted as Republicans and Democrats vied over who was the more opposed to drug use. Between the 1960s and the 1980s attitudes had once again shifted: toleration turned into intolerance and a hope that some drug use might be beneficial gave way to a growing conviction that any drug use was damaging.

Author:

David F. Musto

See also Corruption; Crime.

The use of hallucinatory drugs to enhance or alter consciousness has been known for centuries. Cannabis or hemp plant was cited in Chinese literature about 2737 B.C.E. and was used in India before 800 B.C.E. Primitive peoples used hallucinogens sacramentally in religious ceremonies. Much of the Romantic literature of the nineteenth century was written from drug experiences. Drawing primarily upon laudanum, a form of opium, novelists and poets created not only fantasy works, but the classical horror literature as well.

The publication of an English translation of Louis Levin's Phantastica; Narcotic and Stimulating Drugs, Their Use and Abuse (1931) drew the attention of physicians and other specialized readers to such vision-producing agents as peyote (from Mexican cactus) named anhalonium Lewinii because of Lewin's pioneer scientific researches. However, it was not until Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception (1954) and Heaven and Hell (1956) that the subject of the visionary powers of drugs like mescaline became more widely known in Britain and North America.

LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), the active principle in peyote, had been discovered accidentally by the Swiss researcher Dr. Albert Hoffman in 1943. Huxley's The Doors of Perception mentioned LSD in relation to the work of psychiatrists like Humphrey Osmond, who had experimented with the drug in order to elucidate problems of schizophrenia. Psychiatrists and doctors began to experiment cautiously and observed the strange changes of consciousness and vision experienced through taking LSD. Hoffman also synthesized psilocybin, the active principle in a Mexican mushroom used in religious ceremonies by certain tribes.

It was Huxley's description of his own visionary experiences with mescaline and his sophisticated discussion of the possibilities of chemical ecstasy as a kind of religious experience that stimulated American intellectuals to initiate experiments. The mass media society of the fifties and sixties, with its instant communication geared to a bandwagon of populist trends, helped to spread the concept of instant chemical mysticism, and the growing availability of drugs like LSD and marijuana rapidly created a mass counterculture.

At the spearhead of the psychedelic revolution were two Harvard psychologists, Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert, who had instituted experiments with psilocybin at the beginning of the 1960s. Their own use of the drug and their conclusion that it should be available broadly with control given over to the public eventually led to their dismissal from their re-search and teaching positions. Subsequently, believing that psychedelics opened individuals to an awareness of their own inner psychic structures, they eagerly took leadership roles in the emerging psychedelic subculture with a manifesto that ran: "The game is about to be changed, ladies and gentlemen. Man is about to make use of that fabulous electrical network he carries around in his skull. Present social establishments had better be prepared for the change. Our favorite concepts are standing in the way of a floodtide, two billion years building up. The verbal dam is collapsing. Head for the hills, or prepare your intellectual craft to flow with the current…."

Many individuals elected to flow with the current and began to press for legalization of certain drugs like marijuana. With the backing of millionaire investment banker William Hitchcock, Leary and Alpert campaigned vigorously for the new world of inner space revealed by LSD. Psychedelic religious groups sprang up combining insights from their drugs experiences, yoga, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and other mystical literature.

At first the new democracy of psychedelic drug consumption was characterized by the presence of a creative artistic culture nurtured by the glamour of an awakening mystical experience. It soon provided the opening for an underworld of hard drug pushers to invade the psychedelic scene, with its associated crime and violence. Although many discriminating LSD and marijuana users claimed that their lives were changed by a single beatific drug experience that illuminated new dimensions of existence, their testimonies were countered by horror stories of the bad trips and anti-social behavior of LSD users.

Leary became a counterculture hero, evading police and imprisonment and preaching a gospel of "Tune in, turn on, drop out." Alpert eventually went off drugs and made a trip to India, returning shortly as Baba Ram Dass, a Hindu guru with a message of conventional Hindu mysticism. He found a large following among what would soon be known as the New Age movement. While leaving drugs behind, he continued to believe, on the authority of his guru, that LSD had served a valuable function in introducing the spirituality to a society dominated by materialistic pursuits.

The psychedelic era came to an end. For many it had been a time of awakening that led them to a range of mature spiritual visions from orthodox Christianity to occultism and Eastern mysticism. The possibilities of the use of mind-altering drugs such as LSD were, however, distorted beyond recognition by the intrusion of legal structures that made continued controlled use and experimentation impossible, an underground culture which became solely dependent on the drugs as a source for spirituality rather than using them as a help in the spiritual quest, and the popular confusion of psychedelic drugs with hard drugs in both the psychedelic community and among the public at large.

In the aftermath of the psychedelic revolution it now seems clear that the primary benefit from the consumption of psyche-delic substances came from garnering the wisdom of native cultures that to some extent limit and control their use and advise consumption only within a meaningful system of mystical development. There are significant qualitative differences between the bare chemical experiences of an ecstatic nature and the traditional mystical experience to which they were frequently compared. Sudden changes of consciousness can be life-changing, but also addictive; one experience creates a demand for its repetition. However, when mysticism is sought for its own sake at any cost, particularly with chemical shortcuts, this perpetuates the self-serving egoism of the affluent society, in which one buys metaphysics with the same attitude with which one buys a new automobile.

Within the patient gradual character transformations that come with the mystical life (in all of the traditional world religions) a maturity of physical, mental, and emotional life is attained. It may be the case, as many native peoples suggest, that some drugs assist that process. However, a chemical experience that emphasizes spirituality-upon-demand quickly ceases to expand consciousness and merely reproduces the initial heightened feelings as the by-product of its intense sensory and emotional stimuli.

A remnant of the psychedelic culture remains in such groups as the Neo-American Church and the Peyote Church of God, and in the continued popularity of the writings of Carlos Castaneda (even though his original writings have been demonstrated to have been fraudulently produced.)

Sources:

Baudelaire, Charles. Artificial Paradise: On Hashish & Wine as Means of Expanding Individuality. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971.

Leary, Timothy. Flashbacks: An Autobiography. Los Angeles: J. P. Tarcher, 1983.

——. Politics of Ecstasy. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1968.

Masters, Robert E., and Jean Houston. Varieties of Psychedelic Experience. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1966. Re-print, New York: Dell, 1967.

Osmond, Humphry, and B. Aaronson. Psychedelics: The Uses & Implications of Hallucinogenic Drugs. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1970.

Slack, Charles W. Timothy Leary, the Madness of the Sixties and Me. New York: Peter H. Wyden, 1974.

Zaehner, R. C. Mysticism; Sacred & Profane. London: Clarendon Press, 1957. Reprint, London: Galaxy Book; Oxford University Press, 1961.

1. any medicinal substance.
2. a narcotic.
3. to administer a drug.

• d. administration — includes aerosol, oral, transtracheal infusion, subcutaneous, intramuscular, intravenous, intrauterine, intraperitoneal, intra-articular, intramammary, intrathecal, subconjunctival, percutaneous, percutaneous intraruminal, gas inhalation. Mass medication is per feed or drinking water or, in the case of captive fish, in the tank water. For feral animals individual dosing by projectile dart is usual, for group therapy administration by bait is possible.
• d. allergy — immune-mediated hypersensitivity to a drug molecule. Includes anaphylaxis, cutaneous reaction.
• animal d. — a drug specifically tested for, and recommended for use in, animals. A legal point of importance if an animal dies as a result of an unusual or allergic reaction to medication with a drug not licensed for use in animals.
• d. augmented swine dysentery — pigs receiving prophylactic medication are more severely affected than untreated pigs.
• bactericidal/bacteriostatic d. — see antibiotic.
• d. binding — binding of a drug to a large molecule in the tissues or fluids, e.g. binding to protein in the blood, may affect the metabolism of the drug, especially its rate of excretion.
• chemotherapeutic d. — see chemotherapy.
• d. combinations — a pharmaceutical strategy of combining several drugs into one formulation to provide for a specific requirement, e.g. an antibiotic combined with an anti-inflammatory agent in a mastitis ointment. Has the disadvantage that the dose of one drug is determined by the dose of the other.
• controlled d. — availability and use of the drug is controlled by law. The control is at various levels of severity depending on the degree of danger associated with the uncontrolled use of each drug.
• d. delayed swine dysentery — swine dysentery appears several days after treatment is discontinued.
• d. delayed-augmented swine dysentery — after successful treatment during an attack of swine dysentery a more severe form of the disease occurs after treatment ceases.
• d. diminished swine dysentery — the disease is reduced in severity as a result of treatment but is not eliminated.
• d. eruption — an eruption or solitary skin lesion caused by a drug. See also dermatitis medicamentosa.
• d. hypersensitivity — see drug allergy (above).
• mutagenic d's — those that affect the DNA of the target organism have the hazard of creating new races of microorganisms with increased pathogenicity.
• d. residue — the amount of the drug that can be detected in tissues at specified times after administration of the drug ceases. See also drug tolerance (below).
• d. resistance — said mainly of antibacterial drugs and of microorganisms that are unaffected by the drug whilst most organisms of its species are susceptible. The resistance may be inherent or secondary to frequent exposure at sublethal levels. Resistance of an animal to a specific drug, e.g. to insulin, can also occur in this way.
• d. resistant swine dysentery — medication of the feed is not an effective procedure and diarrhea and deaths occur.
• d. safety margin — the magnitude of the difference between the dose required to produce a maximum therapeutic effect and that which produces a toxic effect. Registering authorities require this information.
• d. selectivity — capacity to produce a single effect.
• teratogenic d. — produces a toxic effect on the fetus at a particular phase of development producing a malformation.

Quotes:

"A drug is neither moral nor immoral -- it's a chemical compound. The compound itself is not a menace to society until a human being treats it as if consumption bestowed a temporary license to act like an asshole." - Frank Zappa

"The human mind is capable of excitement without the application of gross and violent stimulants; and he must have a very faint perception of its beauty and dignity who does not know this." - William Wordsworth

"Cocaine is God's way of saying you're making too much money." - Robin Williams

"Of all that Orient lands can vaunt, of marvels with our own competing, the strangest is the Haschish plant, and what will follow on its eating." - John Greenleaf Whittier

"In my day, we didn't have the cocaine, so we went out and knocked somebody over the head and took the money. But today, all this cocaine and crack, it doesn't give kids a chance." - Barry White

"It's an ordinary day for Brian. Like, he died every day, you know." - Peter Townsend

See more famous quotes about Drugs

For other uses, see Drug (disambiguation).

Caffeine is the most widely used psychoactive substance in the world.^{[citation needed]}

A drug, broadly speaking, is a substance used as a medicine or narcotic.^[1] There is no single, precise definition, as there are different meanings in medicine, government regulations, and colloquial usage.^[2]

In pharmacology, Dictionary.com defines a drug as "a chemical substance used in the treatment, cure, prevention, or diagnosis of disease or used to otherwise enhance physical or mental well-being."^[2] Drugs may be prescribed for a limited duration, or on a regular basis for chronic disorders.^[3]

Recreational drugs are chemical substances that affect the central nervous system, such as narcotics or hallucinogens.^[3] They may be used for perceived beneficial effects on perception, consciousnesss, personality, and behavior.^[3][4] Some recreational drugs can cause addiction and habituation.^[4]

Drugs are usually distinguished from endogenous biochemicals by being introduced from outside the organism.^{[citation needed]} For example, insulin is a hormone that is synthesized in the body; it is called a hormone when it is synthesized by the pancreas inside the body, but if it is introduced into the body from outside, it is called a drug.^{[citation needed]}

Many natural substances such as beers, wines, and some mushrooms, blur the line between food and drugs, as when ingested they affect the functioning of both mind and body.

Medication

Main article: Medication

A medication or medicine is a drug taken to cure and/or ameliorate any symptoms of an illness or medical condition, or may be used as preventive medicine that has future benefits but does not treat any existing or pre-existing diseases or symptoms.

Dispensing of medication is often regulated by governments into three categories — over-the-counter (OTC) medications, which are available in pharmacies and supermarkets without special restrictions, behind-the-counter (BTC), which are dispensed by a pharmacist without needing a doctor's prescription, and Prescription only medicines (POM), which must be prescribed by a licensed medical professional, usually a physician.^{[citation needed]}

In the UK, BTC medicines are called pharmacy medicines which can only be sold in registered pharmacies, by or under the supervision of a pharmacist.^{[citation needed]} However, the precise distinction between OTC and prescription drugs depends on the legal jurisdiction.^{[citation needed]}

Medications are typically produced by pharmaceutical companies and are often patented to give the developer exclusive rights to produce them, but they can also be derived from naturally occurring substance in plants called herbal medicine.^{[citation needed]} Those that are not patented (or with expired patents) are called generic drugs since they can be produced by other companies without restrictions or licenses from the patent holder.

Drugs, both medicinal and recreational, can be administered in a number of ways:

• Orally, as a liquid or solid, that is absorbed through the stomach.
• Inhaled, (breathed into the lungs), as a vapor.
• Injected as a liquid either intramuscular or intravenous (put under the skin, into a vein or muscle tissue with the use of a hypodermic needle).
• Rectally as a suppository, that is absorbed by the colon.
• Vaginally as a suppository, primarily to treat vaginal infections.
• Bolus, a substance into the stomach to dissolve slowly.

Many drugs can be administered in a variety of ways.

Recreation

Main article: Recreational drug use

Further information: Prohibition (drugs)

Recreational drug use is typically the use of psychoactive drugs for recreational purposes rather than medical or spiritual purposes. Many governments across the world regulate and ban various recreational drugs, and the exact laws are often politically controversial. Canada is following the Netherlands' lead in largely decriminalizing marijuana.^{[citation needed]}

Legal definition of drugs

Some governments define the term drug by law. In the United States, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act definition of "drug" includes "articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in man or other animals" and "articles (other than food) intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals."^[5] Consistent with that definition, the U.S. separately defines narcotic drugs and controlled substances, which may include non-drugs, and explicitly excludes tobacco and alcoholic beverages.^[6]

See also

• Drug abuse
• Drug addiction
• Drug development
• Drug injection
• Narcotics
• Enzyme inhibitor
• Generic drug
• Illegal drug trade
• Lifestyle drug
• List of drugs is an extensive alphabetical list of drugs by name.
• Medication
• Placebo (origins of technical term)
• Prescription drug
• Psychedelic plants
• Psychoactive drug
• Recreational drug use
• The Yogurt Connection

References

1. ^ "Drug." WordNet 3.0, Princeton University, via dictionary.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-20.
2. ^ ^{a b} "Drug." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1), Random House, Inc., via dictionary.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-20.
3. ^ ^{a b c} "Drug." The American Heritage Science Dictionary, Houghton Mifflin Company, via dictionary.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-20.
4. ^ ^{a b} "Drug." Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Inc., via dictionary.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-20.
5. ^ "Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act" (Website.) U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Retrieved on 2007-09-24.
6. ^ "21 USC Sec. 802." (Website.) U.S. Department of Justice. Retrieved on 2007-09-24.

External links

• Get rid of drugs. Drug Addiction Treatment Useful resource website with detailed information on drugs and how to treat drug addiction. "Say NO to drugs" May 4 2007
• The Cult of Pharmacology: How America Became the World's Most Troubled Drug Culture by Richard DeGrandpre, Duke University Press, 2006.
• 'don't drug + drive' German web-site providing information on the influence of recreational drugs in driving.

Major Drug Groups
Gastrointestinal tract (A)	Antacids • Antiemetics  • H₂-receptor antagonists • Proton pump inhibitors • Laxatives • Antidiarrhoeals
Blood and blood forming organs (B)	Anticoagulants • Antiplatelets • Thrombolytics
Cardiovascular system (C)	Antiarrhythmics • Antihypertensives • Diuretics • Vasodilators • Antianginals • Beta blockers • Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors • Antihyperlipidemics
Skin (D)	Antipruritics
Reproductive system (G)	Hormonal contraception • Fertility agents • Selective estrogen receptor modulators • Sex hormones
Endocrine system (H)	Anti-diabetics • Corticosteroids • Sex hormones • Thyroid hormones
Infections and Infestations (J, P)	Antibiotics • Antivirals • Vaccines • Antifungals • Antiprotozoals • Anthelmintics
Malignant and Immune disease (L)	Anticancer agents • Immunosuppressants
Muscles, Bones, and Joints (M)	Anabolic steroids • Anti-inflammatories • Antirheumatics • Corticosteroids • Muscle relaxants
Brain and Nervous system (N)	Anesthetics • Analgesics • Anticonvulsants • Mood stabilizers  • Anxiolytics • Antipsychotics • Antidepressants • Nervous system stimulants
Respiratory system (R)	Bronchodilators • Decongestants  • Antihistamines

zh-yue:藥

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - medicin, rusgift
v. tr. - tilsætte medikament til, give medikament, bedøve, sløve med rusmiddel

idioms:

• drug addict    stofmisbruger
• drug addiction    afhængighed af stoffer
• drug dealer    forhandler af stoffer, pusher
• drug pusher    forhandler af stoffer, pusher
• drug squad    narkopatrulje

Nederlands (Dutch)
drug, verdovend middel, medicijn, verdoven, verdovende middelen gebruiken, medicijn/gif toedienen, middel (heimelijk) aan eten toevoegen

Français (French)
n. - stupéfiant, narcotique, (Méd, Pharm) drogue, médicament
v. tr. - donner/administrer un narcotique ou des stupéfiants à qn

idioms:

• drug addict    drogué
• drug addiction    toxicodépendance
• drug dealer    vendeur de drogue
• drug pusher    revendeur de drogue
• drug squad    brigade des stupéfiants

Deutsch (German)
n. - Droge, Rauschmittel, Medikament, (econ.) Ladenhüter
v. - Drogen bzw. Medikamente verabreichen

idioms:

• drug addict    Drogensüchtiger
• drug addiction    Drogensucht, Rauschgiftsucht
• drug dealer    Drogenhändler
• drug pusher    Drogenhändler
• drug squad    Rauschgiftdezernat

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - φάρμακο, ναρκωτικό
v. - χορηγώ ναρκωτικό, ναρκώνω, (καθομ.) ντοπάρω, χορηγώ δηλητήριο

idioms:

• drug addict    τοξικομανής, ναρκομανής
• drug addiction    εθισμός σε ναρκωτικά
• drug dealer    έμπορος μαλακών ναρκωτικών
• drug pusher    έμπορος σκληρών ναρκωτικών
• drug squad    σώμα δίωξης ναρκωτικών

Italiano (Italian)
droga, farmaco, droghe

idioms:

• drug addict    drogato
• drug dealer    spacciatore di droga
• drug pusher    spacciatore di droga
• drug squad    squadra narcotici

Português (Portuguese)
n. - droga (f)
v. - narcotizar(-se)

idioms:

• drug addict    viciado (m) em drogas
• drug dealer    traficante (m) (f) de drogas
• drug pusher    distribuidor (m) ilegal de drogas
• drug squad    esquadrão (m) antitráfico

Русский (Russian)
наркотик, лекарство, подмешать наркотик

idioms:

• drug addict    наркоман
• drug dealer    торговец наркотиками
• drug pusher    уличный торговец наркотиками
• drug squad    отдел по борьбе с наркотиками

Español (Spanish)
n. - droga, estupefaciente, medicamento, medicina, drogas
v. tr. - drogar, medicar

idioms:

• drug addict    drogadicto
• drug addiction    drogadicción, toxicomanía
• drug dealer    traficante de drogas
• drug pusher    vendedor de drogas ilegales
• drug squad    brigada antidrogas

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - drog, läkemedel
v. - blanda sömnmedel, droga

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
药, 麻醉药, 麻药, 使服毒品, 毒化

idioms:

• drug addict    吸毒者, 瘾君子
• drug addiction    毒瘾
• drug dealer    毒贩
• drug pusher    贩麻醉药者, 贩毒者
• drug squad    缉毒小组

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 藥, 麻醉藥, 麻藥
v. tr. - 使服毒品, 毒化

idioms:

• drug addict    吸毒者, 癮君子
• drug addiction    毒癮
• drug dealer    毒販
• drug pusher    販麻醉藥者, 販毒者
• drug squad    緝毒小組

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 약, 흥분제, 위생 용품
v. tr. - 약을 주입하다, 진정시키다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 麻薬, 薬
v. - 薬を混ぜる, 薬を与える

idioms:

• drug addict    麻薬常用者
• drug addiction    麻薬常習
• drug dealer    麻薬ディーラー
• drug pusher    麻薬密売人
• drug squad    麻薬取り締まり班
• miracle/wonder drug    驚異的に効く薬

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) عق�