The nonmedical use of drugs presents social problems with important pharmacological aspects. Social aspects Rewards for the individual Decriminalisation and legalisation Dependence Drugs and sport Tobacco Dependence Nicotine pharmacology Effects of chronic smoking Starting and stopping use Passive smoking Ethyl alcohol Pharmacology Car driving and alcohol Chronic consumption Withdrawal Pregnancy Pharmacological deterrence Psychodysleptics • Experiences with psychodysleptics • Individual substances, especially cannabis Stimulants • cocaine, • amfetamines. • methylxanthines (caffeine), ginseng, khat Social aspects The enormous social importance of this subject warrants discussion here. All the naturally occurring sedatives, narcotics, euphoriants, hallucinogens and excitants were discovered thousands of years ago, before. | 10 SECTION 2 Nonmedical use of drugs SYNOPSIS The nonmedical use of drugs presents social problems with important pharmacological aspects. Social aspects Rewards for the individual Décriminalisation and legalisation Dependence Drugs and sport Tobacco Dependence Nicotine pharmacology Effects of chronic smoking Starting and stopping use Passive smoking Ethyl alcohol Pharmacology Car driving and alcohol Chronic consumption Withdrawal Pregnancy Pharmacological deterrence Psychodysleptics Experiences with psychodysleptics Individual substances especially cannabis Stimulants cocaine amfetamines. methylxanthines caffeine ginseng khat Social aspects The enormous social importance of this subject warrants discussion here. All the naturally occurring sedatives narcotics euphoriants hallucinogens and excitants were discovered thousands of years ago before the dawn of civilisation . By the late Stone Age man was systematically poisoning himself. The presence of poppy heads in the kitchen middens of the Swiss Lake Dwellers shows how early in his history man discovered the techniques of selftranscendence through drugs. There were dope addicts long before there were farmers The drives that induce a person more or less mentally healthy to resort to drugs to obtain chemical vacations from intolerable selfhood will be briefly considered here as well as some account of the pharmacological aspects of drug dependence. The dividing-line between legitimate use of drugs for social purposes and their abuse is indistinct for it is not only a matter of which drug but of amount of drug and of whether the effect is directed antisocially or not. Normal people seem to be able to use alcohol for their occasional purposes without harm but given the appropriate personality and or environmental adversity many may turn to it for relief and 1 Huxley A1957 Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 67 677. 165 10 NONMEDICAL USE OF DRUGS SECTION become dependent on it both psychologically and .
