Gale Encyclopedia of American Law Volume 4 P5 fully illuminates today's leading cases, major statutes, legal terms and concepts, notable persons involved with the law, important documents and more. Legal issues are fully discussed in easy-to-understand language, including such high-profile topics as the Americans with Disabilities Act, capital punishment, domestic violence, gay and lesbian rights, physician-assisted suicide and thousands more. | 28 DRUGS AND NARCOTICS others. Ordinarily all of these items may be sold without a pharmacy license. A physician does not have any special right to own or operate a drugstore. A person should not however be denied a license merely because he or she is also a medical doctor. Laws governing pharmacy do not generally interfere with the right of a physician to sell drugs to his or her patients. The physician cannot however make it a regular practice to fill prescriptions that other physicians send. CROSS REFERENCES Drugs and Narcotics Health Care Law Physicians and Surgeons DRUGS AND NARCOTICS Drugs are articles that are intended for use in the diagnosis cure mitigation treatment or prevention of disease in humans or animals and any articles other than food water or oxygen that are intended to affect the mental or body function of humans or animals. Narcotics are any drugs that dull the senses and commonly become addictive after prolonged use. In the scientific community drugs are defined as substances that can affect a human s or animal s biological and neurological states. They may be organic such as the chemical tetrahydrocannabinol THC which occurs naturally in marijuana or synthetic such as amphetamines or sedatives which are manufactured in laboratories. Drugs can be swallowed inhaled through the nostrils injected with a needle applied to the skin taken as a suppository or smoked. Scientists categorize drugs according to their effects. Among their categories are analgesics which kill pain and psychoactive drugs which alter the mind or behavior. Some psychoactive substances produce psychological highs or lows according to whether they are stimulants or depressants respectively. Others called hallucinogens produce psychedelic states of consciousness lysergic acid diethylamide LSD and mescaline are examples of such drugs. Marijuana is placed in its own category. . law categorizes these substances differently. Commonly federal and state statutes distinguish drugs
