Drugs

To help ourselves and others, it is important to know something about drugs. A drug is a chemical substance. It can bring about a physical, emotional, or mental change in people. Alcohol and tobacco are drugs. The caffeine found in coffee, tea, and some soft drinks is a drug.

Drug abuse is the use of a drug, legal or illegal, that hurts a person or someone close to him. A drug user is the person who takes the drug. There are many kinds of drug users. There are experimental users. These users take drugs all the time. But they are often able to keep up with the normal routine of work, school, housework, and so on.

Dependent users can't relate to anything but drugs. Their whole life centers around drugs. They feel extreme mental or physical pain when without drugs.

All drugs can be harmful. The effect of any drug depends on a lot of things. How a drug acts depends on how much or how often it is taken. It depends on the way it is taken. Some drugs are smoked, others swallowed or injected. Drugs act differently on different people. The place and the people around you affect the way a drug works.

Sometimes people take more than one drug. Multiple drug use is not only common, but also harmful. A deadly example is the use of alcohol and sleeping pills at the same time. Together these drugs can stop normal breathing and lead to death.

It is not always easy to tell if someone is using drugs. In the early stages, drug use is often hard to see. Sometimes people like drugs or need drugs so much that they can't do without them. They are dependent upon drugs. Only a few kinds of drugs, like narcotics, can cause physical dependence. But almost any drug, when it is misused, can make a person think he needs it all the time. By this time it is too late and the person is "hooked".

Tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana are three common drugs. These three are called the "gateway drugs". They are the first ones most people use and become dependent on.