Drug addiction and drug abuse habitual use of any chemical substance to change states of body or mind for other than medically warranted purposes. Psychological reliance is the subjective feeling that the user needs the drug to uphold a feeling of well-being; physical dependence is characterized by tolerance and withdrawal symptoms when the user is sober.
Definitions of addiction are subjective and infused with the moral principles of the society or culture, the stimulant caffeine in coffee and tea is a drug used world wide by millions of people, but because of its relatively soft stimulatory effects and because caffeine does not generally activate antisocial behavior in person who is using these, the drinking of tea and coffee, despite the fact that caffeine is physically addictive, is not generally considered drug abuse. In Indian sub-continent Opium has been used for centuries without fetching unduly corrosive to the social fabric.
By comparison, 72% of the population America has smoked cigarettes and 82% has tried alcoholic beverages. As well, Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug.
Users of drugs, experience a wide array of physical effects other than those expected. Some drugs like, Marijuana and alcohol interfere with motor control and are factors in many automobile accidents. Users of drugs, like marijuana and hallucinogenic drugs may experience flashbacks, unwanted recurrences of the drug's effects weeks or months after use.
Sudden abstinence from certain drugs results in removal symptoms. For example, heroin and some other drug withdrawal can cause vomiting, muscle cramps, convulsions, and delirium. With the continued use of a physically addictive drug, tolerance develops; i.e., continuously increasing amount of the drug are needed to double the early effect. Sharing hypodermic syringe used to inject some drugs dramatically increases the risk of contracting AIDS caused by HIV.
In addition, increased sexual activity among drug users, both in prostitution and from the disinheriting result of some drugs, also puts them at a higher risk of AIDS and other STDs (sexual transmitted disease). Because the purity and amount of illegal drugs are uncontrolled, drug overdose is a constant risk. The money to buy drugs, and some drugs, especially alcohol, are associated with violent behavior in users.
There are over 15,000 deaths directly attributable to drug use in the United States of America every year; the substances most regularly involved are cocaine, heroin, and often combined with alcohol or other drugs. Many drug users connect in criminal activity, such as prostitution, to raise the money to buy drugs, and some drugs, in case of
Alcohol, are associated with violent behavior.
Drug abuse affects society in many ways with their way of life. In the place of work it is costly in terms of lost work time and inefficiency. Drug users are more likely than nonusers to have work-related accidents, endangering themselves and those around them. Over half of the highway deaths in the United States of America involve alcohol. Drug-related offense can disturb neighborhoods due to violence among drug dealers, threats to inhabitants, and the crimes of the addicts themselves. In some neighborhoods, younger kids are recruited as lookouts and helpers because of the lighter sentences given to young offenders, and guns have become commonplace among children and teenagers. The great majority of homeless people have either a drug or alcohol problem or a mental sickness—many have all three.
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