What is drug?
A drug is any substance that, when inhaled, injected, smoked, consumed, absorbed via a patch on the skin, or dissolved under the tongue, causes a physiological change in the body.1
What is drug abuse?
Drug abuse is defined as unwarranted, patterned consumption of any natural or synthetic substance or drug in an unapproved quantity for performance enhancement and psychological effect for non-therapeutic, non-medical use by an individual with methods neither approved nor supervised by medical professionals.2
What is drug addiction?
Drug addiction is a chronic, often relapsing brain disease that causes compulsive drug seeking and use, despite harmful consequences to the drug addict and those around them. Drug addiction is a brain disease because the abuse of drugs leads to changes in the structure and function of the brain. Although it is true that for most people the initial decision to take drugs is voluntary, over time the changes in the brain caused by repeated drug abuse can impair a person’s self-control and ability to make sound decisions, and at the same time create an intense impulse to take drugs.3