Medicine: Oxford Very Short Introductions 009

Drugs have changed everyone's lives.

A drug is a chemical substance intentionally consumed to achieve a desired effect. Some drugs are for medical purposes, intended to treat diseases, while others are used to produce pleasurable reactions. Both uses have a long history.

Starting with history, this book introduces what drugs are, how they work, the advances in pharmacology over the past century, and how both medicinal and recreational drugs function. It also covers the development of medicinal drugs, the operation of the pharmaceutical industry, and explores the political, legal, medical, and social aspects of recreational drugs.

Over the past two centuries, society's attitude towards drugs has undergone several major shifts: opium and cocaine went from being good to bad, as did nicotine. Although cannabis is illegal, leading to hundreds of thousands of arrests annually, many governments are beginning to believe that cannabis is no more dangerous than alcohol or tobacco. Some countries have legalized cannabis, regulating it with similar limitations as tobacco and alcohol.

In the 21st century, how should we use "drugs"?

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Only when we learn to imagine depression as a kind of pain, superstition as a feeling of being loved and socially supported, and drugs as a reflection of our underlying anxieties, can we understand the social roots of the six major anxieties of the 21st century within a highly atomized social structure, and construct a healing culture suitable for every community and individual. — Chao En-Chieh