Drugs Information, Prevention, Needle Exchange
Drugs
Recreational drug use is the use of psychoactive drugs for recreational purposes rather than for work, approved medical or spiritual purposes, although the distinction is not always clear (often spiritual use is considered recreational).
Some forms of "recreational" drug use are in fact self-medication to treat pain, pain-related problems, depression, social phobias and other disorders-so terms such as "unsupervised drug use", "non-, semi-, and sub-therapeutic drug use", and "allotherapeutic drug use" may also sometimes be appropriate.
Psychopharmacologist Ronald K. Siegel refers to intoxication as the "fourth drive," arguing that the human instinct to seek mind-altering substances has so much force and persistence that it functions like the human desire to satisfy hunger, thirst and the need for shelter
Drug Abuse
Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, refers to a maladaptive pattern of use of a substance that is not considered dependent. The term "drug abuse" does not exclude dependency, but is otherwise used in a similar manner in nonmedical contexts. The terms have a huge range of definitions related to taking a psychoactive drug or performance enhancing drug for a non-therapeutic or non-medical effect. All of these definitions imply a negative judgment of the drug use in question (compare with the term responsible drug use for alternative views). Some of the drugs most often associated with this term include alcohol, amphetamines, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, cocaine, methaqualone, and opioids. Use of these drugs may lead to criminal penalty in addition to possible physical, social, and psychological harm, both strongly depending on local jurisdiction.[4] Other definitions of drug abuse fall into four main categories: public health definitions, mass communication and vernacular usage, medical definitions, and political and criminal justice definitions.
Needle Exchange
A needle & syringe program (NSP) or syringe exchange program (SEP) is a social policy based on the philosophy of harm reduction where injecting drug users can obtain hypodermic needles and associated injection equipment at little or no cost. Many programs are called "exchanges" because some require exchanging used needles for an equal number of new needles. Other programs do not have this requirement. The aim of these services is to reduce the damage associated with using unsterile or contaminated injecting equipment.