Why do people take recreational drugs

You no longer have the good feelings that you had when you first used the drug. This is true if you use illegal drugs or if you misuse prescription drugs. Drug use can start as a way to escape—but it can quickly make your life worse.

Besides just not feeling well, different drugs can affect your brain and body in many different ways. Here are a few:. Many drugs can also make driving a car unsafe. Marijuana can slow reaction time, make you judge time and distance poorly, and decrease coordination how you move your body. Cocaine and methamphetamine can make a driver aggressive and reckless.

Certain kinds of sedatives, called benzodiazepines, can make you dizzy or drowsy. These effects can lead to crashes that can cause injuries and even death. The urge is too strong to control, even if you know the drug is causing harm. The addiction can become more important than the need to eat or sleep. The urge to get and use the drug can fill every moment of your life. The addiction replaces all the things you used to enjoy. A person who is addicted might do almost anything—lie, steal, or hurt people—to keep taking the drug.

This can lead to problems with your family and friends, and can even lead to arrest and jail. You can get addicted to illegal drugs as well as prescription drugs if you misuse them. Drug addiction is a chronic disease. That means it stays with you for a long time, even if you stop using for a while. It doesn't go away like a cold. A person with an addiction can get treatment, but quitting for good can be very hard. At first, taking drugs is usually your choice. A drug being used off-script, or not for its prescribed medical purpose , is a growing issue in Australia and leads to an increased risk of harms.

Drugs are used in different situations and frequencies, and for different reasons, depending on the individual and their specific point in life. People can move between categories, with one stage not inevitably leading to another, and with no clearly defined start or end stage.

People choose a particular drug mainly for the specific feelings they get from using it. For example, people may use codeine to relieve pain or drink alcohol to relax and relieve stress.

Some people take amphetamines to increase energy or use hallucinogens to alter their perception. Research dismisses concerns about so-called 'gateway drugs'.

A person's AOD use may be influenced by the availability, price and purity of specific drugs. Usually if supplies of a preferred drug fall which in turn can significantly increase the price then people may switch to an alternative drug to satisfy their needs. The feelings people experience when taking a certain drug plays a major role in their decision to use it.

Some substances might be used only for specific occasions. For example, people often use ecstasy and amphetamines to increase their energy during a dance party. Others may turn to alcohol and tobacco to relax after work or to combat stress. Availability can be a major factor determining whether people use a specific drug. The greater the level of supply of a drug in a society, the more likely it is to be used, and the more likely people are to experience problems with it.

The widespread availability of alcohol is one of the reasons it is the most commonly-used drugs and creates such significant harms. Drugs such as heroin and amphetamines are less likely to be used because they are illegal, making them more difficult to obtain.

Supplies of heroin and ecstasy have fluctuated in the past two decades for a number of reasons, including stronger law enforcement restricting supplies of the drugs.

Price is also a major influence and is closely linked with availability. Drugs that are available in high quantities tend to be cheaper to buy, and lower drug prices may result in higher levels of drug consumption and drug-related harm.

For example, an oversupply of heroin in the s saw prices drop to a historic low, resulting in it becoming the most-commonly injected drug Conversely, tougher law enforcement policies combined with lower profit margins made Australia a less attractive option for heroin traffickers, which led to the heroin drought in the early s.

The price of one drug can affect the demand for another. If the price rises too high, in some cases people who use a particular drug may seek a cheaper alternative if they can no longer afford their preferred choice. The purity of a drug refers to the strength or amount of the active ingredient.

While a person's individual perception of purity can be influenced by their tolerance levels and frequency of use, the actual purity of a drug can be impacted by the external market forces that affect its availability. For example, the popularity of ecstasy fell in when international restrictions on the chemicals needed to make the drug saw its purity levels drop significantly.

Although ecstasy demand is on the rise again, many people had already switched to using the synthetic compounds , which had been introduced as a substitute when ecstasy's availability and purity levels had fallen. Work with others to help spread the truth about drugs.

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