While possession was made illegal, the severest penalties were reserved for illicit distribution and manufacture of drugs. The act dealt with prevention and treatment of drug abuse as well as control of drug traffic. The Anti-Drug Abuse Acts of 1986 and 1988 increased funding for treatment and rehabilitation; the 1988 act created the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Its director, often referred to as the drug czar, is responsible for coordinating national drug control policy.
Original Reasons for using: .
Home remedies.
As time went by, "home remedies" were discovered and used to alleviate or ease aches, pains and other ailments or illnesses. Most of these preparations were herbs, roots, mushrooms or fungi. They had to be eaten, drunk, rubbed on the skin, or inhaled to achieve the desired effect.
These were all naturally occurring substances. No refinement or enhancement had occurred, and isolation of specific compounds (drugs) had not taken place.
Religious rites.
Certain of these preparations were discovered to produce excitement, happiness, and illusory or trans-like (unreal) states. Many of these were used in religious rites. Drugs also were used:.
• To see visions or gain insights .
• To dull the pain of ritual mutilation in initiation ceremonies .
• To enhance the strength and pain resistance of warriors to prepare them for battle, or to program them to kill .
• As pain or hunger suppressants .
• To help cope with thin air at high altitudes .
• To relax during celebrations .
By current standards, the historical use of herbal preparations was not too harmful. It became so only after mankind learned to increase the efficiency and effects of these substances.
Types of Abused Substances .
.
There are many levels of substance abuse and many kinds of drugs, some of them readily accepted by society. .
Legal Substances.
Legal substances, approved by law for sale over the counter or by doctor's prescription, include caffeine , alcoholic beverages (see alcoholism ), nicotine (see smoking ), and inhalants (nail polish, glue, inhalers, gasoline).
