|
Recreational drug use is the use of a drug, usually psychoactive, with the intention of creating or enhancing recreational experience. Such use is controversial, however, often being considered to be also drug abuse, and it is often illegal. Also, it may overlap with other uses, such as medicinal (including self medication), performance enhancement, and entheogenic (spiritual). Drugs commonly considered capable of recreational use include alcohol and tobacco, and drugs within the scope of the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and Convention on Psychotropic Substances. The fact that caffeine use may be considered recreational is often overlooked. Psychopharmacologist Ronald K. Siegel refers to intoxication as the "fourth drive", arguing that the human instinct to seek mind-altering substances (psychoactive drugs) has so much force and persistence that it functions like the human desire to satisfy hunger, thirst and the need for shelter. Examples of these kinds of effects may include anxiolysis, sedation, and hypotension. Due to their effects typically having a "down" quality to them, depressants are also occasionally referred to as "downers". When these are used, effects may include Some are also capable of inducing feelings of They have been and are being explored as potential therapeutic agents in treating It should be noted, however, that many of these drugs are also capable of causing anxiety, even the ones that may paradoxically reduce it to a degree at the same time. Most inhalant drugs that are used non-medically are ingredients in household or industrial chemical products that are not intended to be concentrated and inhaled, including organic The most serious inhalant abuse occurs among children and teens who " live on the streets completely without family ties." Inhalant users inhale , or aspiration of vomit. Since 1937, 20% to 37% of the youth in the United States have used cannabis. One in four high school seniors has used the drug in the past month; one in ten 8th graders has done so. In the 1960s, the number of Americans who had tried cannabis at least once increased over twentyfold. Between 1972 and 1988, the use of cocaine increased more than fivefold. The usage pattern of methamphetamine is significantly dropping in teens, and the usage pattern of ecstasy is not currently rising. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia : Other recreational n.e.c. |
