The National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) definition of drug addiction as "a chronic relapsing disease of the brain, which is expressed in behavioral ways and occur in a social context", expresse

For the sake of brevity we shall not discuss in this paper the clinical manifestations induced by each drug or drug-group.

The active principle of marijuana and hashish, D 9 cannabinol (THC), seems to be accountable for the drugs' central affects. Both forms are prepared from the leaves of a plant, Cannabis sativa.

Hallucinogenic or "psychedelic" drugs have the capacity to induce hallucinations without delusion.

The psychostimulants is a group of drugs with differing structures and common actions such as increased motor activity and lessening of sleep necessity.

Alcohol is a multiple-action depressor of the Central Nervous System, and the depression caused by it is dose-dependent.

Certain characteristics seem to be common to all abuse-inducing drugs:

Investigations show that some alcoholics begin to drink due to social pressures or in response to stressing situations in their lives.

Whenever a person uses a drug and the effect it produces is somehow pleasant, this effect gets a rewarding quality for that person.

Along mankind’s history, several pharmacological agents have been used to induce intoxication, They comprise plant extracts, fermentation products and, more recently, different synthetic substances

But why are the intoxicants (modifiers of nervous function) so sought after? What are the reasons that drive people to use them?

Ancient literary and religious texts show that, at all times and places, human beings deliberately used (and abused of) substances fitted to modify the nervous system functions, inducing altered bo