Drug addiction, also known as substance use disorder, is a condition that affects a person’s brain and actions, resulting in an inability to regulate the use of any drug or medicine, whether legal or illegal. Drugs include items such as alcohol, marijuana, and nicotine. When you’re addicted to a drug, you can continue to use it even though it causes you long-term problems. Drug addiction may begin with social experimentation with a recreational drug, and for some people, drug use becomes more regular. For some, drug addiction starts with exposure to prescription drugs or obtaining medications from a friend or relative who has been prescribed the medication, especially with opioids.
One would need greater doses of a substance to get high as time goes on, at some point simply to feel healthy. Going without the medication becomes increasingly difficult as the drug use increases. Stopping drug use can lead to extreme cravings and make a person physically ill (withdrawal symptoms). To conquer the addiction and remain drug-free, one would need assistance from doctor, family, friends, support groups, or a structured treatment program.
Psychedelics’ classification as a Schedule 1 drug (defined as drugs of abuse with no therapeutic benefits) has significantly hindered research on their use in the treatment of Substance Use Disorders, despite mounting evidence of their therapeutic benefit for a variety of conditions. There is a good argument to be made that rescheduling psychedelic drugs will advance clinical science, based on the existing, multiple controlled trials demonstrating their efficacy. Psychedelics have the ability to reshape biological interventions in the treatment of drug use disorders and associated medical problems such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder when used thoughtfully in treatment.
Despite evidence of obvious benefits, social and political pressure began to effectively ban experimental research into psychedelic drugs in the late 1960s. Through the 1990s, there was a little resurgence of interest in psychedelic substances; however, the turn of the century, and particularly the last ten years, has seen a resurgence of interest in psychedelic […]
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