Answer:
Drug abuse refers to the non-medical or inadequate form of recurrent consumption of chemicals that affect a person’s mood or behavior. The term “psychoactive substance” or "drug" is used as a neutral and capacious term for a whole class of substances prohibited and permitted.
Such substances are usually both legal and illegal drugs (amphetamine, cocaine, cannabis, opiates, ecstasy, LSD), alcohol, as well as psychotropic drugs (tranquilizers, barbiturates).
By abuse is meant a use that is harmful, for example because the substance is taken in excessive quantities, taken in harmful combination with another substance, or taken strenuously without any medical basis. Substance abuse can in the symptom picture be similar to habitual disorders (impulse control disorders) and self-harm behavior.
Debate about the practice of using various psychoactive substances has been going on since ancient times. The abuse of such substances negatively affects the lives of not only their direct users, but also of their relatives and the whole society.
