Drugs are mostly used when undue stress becomes unbearable. Drugs reduce undue stress. They change the chemistry in your brain. The most common effect is a more relaxed state.
(take a look at the article on stress if not done so already)
Drugs as a subject has several ramifications. All the 10 subjects, must be looked at in their broadest possible meaning.
Essentially there are five types of drugs. You have drugs that work as a stimulant and drugs that create relaxation. Then you have drugs that suppress your pain and you have the psychedelic drugs that connect you with an entirely different world. You also have the medical drug that is used to heal or to mask a physical complaint.
It doesn’t really matter what is used as a drug, as long as it falls in the above five categories we call it a drug.
Drugs don’t have to be addictive. The addiction comes about when drugs are used to overcome undue stress. With repetitive use the body will recognize the stimulant or suppressor as a necessity and the addiction is born.
We all want to feel good. We don’t want to suffer from undue stress. With drugs we can compensate for bad feelings.
The problem is that bad feelings are essential to human evolution. When we feel bad we tend to run away from that feeling. We could go on a holiday or we could take a day off. We could play some of our favorite music or we could take drugs like coffee, beer, a cigarette, a joint (illegal), a tranquilizer (legal) or what have you.
The entertainment world and travel agencies owe their existence mainly to people that want to escape from undue stress. When we would take all these escape routes away from people the society as it is would come crumbling down in no time.
Drugs can be seen as a safety valve. When tension builds we need escape possibilities. Entertainment and change of environment can have similar results as most stress reducing drugs have.
With drugs we can make it easy for ourselves to keep going. The whole pharmaceutical industry is geared to keep people going despite their mental and physical complaints.
The problem with this is that spiritual grow or increased awareness will not occur when we run away from bad situations or painful circumstances. When we turn off the alarm bells we will not make better choices or gain greater inside. And isn’t this what life is all about?