ABSTRACT
The earliest records of the search by humans for means to cope with the demands of the environment attest to a remarkable ingenuity in finding drugs that allay anxiety, elevate mood and, in general, furnish pleasure and satisfaction. Certainly, most ethnic groups had independently found methods of producing alcohol during a primitive stage in their development. Opium, the source of morphine, and solanaceous plants, the source of atropine and scopolamine, as well as the sources of hashish, nicotine, cocaine, caffeine and similar drugs, were also discoveries of primitive peoples. Among these agents known and used since antiquity are some that remain part of our modern therapeutic armamentarium. But these and many other ancient drugs are also among those that pose serious problems in our contemporary culture through their use for nonmedical purposes. Whether the ancients also recognized the social ills attendant on the use of drugs that provide the user with an escape from reality is clearly documented only in the case of alcohol. It was not until the late 1600s that descriptions of abuse appeared in the annals of medicine for other drugs (even opium, so widely used in ancient times for its soporific and analgesic properties). But surely there must have been individuals among ancient civilizations who used these drugs in a manner at odds with the society of their times. And in this context, drug abuse and drug dependence are as old as some of the drugs associated with these phenomena.
