ABSTRACT
The most widely used stimulant drug is caffeine, almost universally available over the counter in coffee, tea, and cola drinks without any legal or social controls. The causes of drug dependency are many and involve sociological, psychological, biological, and chance factors. In sharp and ironic contrast to the social and legal response to the other related drugs, alcohol is essentially uncontrolled, freely, albeit expensively, available to all, and considered a harmless beverage rather than a dangerous drug. Physicians and social scientists have defaulted leadership and responsibility in dealing with the pleasure-giving drugs, and law-enforcement agencies and legislatures have far exceeded their legitimate areas of concern. Alcohol, cannabis, opiates, stimulants, sedatives and tranquilizers are all drugs which are categorized in their voluntary nonmedical use as being sought after and continued primarily for their social and psychological pleasure-giving effects. Sedatives and tranquilizers are easily available at moderate expense from drugstores by physician’s prescription or, to a lesser extent, by black-market routes.
