From Drugs to Medications— and Back

Since time immemorial, humans have used substances that noticeably alter mood, consciousness, and behavior. Today we call these substances psychoactive or psychotropic drugs ¹ . The main psychoactive compounds in use throughout the world roughly until the last decade of the nineteenth century were alcohol, coffee, tea, tobacco, opium, cannabis, coca, iboga, kola, khat, as well as countless species of mushrooms. People used these and other psychoactive drugs to work, to relieve pain, to induce sleep, to stay awake, to fraternize, to endure sadness and loss, to experience euphoria or joy, to reach or heighten states of transcendence and spiritual contemplation, and to perform religious rituals (Meyers, 1985). These manifold uses indicate that psychoactive drugs touch directly and deeply on what it means to live as a human being. Put another way, psychoactive drugs have helped many human beings to bear, to make meaning of, to celebrate, or to temporarily escape their circumstances. Observing the universality of psychoactive drug use among humans, Andrew Weil (1970) wondered whether it reflected an inborn drive to alter one’s consciousness.