ABSTRACT
Psychoactive substances are chemicals that influence how the brain works—and consequently, how people think, feel, and act. The ban on the sale of alcoholic substances to anyone under the age of 21 has led to measurably less drinking among the young and fewer highway accidents and deaths, and has saved hundreds of thousands of lives. A recent trendy practice in the use of illegal substances is microdosing. Stimulants speed up signals passing through the central nervous system—the brain and the spinal column. Most drug researchers who wish to know about the extent, frequency, and patterning of drug use in the United States rely on two systematic, ongoing surveys that are based on representative samples of their target population. Alcohol consumption, in all probability, began when a prehistoric human inadvertently consumed fermented fruit and experienced its effects, enjoyed them, and communicated his or her discovery to others.
