Drug or Medicine?

[Classik]

There is a huge distinction between drug and medicine. Did you know? Addicts know the truth.:D

 

[Deborah13]

medicine - something used to cure v drug - substances used to formulate medicine (just as the related to each other)

Some drugs are legal some are not. Some are addicted to legal drugs some illegal.

Some are natural substances some are not.

 

[Classik]

medicine - something used to cure v drug - substances used to formulate medicine (just as the related to each other)

Some drugs are legal some are not. Some are addicted to legal drugs some illegal.

Some are natural substances some are not.

Interesting.

However, chemists may see them as the same

 

[Deborah13]

Interesting.

However, chemists may see them as the same

Yup.

Medicine - as a physical substance (not speaking of the spiritual kind for sure)

 

[tim-from-pa]

There is a huge distinction between drug and medicine. Did you know? Addicts know the truth.:D

Usually they are synonymous. My usage is that the drug is a substance and medicine is the cure, so in that sense I guess vitamins, minerals, herbs and whatnot actually qualify more than drugs since drugs rarely cure anything.

 

[Classik]

Drug addict? Medicine addict?

Drug abuse?? Medicine abuse??

Illegal drug business??? Illegal medicine business??? Etc you see that?

He took a course in medicine! She took a course in drugs.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

There is a huge distinction between drug and medicine. Did you know? Addicts know the truth.:D

Very well put, Classik. Addicts indeed know the truth, even though their drug of choice is frequently self-medication for a mindset or mood they cannot rationally change. They therefore adopt their drug of choice to alter that mood, because it is easier than addressing the pain directly.

 

[Deborah13]

It's all so sad really heartbreaking sometimes. And what they will do to feed the beast can hurt them just as much. Anger, guilt, self-loathing, I HATE DRUG ADDICTION it kills the very soul.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

It's all so sad really heartbreaking sometimes. And what they will do to feed the beast can hurt them just as much. Anger, guilt, self-loathing, I HATE DRUG ADDICTION it kills the very soul.

It is mind-numbingly discouraging for those of us who deal with them daily. But there is hope, and He is Christ. Pray for those who suffer. Pray for those who find solace in a chemical. Pray for those who are addicted, that they may see the face of God, and be delivered from their hopelessness.

 

[duari91]

I guess it is a fine line. I would venture to say that a substance that is inherently addicting, is a drug. That which isn't addicting, is medicine. So long as the substance has properties that can actually help you.

Just a guess, though.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

I guess it is a fine line. I would venture to say that a substance that is inherently addicting, is a drug. That which isn't addicting, is medicine. So long as the substance has properties that can actually help you.

Just a guess, though.

Morphine, for many, is medicine. But it is also a drug that is often abused. It can't be defined so simply. All drugs (except for marijuana, despite what some whould try to tell you) have medicinal properties, even heroine or methamphetamine, which are probably the most abused drugs on the planet. It can't even be said so simply as "all drugs are medicine, but not all medicines are drugs," because sometimes a mere vitamin is a drug. A medicine is any substance which relieves the symptoms of an affliction. A drug is a substance that has a physiological effect when ingested or otherwise introduced into the body, in particular. That effect may not be medicinal in nature, but is nonetheless a chemical agent that produces an effect, for good or bad.

 

[duari91]

Morphine, for many, is medicine. But it is also a drug that is often abused. It can't be defined so simply. All drugs (except for marijuana, despite what some whould try to tell you) have medicinal properties, even heroine or methamphetamine, which are probably the most abused drugs on the planet. It can't even be said so simply as "all drugs are medicine, but not all medicines are drugs," because sometimes a mere vitamin is a drug. A medicine is any substance which relieves the symptoms of an affliction. A drug is a substance that has a physiological effect when ingested or otherwise introduced into the body, in particular. That effect may not be medicinal in nature, but is nonetheless a chemical agent that produces an effect, for good or bad.

I would say that is a valid description.

So technically, it can be said that medicine CAN be a drug, and a drug CAN be medicine?

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

I would say that is a valid description.

So technically, it can be said that medicine CAN be a drug, and a drug CAN be medicine?

Not quite. A vitamin can be classified as a medicine, but it is not technically a drug. Even a placebo could be elevated to the definition of a drug is by its use, an effect results, even if it is shown to be psychological vs. physiological.

 

[Deborah13]

Morphine, for many, is medicine. But it is also a drug that is often abused. It can't be defined so simply. All drugs (except for marijuana, despite what some whould try to tell you) have medicinal properties, even heroine or methamphetamine, which are probably the most abused drugs on the planet. It can't even be said so simply as "all drugs are medicine, but not all medicines are drugs," because sometimes a mere vitamin is a drug. A medicine is any substance which relieves the symptoms of an affliction. A drug is a substance that has a physiological effect when ingested or otherwise introduced into the body, in particular. That effect may not be medicinal in nature, but is nonetheless a chemical agent that produces an effect, for good or bad.

I have to disagree with you on THC, when I was doing six months of chemo they gave me little white pills for the nausea just before a treatment. Small dose, didn't get high just very sleepy. The last treatment they had run out, I was very sick on the way home, 130 miles to home. I learned it was THC, maybe synthetic if they can do that. I should ask my son he's a PHARMACIST. I thought about calling him David the magician but I don't think he'd find it funny.

Of coarse maybe I'm wrong about it but I'm sure that's what I was told.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

I have to disagree with you on THC, when I was doing six months of chemo they gave me little white pills for the nausea just before a treatment. Small dose, didn't get high just very sleepy. The last treatment they had run out, I was very sick on the way home, 130 miles to home. I learned it was THC, maybe synthetic if they can do that. I should ask my son he's a PHARMACIST. I thought about calling him David the magician but I don't think he'd find it funny.

It's called marinol, and it is synthetic THC. Smoking marijuana doesn't give you the same results as marinol. For one thing, the dosage of synthetic THC in marinol is only about 15%, whereas most of the weed available today is as high as 35 or 40 percent THC content. That compares to the four or five percent content back in the 60s and 70s. Marijuana isn't anything to play around with.

Marijuana is a dangerous controlled substance, a hallucinogen in the same realm as LSD or PCP. By that, I mean that it causes the kind of wide swings of mood and perception that those drugs cause, but behavior on marijuana is closer to that of LSD than it is to PCP. Marijuana causes lung cancer at a much higher rate than regular tobacco, causes genetic anomalies in both sperm and ovum that result in birth defects, results in amotivational syndrome which is the reason students smoking marijuana lose focus and their grades fall off rapidly, plus a host of other issues. Marijuana is not an innocent little plant that does no harm. It may not kill people, but it is no less dangerous for that fact.

 

[farouk]

How are people going to cope with the legalization of marijuana in some jurisdictions, especially if pharmaceutical companies proceed with testing for its benefits?

I think this is a fair and reasonable question.

 

[Classik]

How are people going to cope with the legalization of marijuana in some jurisdictions, especially if pharmaceutical companies proceed with testing for its benefits?

I think this is a fair and reasonable question.

What benefits? A peaceful RIP?

 

[Classik]

There could be benefits....but believe me there would be a lot catastrophe

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

How are people going to cope with the legalization of marijuana in some jurisdictions, especially if pharmaceutical companies proceed with testing for its benefits?

Pharmaceutical companies are not experimenting with oral delivery, i.e., smoking, as the side effects of such delivery are more dangerous than regular cigarettes. Marinol is the best they've been able to come up with in 30 years of testing. It ain't that great. Other anti-nausea medications and pain medications are better than marinol. The research is pretty much a dead end already.

The real question is, what are people going to cope with RJ Reynolds and American Tobacco getting into the marijuana business? They thought about it at one time, but the negative publicity caused them to back off. As Washington and Colorado influence other states to perhaps pass a law legalizing it, will the tobacco companies stay out of the mix? Doubtful.

 

[farouk]

What benefits? A peaceful RIP?

C: The question was serious.

Alleviation of pain; for skin disorders, etc. AFTER proper controlled and validated testing.

Legalization is changing the perspective in many ways. (I certainly don't advocate illegal drugs or using untested and uncontrolled substances.)