Drug user

The term drug user is often used to refer to a person who consumes an illegal drug.

According to some clinicians and researchers, a drug addict is someone for whom sobriety is a tenuous and temporary state, who almost always resume drug use, even if they have been free of drugs for years. Addiction researchers Charles P. O’Brien and Thomas McLellan believe that most drug addicts relapse, and for them becoming sober is an unrealistic hope. They also view that addictive disorders should be considered in the category with other disorders that require long-term treatments and group addiction with other conditions like arthritis, asthma, and diabetes.

Others, meanwhile, view that drug addiction is a choice and largely depends on the general principle of choice. They view the unique behavioral effects of addictive drugs. They view that the individual and their surroundings can affect their decision-making. In this view the researchers think that humans largely depend on actions that are shaped more by their experiences and less with their DNA.

Then there are others who believe that people who use drugs do not actually become addicted to them. They argue that only a small portion of people actually become addicted to drug because drugs act on our neurons and everyone’s neurons functions the same way. For example, heroin binds to opioid receptor sites in humans and if experimenting with heroin can lead to heroin addiction in one person, why doesn't everyone become a heroin addict? These observations reveal a well-established psychopharmacological principle and the researchers ultimately view that behavioral effects of drugs vary in function of the setting and the individual. The discussion of tolerance and physical dependence may share some mechanism, because there appears to be significant differences between the processes. Not all individuals who exhibit tolerance to a drug are physically depended on it and some individuals who are physically depended on a drug may not display tolerance. Physical dependence on drugs occurs when central nervous system cells require the presence of that drug to function normally.

The term "user" is typically employed to refer to someone who is a drug user, abuser, or addict. Drug users are sometimes referred to as "heads", depending on the drug used, i.e., pothead, hophead, crackhead, etc.

People have used drugs for thousands of years. Evidence of human use of opium has been found in neolithic and Bronze Age archeological sites in Europe, and an opium pipe from 1,200 years ago has been unearthed on the island of Cyprus. The psychoactive use of cannabis (often referred to as marijuana) has been dated as far back as 10,000 years ago in present-day Taiwan. The earliest use of coca has been documented to 8,000 years ago from a site in Peru.

...
Wikipedia