DRUGS

        More people are abusing drugs today than in any other time in history of mankind, and many of those people are youth.

         Understanding what drugs are is fundamental for under­standing their potential abuse. Drugs are a psychoactive sub­stance. A psychoactive substance is something that people take to change the way they feel, think or behave. Some of these substances are called drugs and others, like alcohol and tobac­co, are considered dangerous, but are not called drugs. The term drug also covers a number of substances that must be used under medical supervision to treat illnesses.

        I am going to talk about drugs as those man-made or natu­rally occurring substances Used without medical supervision, basically to change the way a person feels, thinks or behaves.

        In the past, most drugs were made from plants. That is, plants were grown and then converted into drugs such as coca paste, opium and marijuana. Over the years, these crude pro­ducts were further processed to drugs like cocaine and heroin and finally, in the 20th century, people found out how to make drugs from chemicals. These are called man-made or synthe­tic drugs and include ecstasy, LSD, etc. These were initially manufactured for largely experimental reasons and only later were used for recreational purposes. Now, however, with the increased size and scope of the drug trade, people set out to invent drugs especially for human consumption.

        For the first time in human history, a whole industrial com­plex creates and produces drugs that are meant to be used for the sole purpose of «having fun.» People use drugs just to es­cape the reality, to have fun. The majority of them are young, even very young, who do not understand what might happen to them because of drugs.

QUESTIONS:

1. What is fundamental to understand the essence of drugs?

2. What are drugs?

3. What is a psychoactive substance?

4. What kind of drugs do you know?

5. What naturally occurring drugs do you know?

6. What synthetic drugs do you know?

7. Why do people use drugs?

VOCABULARY:

to abuse — злоупотреблять

drugs — наркотики

mankind — человечество

youth — молодежь

substance — вещество

to behave — вести себя, поступать, держаться

to consider — думать, полагать, считать

dangerous — опасный

to cover — включать, содержать

supervision — зд. лечение, предписание

to treat — лечить

illness — болезнь

plants — растения

crude — сырой

to find (past found, p.p. found) out — найти, изобрести

ecstasy — экстази (наркотик, вызывающий чувство эй­фории, широко употребляемый на дискотеках)

LSD — сокр. от lysergic acid diethylamide ЛСД (нарко­тик, вызывающий галлюцинации)

initially — в начальной стадии, вначале

recreational — развлекательный, относящийся к сфере развлечений, отдыху

purpose — назначение, намерение, цель

to invent — изобрести

consumption — потребление

to escape — уходить от реальности, отключаться

majority — большинство