'Drugs', do you agree that the word itself has been so abused that it is practically meaningless?

Drugs? What do you mean by 'drugs'? We have drug users. We have drug addicts. We have a war on drugs. We put drug users in prisons where they can easily get more drugs. Alcohol is a drug, oh yes it is, and I repeat alcohol is a drug and a dangerous one. We have drug stores on the corners selling drugs over the counter. We have huge multi-billion dollar drug companies not only selling us drugs but telling us every day that we need more drugs. And we oblige. We consume prescription and non-prescription drugs in vast vast quantities. We have drugs for headaches, stress, and for losing weight. We have drugs to help you sleep, we have drugs to wake you up. We have drugs for just about every conceivable problem from serious conditions to very minor annoyances. And we're inventing new ones all the time.

I recommend banning the use of the word 'drugs' until we can solve this rather peculiar riddle. A large part of this huge problem lies in our misuse of the language itself.

I don't really want to ban the word literally, I just want to point out how much confusion there is around it and perhaps have people re-think the way they use that particular word.

The war on drugs is a government employment program without regard to the damage this employment program does to the citizens...The war is more harmful than are the drugs themselves.

yes, when you have kids getting kicked out of school for having aspirin in their backpacks, it's been abused.

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Nanny government needs to go! People certainly are stupid if they can't watch their own kids to the point of making laws that babysit them and everyone else. I think we should make a law banning people who don't watch or take care of their brats from having sex. Report It

Well, there is a difference between narcotics and medication; the the word "drug" combines the two because they are both chemical substances that affect our bodies.

The word "drug" comes from the Middle Dutch word "droge" which literally means dry, referring to the powder needed to make drugs. So actually, the word drug suits well as a synonym for both narcotics and medication.

But "drugs" can also be used in the wrong context for some words. Essentially alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana would have to be in a powdered form in order to be classified as a drug, but we still refer to them as so because of the bad connotation attached to the word; and this is where I don't agree with you. I think it's this stigma that still gives "drugs" a very powerful and diverse meaning.

Through realizing that the cocaine in Coca-Cola was creating "addicts" in the 20's, that marijuana was only used by "outcasts and losers" in the 50's, and that smoking cigarettes caused lung cancer in the 80's a morbid stigma has been associated with the word "drug". Whether or not the word is overused doesn't necessarily take away from it's meaning and in no way do I think the word has become "practically meaningless".

In fact we are on the brink of a new wave of name-brand "drugs" like ritalin, zoloft, and hydroxycut in which the long-term side effects are unknown. We are in for another batch of trials-and-errors in the upcoming years, and right now is the breaking-point.

So I think that keeping the word "drug" in circulation will only help add to the stigma when people finally find out that these new drugs are causing cancer and ultimately killing them. Maybe this stigma will help scare a few kids away from trying crack or ecstacy, and if that's true I think we must keep this word around for as long as possible. In the end, only time will tell.

WAR ON DRUGS....MEANS ILLEGAL USE AND PURCHASE OF ...

DOES IT CONFUSE MOST--I DON'T THINK SO...

Ban the word? Well, gee, that isn't crazy.
Meanwhile, let's rename the story of "Little Red Riding Hood" to "Vertically Challenged Native-American Riding Hood."

I understand the problem since I have to take a large quantity of under and over the counter medications to stay alive and mobile. We have reached a point in our society that it's scary to be known by your pharmacist; every doctor you see, even for conformation that your sniffle is viral not bacterial in nature, wants to give you a new medication.
I once had a doctor write a prescription for aspirin because he was so used to people insisting on getting some kind of 'drug' to make them feel better he couldn't understand that I was relieved it wasn't more serious!
I'm trying to get off of my medications and the drug companies keep inventing more. And have you seen the side effects?? Death? Possible Hemorrhage? No idea what the long term side effects will be?? (Recent studies are showing indications that Botox, used long term, may cause permanent nerve paralysis.)
We have antibiotic resistant bacterial caused diseases, and now doctors are handing out the new anti-virals like candy! How long before we have no good anti-anythings??
Sigh.
What do we call the drugs in the meantime? Over the counter Medications? Herbal supplements? I can see it now. "We have a War on Illegal Herbal Supplementary Usages and Illegal Man-made Euphoria-inducing Combinatory Ingestables."

Omigod your so right that's the most intelegant thing i've ever heard anyone say on here never thought of it that way but your so right !