Most Americans consume more than one form of psychoactive drug. Is recreational psychoactive drug taking normal behavior?

Of the estimated 11.8 million adult illicit drug users in the U.S., 9.1 million or 77 percent were employed either full time or part time (S.A.M.H.S.A., 2002).

One of the earliest instances of the harm reduction approach was an educational program implemened by Dr. Duncan and his colleagues in 1971 in Houston, Texas... No further deaths occurred after this program went into effect..

This paper examines what drug education programs might look like if drugs were legalized.

If it is drug abuse that we want to prevent, we must consider cultivating drug use among those who choose to take drugs. This does not mean encouraging drug taking, but does mean encouraging those who take drugs to so in ways which minimize the probability of hazards or of addiction.

This study cannot be seen as having disproved the amotivational syndrome hypothesis, but has cast serious doubt about its validity. There is no doubt that some people, including some marijuana users, appear to be poorly motivated. Whether this constitutes a syndrome or not is another question.

While debates over drug policy in America have focused on choices between demand reduction and supply reduction, the Dutch have pioneered the alternative strategy of harm reduction.

Most people think about drug policy as a simple two-way choice between continuing the war on "drugs" and legalizing the currently illicit drugs. It should be clear by now that our nation's 80-year-long experiment with prohibition of drugs has been a failure.

Drug consumption can be categorised into the areas of drug use and drug misuse (formerly called drug abuse). Drug use has been defined as taking a drug in such a manner that the sought-for effects are attained with minimal hazard. Drug misuse is taking a drug to such an extent that it greatly increases the danger or impairs the ability of the individual to adequately function or cope with their circumstances.

Harm reduction is a new paradigm now emerging in the field of drug education. This strategy recognizes that people always have and always will use drugs and, therefore, attempts to minimize the potential hazards associated with drug use rather than the use itself.