Reading: Reading 5: Health: Drug Abuse

Drug abuse is the taking of any substance for any purpose other than the one for which it was intended and in any way that could damage the user's health.


The most generally used drugs are the most generally abused. Many people treat aspirin, for example, as if it were candy. On the principle that if two aspirins are recommended to take them feel better, four will give them even more relief, people exceed the recommended dosage-no more than two tablets every four hours and eight within twenty-four hours. Without question, aspirin is a widely abused drug.


Cold capsules, laxatives, cough syrups-all the drugs sold in drugstores and supermarkets- are frequently abused, but their use, when compared to that of other drugs, does not incur the public's concern. The major source of drug abuse is alcohol, a common and easily acquired drug. A group of prohibitionists once asked Abraham Lincoln to support their cause. Sagely, he refused, replying that drunkenness is rooted not in the use of a bad thing, but in the abuse of a good thing.

Vocabulary Notes:

- Drug abuse
- Substance for
- To treat aspirin
- On the principle that
- People exceed the recommended dosage
- Without question
- Cold capsules, laxatives, cough syrups
- Easily acquired drug
- Prohibitionists
- Sagely