COMING OFF DRUGS: FOR FAMILY AND FRIENDS-WHAT DRUGS DO

The good news is that drug addicts can recover from their illness of drug dependence - if they choose. The bad news is that staying on drugs will make them even more ill than they are already.

The drugs that addicts take are ones which alter the mood. They artificially change the feelings of those who take them - either elevating the emotions, tranquillising them, sedating them or producing varying states like euphoria and hallucinations. But these mood-altering drugs taken by addicts cost the users more than money. There is a price to pay in return for the pleasure they initially give. And that price can be very high indeed.

Drug users often do not know what the drugs are doing to them, or the price they are paying. There is often a kind of snobbery in the drug world, which makes addicts look down on those who do not use what they consider the truly 'in' drugs.

Asking addicts about drugs is as sensible as asking five-year-olds about sweets. They can tell you what they like and they can also tell you what it does for them. But they may have little idea about how drugs damage the human body and mind - before it's too late.

Besides, addicts - and sometimes even those who treat them - fall for myths about drugs. All the stories about 'soft' drugs being safe, or how 'hard' drugs don't matter if they are not injected, probably started life as drug dealers' propaganda and are continued by addicts who do not want to face reality.

There is only one truth. There is no such thing as a completely safe mood-altering drug.

The first stage in doing something about drug dependence is to learn a little bit more about the drugs themselves.

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