FROM NONTHERAPEUTIC DRUG-USE TO DRUG-ABUSE - AN OVERVIEW OF A PROCESSEXTENDING OVER THE CENTURIES .1.

Although drug abuse is no iv a scourge against which a large-scale war is being waged worldwide, nontherapeutic drug use has not always been considered a source of severe medical and psychological disorders. Th e history of drug use over the centuries and across the world teaches that many cultures accepted drug use by specific subsections of societ y for recreational purposes, as a tool in a quest for transcendance an d immortality, or even sometimes for medical purposes. The nature of t he drugs used varied across geographic areas and ethnic groups; howeve r cocaine, hashish, poppy-derived narcotics, and even tobacco were con sumed in ancient Greece and Rome, South America, and Asia. Drug use in creased sharply among XIXth century intellectuals and became widesprea d in the XXth century, during which new; drugs were introduced. The co ntrolled use of nontherapeutic drugs by a limited number of individual s and the rampant drug abuse in contemporary society are two different stages of a long journey that unfortunately shows no signs of ending in the foreseeable future.