Sometimes such drugs have been prescribed by competent medical personnel for
medical purposes. Then their proper use by the prescribed patient is not drug
abuse.
h. Drug Abuser - One who has illegally, wrongfully, or improperly used any
narcotic substance, marijuana, or dangerous drug is a drug abuser. Also, it
may be one who has illegally or wrongfully possessed, sold, transferred,
delivered, or manufactured the same.
(1) Drug Experimenter - This is one who has illegally, wrongfully, or
improperly used any narcotic substance, marijuana, or dangerous drug. Usually
his reasons are curiosity, peer pressure, or something similar.
The exact
number of usages is not necessarily as important in determining the category of
the user as is his intent.
Also, the circumstances of use and the
psychological makeup of the user may be more important than number of usages.
Final determination of the category will be made by the appropriate commander.
(2) Drug User - A person who has illegally, wrongfully, or improperly
used any narcotic substance, marijuana, or dangerous drug; he has done so
several times for reasons of a deeper and more continuous period than those
which motivate the drug experimenter. Final determination of the category will
be made by the appropriate commander.
(3) Drug Addict - A person who exhibits a behavioral pattern of
compulsive drug use.
Such use is characterized by overwhelming involvement
with a drug, and the securing of it. As the term "drug addict" is used herein,
one may or may not be physically dependent on the drug.
Rather, the term
refers, in a quantitative sense to the degree to which drug use pervades the
user's whole life.
i. Drug Dependence - Drug dependence is a condition that can result from
periodic or continued use of a drug.
Dependence can be either mental
(psychological) or physical (physiological). Dependence can be a combination
of both, depending on the substance that is abused. Withdrawal symptoms will
occur when the user of physically dependent drugs ceases to use the substance.
These symptoms occur because the body has developed a physical need for the
drug. Mental dependence develops a psychic or emotional need in the user for a
substance. The opiates and barbiturates are examples of drugs that can cause
physical dependence.
Marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, and other stimulants
can cause mental dependence.
However, these are not usually associated with
physical dependence.
j. Habituation - As defined in 1957 by WHO, drug habituation is a
condition resulting from the repeated consumption of a drug. Characteristics
of this condition include:
(1) a desire (but not a compulsion) to continue
taking the drug for the sense of improved well-being that it causes; (2) little
or no tendency to increase the dose; (3) some degree of psychic dependence on
the effect of the drug, but absence of physical dependence and, hence, no
abstinence syndrome (withdrawal symptoms); (4) a detrimental effect, if any,
primarily on the user.
6-3
MP0100
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