We’re All On Drugs

Drugs aren't bad, they're everywhere!

I was having a discussion today about the line between acceptable and unacceptable drugs on sports. I believe all sports should allow drugs and the athletes should disclose the exact drugs and dose they’re using so we could all get a realistic view of what it takes to compete at the highest levels.

This got me thinking about all the different drugs people consume on a daily basis, and then I kinda realized that almost all human consume some sort of drug very regularly.

The broad definition of a drug: A substance consumed that alters normal body function and is non essential for life.

With this definition you can easily come up with a list of drugs people consume daily, the two most obvious are caffeine and alcohol, but that is hardly where the list stops. I’ll throw a few more down to get the list going. I’ll need you to jump in here and add any that I’ve missed. (these can be any drug that is consumed on a fairly regular basis without a prescription)

Caffeine

Alcohol

Nicotine

NSAIDS (non steroidal anti inflammatories)

Excessive Sugar/salt/fat (you could easily make the argument that over consumption of these items is used as self medication)

Theobromine (active ingredient in chocolate similar to caffeine)

Marajuana

And this is just the common stuff that many people might be using. There obviously an enormous list of prescription drugs that a huge proportion of the population is using as well.

Almost everyone you will ever encounter will be a habitual user of at least one or two of the drugs mentioned above and then some. As we get older almost all of us will become prescription drug users as well.

So I’ve started the list, if there is something you can think of that I have missed please add it in the comments section.

John

Posted by johnbarban in Health, Human Nature
Tags: common drugs, drug use, drugs |15 Comments

15 Responses to “We’re All On Drugs”

  1. Ben Leonard Says:
    May 7th, 2010 at 3:38 pm

    I think you made some good points here. I wonder what is the line between a “drug” and a “food”? Would it be the number of calories it contains?

    Let’s say you were eating raw eggs because you thought that would help your lifting–or you were drinking some special sports with lots of herbs etc. in it. (Assuming that these foods actually have the properties the consumer thinks they do.) Are those drugs? Are they foods? I don’t think a clear line can be drawn.

    On a related note I have heard that some of the “bad” drugs such as marijuana are not actually as bad for you as many of the prescription drugs.

  2. Joshua Says:
    May 7th, 2010 at 4:30 pm

    niacin–gives a gnarly blood dilation flush

    aspirin

    fall-off-the-bone bbq’d beef ribs…mmm…

  3. Cooper Says:
    May 7th, 2010 at 4:52 pm

    This is a really interesting piece of research. It really shows how stupid the US war on drugs is:

    http://www.lila.it/doc/documentazione/rdd/thelancet.pdf

    They use a few different measures to assess the relative harm of different drugs. What’s interesting is that the legal drugs alcohol and tobacco are ranked 5th and 9th harmful respectively, and some Schedule I drugs like LSD and Ecstasy are ranked 14th and 18th respectively.

  4. Ben Leonard Says:
    May 7th, 2010 at 5:10 pm

    Cooper,

    That’s interesting to see a scientific paper documenting that information. I hadn’t seen the raw data before but had heard people reference that type of information.

    I would be interested to see where prescription painkillers fit on that table. I don’t know what the scientific names for them are though, so it could be one of the names that I don’t recognize.

  5. Girlwithnoname (Jackie) Says:
    May 7th, 2010 at 5:24 pm

    birth control pills, or any other form of birth control outside of maybe condoms (without spermicide) and the IUD (scary enough concept in and of itself without having to be a ‘drug’).

  6. Cooper Says:
    May 7th, 2010 at 8:23 pm

    Ben,

    I think the only prescription pain killer on that list is Buprenorphine which is used to treat chronic pain.

    There are a few other prescription drugs on the list though: Methylphenidate is Ritalin; Benzodiazepines is Xanax and Valium; Adderall is a type of Amphetamine. All of these are considered more harmful than anabolic steroids and ecstasy, and all but one are more harmful than LSD.

    It shows the need for law makers and politicians to be more scientifically literate.

    Cooper

  7. Cooper Says:
    May 7th, 2010 at 8:31 pm

    Also interesting to note that anabolic steroids were the least addictive out of all 20 drugs (legal or illegal) analysed.

  8. usernametooshortnowitstoolon Says:
    May 7th, 2010 at 9:16 pm

    John,

    You spelled “marijuana” wrong! That is unacceptable! :P

  9. joe g Says:
    May 7th, 2010 at 9:49 pm

    I take a multivitamin , plus vitamin D and fish oil supplements daily.uppose that is some form of drug.

  10. Tim Says:
    May 8th, 2010 at 12:51 am

    John,

    Man you are right about drug consumption in our society. I believe prohibition is the cause of most of societies problems today. For god’s sake, the drug war in Mexico probably wouldn’t be happening if not for American prohibition of drugs. By allowing things they become less pervasive because we want what we can’t have.

    Tim D

  11. Baran Says:
    May 8th, 2010 at 8:21 am

    Opiates. Found in grains.

  12. MovieFX Says:
    May 8th, 2010 at 8:23 am

    A drug is a chemical which has an effect on the body. That’s vit.C and aspartame and monosodium glutamate (oh my!) for starters (yum).

    PS: I only just twigged that many ‘semi-pro’ athletes (in particular extreme sports men like the famous big wave rider Lai-Ehem and Pakour-ist Sabast-Ehem) are almost certainly on steroids.

  13. Kevin Says:
    May 9th, 2010 at 12:10 pm

    Theophylline is found in coffee and in higher levels in teas (reason why you can get “shakey” after drinking too much tea)

    Theophylline is also a drug used to treat severe refractory asthma and other conditions.

  14. usernametooshortnowitstoolon Says:
    May 9th, 2010 at 11:05 pm

    On a serious note, there are so many definitions of drugs (check dictionary.com), so yes, we’re all on drugs depending on which definition you use. Detractors will disagree by not agreeing…with your definition.

  15. giresun27 Says:
    May 10th, 2010 at 12:43 am

    use your drugs but don’t abuse :D

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