Why Do People Take Drugs?

People take drugs because they want to change something in their lives.

Here are some of the reasons young people have given for taking drugs:

• To fit in
• To escape or relax
• To relieve boredom
• To seem grown-up
• To rebel
• To experiment

They think drugs are a solution. But eventually, drugs become the problem.

Difficult as it may be to face personal problems, the consequences of drug use are always worse than the problems a person is trying to solve by taking drugs. The real answer is to get the facts—and to not take drugs in the first place.

How Do Drugs Work?

Drugs are essentially poisons. The amount taken determines the effect.

A small amount acts as a stimulant (speeds you up). A greater amount acts as a sedative (slows you down). An even larger amount poisons and can kill.

This is true of any drug. Only the amount needed to achieve the effect differs.

But many drugs have another risk: they directly affect the mind. They can distort the user’s perception of what is happening around him or her. As a result, the person’s actions may be odd, irrational, inappropriate and even destructive.

Drugs block off all sensations, the desirable ones along with the undesirable. So, while they might give short-term pain relief, they also take away a person’s alertness, skill and ability to think clearly.

Medicines are drugs that are intended to speed up, slow down or change how your body works to help it function better. Sometimes medicines are necessary. But they are still drugs: they can act as stimulants or sedatives, and too much can kill you. If not used as directed, medicines can be as dangerous as illegal drugs.

Drugs Affect the Mind

Normally, when a person remembers something, the mind works very fast and information comes to them quickly. But drugs blur memory, causing blank spots. When a person tries to recall information through this cloudy mess, they can’t do it. Drugs make a person feel slow or stupid and lead to failures in life. As life gets harder and they experience more failures, they want more drugs to help deal with the problem.

Drugs Destroy Creativity

One lie told about drugs is that they help make a person more creative. The truth is actually the opposite.

Someone might think using drugs will give them creative ideas. But that’s not how drugs work. Drugs may give a person a false sense of creative freedom but, when the drug wears off, the person crashes. And each time, the emotional plunge is lower and lower. Eventually, drugs will completely destroy all the creativity a person has.

Updated: 2025