Medical aspects of drug and substance abuse

Abstract

According to the WHO (1952), drug addiction is a state of periodic or chronic intoxication, harmful to the individual and society, caused by the use of a drug of natural or synthetic origin. A person should be considered an addict when the following symptoms are present: a) an irresistible craving for the poison; b) increasing tolerance - increasing doses; c) inability to abstain, because mentally and physically the person is so dependent on the poison and its effects that sudden termination causes a physically hard and mentally unbearable state.