Introduction

Abstract

Drug abuse has always been an international problem because it has never been possible to confine drugs to their places of origin. Whenever and wherever man has travelled, he has taken his drugs with him and the associated drug-taking practices have spread too. Modern methods of transport and communication have increased and facilitated this dissemination. More people than ever before travel, more people than ever before are exposed to the drug-taking practices of other cultures, and the drugs themselves, particularly in their modern, potent forms, can be transported easily and safely. This, of course, applies to all drugs, both licit and illicit, and although attention tends to be concentrated on the illicit spread and use of heroin, cocaine and cannabis, there is also a vast global trade in legal, recreational drugs—tobacco and alcohol—as well as in products such as tranquillisers and hypnotics which have legitimate medical uses but which are also drugs of abuse and dependence.