Why are people motivated to experiment with drugs?
Why are people motivated to experiment with drugs?
Scientifically drug refers to any substance which has a physiological effect once taken or anything that alters the body’s normal functioning (Kuyper’s, 2019). Drug use has been rampant among the youth, middle-aged, and the aged. Most people use the drugs for healing purposes, pleasure, performance enhancement, peer pressure, and experiment, while others believe medications may help solve depression and other disorders.
In this discussion, I will discuss why people experiment with drugs despite knowing their adverse side effects (Menrad, 2018). Drug use causes impaired judgment among people, mental problems, hallucinations, and coma when used in excess; despite these side effects, most people would still want to experiment with the drugs. In my view, this is a very contentious issue, and I feel most people are motivated to experiment with drugs due to boredom. In this case, people are bored, have no deeper interests, and see drugs as a pastime to explore. To solve this, people need to engage in active activities that ensure no free time is available.
Depression is also one of the motives why people experiment with drugs; for instance, people turn to drugs and alcohol as a form of escapism. When they are sad or depressed, they take these drugs to forget and feel happier; the immediate solution to this issue is to visit a counseling center for assistance rather than self-medicate with drugs. Curiosity is also one of the reasons why people experiment with drugs (Jain 2019). Most people, especially the youth, want to know what it feels like after taking medications; they have the delusion that they are invincible, and despite the consequences of the drugs, they think that nothing wrong can occur to them after taking the pills.
Weight loss is also a reason why people would like to experiment with drugs. This mainly affects female teenagers whose body growth changes when they reach a certain age and lose their original body shape. In this case, young girls will indulge in drugs such as cocaine in desperation to slim down to attract their male counterparts. At the same time, these ladies might be struggling with a co-occurring eating disorder such as anorexia. The last point that motivates people to experiment with drugs is the ‘now or never phrase”. People often feel a social imperative to experiment and experience all they can now because the future remains unknown. They feel like it’s a now or never situation; they have to try drugs now because, in the end, they might have multiple responsibilities, which may ensure no chance to experiment with the drugs.
In conclusion, I wish to discourage drug abuse among people; it might lead to death, affect job performance and lead to adverse health problems; a single experiment might ruin your life; please avoid experimenting with drugs.
References
Kuypers, K. P., Ng, L., Erritzoe, D., Knudsen, G. M., Nichols, C. D., Nichols, D. E., … & Nutt, D. (2019). Microdosing psychedelics: More questions than answers? An overview and suggestions for future research. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 33(9), 1039-1057.
Welz, A. N., Emberger-Klein, A., & Menrad, K. (2018). Why people use herbal medicine: insights from a focus-group study in Germany. BMC complementary and alternative medicine, 18(1), 1-9.
Wiggin, K. L., Reimann, M., & Jain, S. P. (2019). Curiosity tempts indulgence. Journal of Consumer Research, 45(6), 1194-1212.