Drug use and harm reduction

Why do people use drugs?

People who use drugs do so for a number of different reasons including; for enjoyment, for fun, for excitement, because they are curious, to escape, to relax, to give them more confidence, to stay awake, to go to sleep, out of habit, because they are dependent, to help them cope with life, to manage physical and/or mental health problems, because their friends do, to experiment, to enhance a good experience or because they are bored. Every individual will use drugs for their individual reason or combination of reasons.

If you include legal drugs such as alcohol, cigarettes and caffeine (found in tea, coffee, chocolate), it is possible to see that we are all more likely than not to use drugs at some time in our lives.

With the popularity of so–called `recreational drugs' such as Ecstasy, more and more young people will be experiencing illicit drug use even if they do not see themselves as drug users. Only the minority of drug users will ever feel they have a problem with their drug use, and not all of these will approach specialist services.