# 32

Irony in terms; 2nd take

The Federally funded National Institute on Drug Abuse functions under the National Institute of Health.  Its website makes no apologies for the use of the term Drug Abuse in the naming of the organization.

Yet, in its article, Principles of Adolescent Substance Use Disorder Treatment: A Research-Based Guide, the title and the entire article frequently uses the term drug use while never opting for the term used in the organization's very name: Drug Abuse.

Excerpt below:

• school failure
• problems with family and other relationships
• loss of interest in normal healthy activities
• impaired memory
• increased risk of contracting an infectious disease (like HIV or hepatitis C) via risky sexual behavior or sharing contaminated injection equipment
• mental health problems—including substance use disorders of varying severity
• the very real risk of overdose death

How drug use can progress to addiction.
Different drugs affect the brain differently, but a common factor is that they all raise the level of the chemical dopamine in brain circuits that control reward and pleasure.

The article does a fine job of illustrating the "adolescent brain" (which they carry into adulthood/age 22) and it does note, in the final bullet above "the very real risk of overdose death."

As long as the Federal Agency uses the term Drug Abuse in its name, critics of the term abuse will be minimized as they strive to steer people into using the more forgiving term- use.


https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/principles-adolescent-substance-use-disorder-treatment-research-based-guide/introduction