“There is a silent spring of intoxicants that flows through our lives and bodies. Whether we wake up with a sip of coffee or a sniff of cocaine, take a break with a cigarette or a beer, relax with a cocktail or marijuana, drift to sleep with a pill we purchased at the pharmacy or from our neighborhood dealer, we use drugs to change the way we feel. Nobody wants this to be unhealthy or dangerous. Nobody wants people to live out their lives inside crack houses, to die from tobacco cancer, or to be killed by drunk drivers.
History shows that we have always used drugs. In every age, in every part of this planet, people have pursued intoxication with plant drugs, alcohol, and other mind-altering substances. Surprisingly, we’re not the only ones to do this. As you will see in the following pages, almost every species of animal has engaged in the natural pursuit of intoxicants. This behavior has so much force and persistence that it functions like a drive, just like our drives of hunger, thirst, and sex. This “fourth drive” is a natural part of our biology, creating the irrepressible demand for drugs. In a sense, the war on drugs is a war against ourselves, a denial of our very nature.”
— Intoxication, The Universal Drive for Mind-Altering Substances by Ronald K. Siegel, Ph.D.
