So… Why Do People Like Drugs?
26 Comments Is there something magical about drugs and alcohol with us humans? So what’s our fascination and why do some of us like them so much?! Actually, before we try and answer that one, let me just say: we are not alone. Some of the drugs we use, abuse, and become addicted to today were actually “discovered” by animals first.
For example, you know why we have coffee today? Well, the “legend of the dancing goats” says that coffee beans were first discovered in a field in Ethiopia by a goat herder who noticed that his goats were acting weird sometimes, running around and dancing wildly. He couldn’t figure out why and so decided to study them. He saw them eating small red berries on a certain shrub found in the area-turns out they were coffee plants. After eating the berries with the coffee beans inside, the goats started their “dancing.” Legend also has it that the goat herder also started eating the berries and dancing with them!
Plenty of similar stories and observations have been made of other animals that seem to get “high” from naturally occurring drugs or fermented fruits. Cats are attracted to the valerian plant and to catnip, which seems to give them extreme pleasure. In parts of Africa, the marula fruit ripens, and animals – 
from monkeys to elephants – are attracted to the overripe and fermenting fruits that make them act “funny.” Birds have been seen sitting on smoking tree trunks after bush fires and seem to be intoxicated – they get dizzy and fall off of the smoldering trunk only to get up and do it over and over.
Back to our question…so why do we (or at least some of us) and our animal counterparts like these natural-occurring substances and synthetic or man-made drugs? The answer is simple…blame it on our brains! We have evolved a brain that allows us to see, hear, taste, move, think, etc., and also to repeat things that feel good. That happens because a part of our brain sends out feel-good signals when we do something we enjoy, like eating good food, playing a video game, kicking a goal in soccer, listening to our favorite music, or going upside-down on a roller coaster. The system that says to us: “hey, that was good, do it again!” is called the “reward system”.
Turns out that alcohol and drugs affect this system really well; they are effective at going right to our brain’s “reward system” and putting it into high gear. This very effective stimulation of the reward system is why many people can become addicted to drugs, since feeling good is what drives much of our behavior. Drugs, in a sense, trick the system that has evolved for helping us in our world and instead can turn our world upside down.
As a scientist and Division Director at NIDA, I am committed to learning more about how drugs exert their effects in the brain so that we can come up with better ways to prevent young people from getting “tricked” by drugs and sliding into addiction without even realizing it.
As Director of NIDA’s Division of Clinical Neuroscience and Behavioral Research, Dr. Joe Frascella heads up a program that supports studies in humans to advance our understanding of brain and behavior in drug abuse and addiction. Studies are mainly on neuroscience, adolescent development, and treatment, with a goal of translating research results into real-world use.
Good post on why we like and use drugs for various reasons.
I’m curious if you have anything written on addiction from the perspective of someone going thru pain?
I have come to the realization myself that drugs are not addicting, the relief of pain is what is addictive.
Does that make sense?
I don’t comment much but I enjoy reading your content. Thank You
Respectfully,
Shane AKA~ Cominback
wow very informative. thanks
im in peer counceling and we are about to talk to teens who are using drugs…. trying to figure out why they do them and see if there is another why to solve their problems if they have probems in the first place. thank oyu for this forum
@Cominback, here is a link that takes you to a slide showon pain and addiction. Hope this info helps.
i believe all of this is true with all of my jeart i believe good job!! how do you quit doing weed?
I was severely addicted to drugs – alcohol and cocaine. I’m free since 2007 and I get over it. Thanks for this article, it reminded me that it’s the simplest things what causes us to do what we sometimes do… not complicated, as we might sometimes think.
ive known people that are in to drugs and things like in your stories that you have here. ive seen that it is hard to get over drugs and i think people do them out of curiosity or peer pressure…..i think that before they try something likre this they should think of every consiquence that may happen. and if people do take drugs i hope they are only taking them now from addiction not because they want to!
I think it’s funny that animals have their own way of “doing drugs” . I’ve read books about people that do drugs and they explain what happens , it makes sense why they keep doing it . At school they tell you why its bad to do drugs , but it makes you wonder why people do it if it’s so terrible . Well , it actually is the whole thing that happens with the “reward system”.
Hahaha to the birds getting high off fire , and then doing it again!
@valarey–Wanting to quit is a great first step. The next step may be to talk to an adult you trust about getting help. Also, when you’re trying to quit, hanging out with people who still smoke and do other drugs makes it much, much harder–so you might think about avoiding those situations. Thanks for your question.
@rw– what i dont get is that thay tell kids that are at the age that thay do the oppisit of what you tell them.
interesting… very interesting.
Really intresting. B ut dont coffee make you more drowsy instead of energetic?
@SJelf–good point. Initially, you do get a burst of “energy” from coffee, because the caffeine it contains is a stimulant, but those effects wear off pretty fast, and when that happens, you can feel suddenly energy-drained.
Because life really sucks sometimes and drugs are an easy way to let yourself forget that. As long as you are a solid personality you won’t let it get out of hand. Maybe that’s why crack and meth didn’t do anything for me
i like it
Wow, i’ve heard about the goats chewing coffee beans, but the rest of the animals getting high is news for me – I can relate to the feeling, even though you know its stupid (the day after). The [removed commercial link] effect is short and it wears off fast, and takes more and more to be effective.. I almost get sleepy when i drink coffee now (work in a coffee company)
I am surley addiceted to coffee. If I don’t have at least two cups in the morning, I get really bad headaches. I should start watering down my morning coffee. Then by lunhc time I really do feel drained. I try and stay away from coffee in the afternoon.
I am surley addiceted to coffee. If I don’t have at least two cups in the morning, I get really bad headaches. I should start watering down my morning coffee. Then by lunhc time I really do feel drained. I try and stay away from coffee in the afternoon.
people does drugs because it helps them relax there mind, but if you do it to long things go wrong because you start to care less about school and sometimes about your family, but its really bad because it makes you forget your family name or who there are…
Nice! So true! Gives information.
BECAUSE THEY’RE AWESOME.
i do drugs because i don’t like the real world and i like to get away for a little while and escape, theres nothing like it.
Why do you infer that it’s a trick?
NIDA’s Dr. Joe Frascella writes:
Hi firezdog,
All that was meant by the “tricked” notion is that drugs of abuse can affect those brain processes that have evolved to respond to natural rewards in our environments so that we can become addicted without realizing what is going on.
I use drugs because it enhances certain experiences.
I can still do all the things I’d normally do, food becomes more tasty, movies become funnier, music gets you lost in it.
Everything gains an extra ‘quality’ that isn’t there when sober.
And to be honest, my life is pretty boring because i’m so lazy.
Also not talking about crack, meth or heroin. That stuff [removed, per guidelines] you up.
@Right Drugs work by affecting the pleasure centers in your brain. That means, they make you feel good. The problem is, the brain will adapt to the drug and will require more of it to get the same effect. Over time, everyday pleasurable experiences lose out to the compulsive need to use the drug—not to feel high, but just to feel “normal.” That is the essence of addiction. It could also at least partly explain why you feel your life is boring – and why you prefer to be high when doing things that are normally pleasurable on their own (eating, watching movies, listening to music, etc.).