from
www.m-w.com
drug:
1) : a substance recognized in an official pharmacopoeia or formulary
(2) : a substance intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease
(3) : a substance other than food intended to affect the structure or function of the body
(4) : a substance intended for use as a component of a medicine but not a device or a component, part, or accessory of a device
I think you are asking about definition #3 here.
A quick comment on the definition. It is interesting that Merriam and Webster stipulate, "a substance, OTHER THAN FOOD..."
m-w goes on to define food as,
"1 a : material consisting essentially of protein, carbohydrate, and fat used in the body of an organism to sustain growth, repair, and vital processes and to furnish energy;"
Interesting that some foods such as chocolate, tea (there are probably others) have caffeine (a drug) in them even when it is not added.
I guess this is not really answering your question though. Just showing the line between food/drugs may not be so clear.
So this is really a question of health right?
You ask
Philosophically, why should one do or not do drugs?
Well, why one "should or should not" do anything is dependent on where you want to end up. To which end do you aim.
This is also a question of moderation.
Do you want to to hallucinate? Yes? Then you SHOULD take drugs such as lsd and/or mushrooms.
Do you not want to hallucinate? No? Then you should not take hallucinogens(sp?)
To answer your question in a deeper way I can share my story.
I used to do alot of drugs, Now I don't do any "drugs". I was in an out-patient treatment program in high-school. I was required to attend AA meetings. Man did those suck. It is hardly a rational way of dealing w/ your problems. This is not to say that it does not work, just came across as very cheesy to me. However there are insightful aspects of those kind of programs. for example
1. Some meetings I attended did not focus on this or that drug, but rather on the function that our "drugs of choice" played in our lives and tried to show how unhealthy our imbalanced lives were.
2. uh, that's all i can think of right now
But i hear there is a program called rational recovery that focuses on being more rational, as opposed to "we have turned our addictions over to God, as we have defined him"
From my experience, drugs can do so much negative. In response to South American Shamen who can talk to their ancestors while hallucinating. COME ONNNNNN. And I talk to God when I am praying and he talks back. Are these verifiable claims?
I do however believe that there is room for moderate drug use in a healthy person's life. It just must be done for the right reasons and in the right ways. For me, however, based on my past transgressions, taking drugs again would be like playing russian roulette, just that the negative outcome, if it happened, would very far outweigh the positive, if it occured. so for me drugs = -EV
cielo