1b.  Such a substance as recognized or defined by the U.S. Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

2.  A chemical substance, such as a narcotic or hallucinogen, that affects the central nervous system, causing changes in behavior and often addiction.

It's no secret that drugs have played a very influential part in our evolution.  We have been adminstering drugs to each other for thousands of years.

Even the Neanderthal people were using drugs as evidence shows in remains found in Iraqi caves dating back 50,000 years ago.  As people began to spread around the world, more and more substances were discovered.  Some were used for medicine, some for religious ceremonies, and others for relaxation, recreation, or just plain curiosity.

Of the roughly 500,000 plant species known around the world, about 4,000 of these contain psychoactive properties.  It is important to remember not to confuse the word psychoactive with psychedelic.  All drugs, from over the counter tylenol and marihuana to heroine and lsd, contain psychoactive agents.  These are the chemicals that affect our central nervous system and brain.  A psychedelic is a psychoactive that is characterized by generating hallucinations or pseudo-hallucinations, sensory distortion, and altered states of conciousness or awareness.

Even as the people evolved, the drugs did so with them.  The first opium poppies to be discovered by man date back to 10000 BC.  By 4000 BC we had discovered that the bulb part of the plant, and not the whole plant itself, is where the psychoactive agents are.  Just a short 1000 years later, we had extracted the sap from the bulb and by 1000 BC we had a dried gum opium extract that was smokeable.  It wasn't until 1524 AD that Laudanum was patented by Swiss physician Paracelsus, considered the Father of Scientific Medicine.  His concoction was a mixture of opium and alcohol, flavored with honey, nutmeg, cardemom, cinnamon, and other spices to hide the bitter taste.

By 1803 we had discovered how to get a much purer extract from Laudanum called morphine.  And 70 years later we had modified morphine  to get the even more potent drug called Heroin.  Even today, within the past 60 years, we've synthesized Fentanyl, which in normal doses is 80 to 100 times more potent than morphine.  And just as late as 1979 we had "China White" hit the streets, a home brewed version of fentanyl that was too potent and faulty.  It destroyed dopamine neurons in the brain and gave the user a progressive and severe case of Parkinson's disease.  (TIP: If someone offers you China White, and it's not really premo-grade heroin from Asia, STAY AWAY!)

It's kind of funny but the first conclusive evidence of people using opium dates to 4000 BC, about the same time some Christians believe the world was created.  Interesting to think how quickly we started using drugs...

Besides opium:

Marihuana was used and held sacred by India, and they wrote of it as early as 2000 to 1400 BC.  According to the Atharva-Veda, the god Shiva took pity on humans and brought cannabis from the Himalayas to give health and pleasure.  The Chinese have been using cannabis for just as long, the emperor Shen-Nung wrote of it in his Pen Tsao Ching, the world's first herbal encyclopedia, in 2737 BC.  And even in Europe, in Germany, a funeral urn dating to the 4th century BC was found to contain marihuana seeds.

Cocaine, while being unheard of in Europe, Africa, and Asia, was being used by the South Americans as early as 2500 BC, they would chew on the coca leaves all day, giving them strength to work in the high altitude mountains where air was thin.  By 1800's cocaine, in a liquid form, was the most popular drink of the day.  They mixed it with their wine, and even Pope Leo XIII, who was impressed by the wine, had a special Vatican medal issued for its praise.

Hallucinagens have the same story.  The Veda of India speaks highly of the soma mushroom, with 100 holy hymns devoted to the use of them.  The ancient Greeks discovered the first form of LSD in the mold, called Ergot, found to grow on rye.  They had a cult at the Athens temple of Eleusis where people like Aristotle, Sophocles, and Plato among others, gathered in secret to partake of the mind altering plant.  Even in South America, the shamanic tribes have been drinkng Ayuahusca, a mixture of two plants, when combined, form possible the most powerful hallucinogen in the world.  Known as DMT, this drug is capable of giving the user actual hallucinations, and not pseudo ones.  Drugs like LSD, mesculine, and mushrooms have the ability to give you pseudo-hallucinations.  These are visual or other sensory distortions in time and space, that the user is fully aware of, and knows they are not real.  True hallucinations are the kind that you are not aware are real.

It's amazing to think how drugs have shaped and helped us to explore the world inside and outside of ourselves.  If it were not for the bravery, and boldness, of people willing to try something new or different we would not have made this far.

Today, it's a different story.  In the past 100 years we've been able to supress the use of drugs that have been important parts of our history and culture for literally the entire span of our society and culture.

But that's a story for another day.