Intoxicants and addiction problems

Intoxicants have been used for thousands of years for both pleasure and religious and medical purposes. Many currently used intoxicants were found hundreds or thousands of years ago. New intoxicants (so-called designer drugs) are also being developed at an increasing rate. Trends in intoxicant use sometimes change rapidly (e.g. after legislative changes) and sometimes slowly (e.g. after long-term health promotion work).