What Does Illicit Drugs Mean?
Illicit drugs fall into two categories. The first category is comprised of those drugs that are illegal to process, sell, and consume. These include cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin. The second class includes those drugs that are legal to process, sell, and consume when prescribed by a physician, but are then misused by the person to whom the drugs have been prescribed, or are used by individuals not under a prescribing doctor’s care, and who may have obtained the drugs by illegal means. Drugs in the second category can include prescription pain medication and prescription sedatives.
WorkplaceTesting Explains Illicit Drugs
The first category of illicit drugs includes
those drugs that are illegal to manufacture, sell, purchase and consume. Drugs
that fall into this category are taken solely for recreational purposes and
include cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, MDMA, hashish, opium, PCP, and
LSD. The second category includes drugs
that are legal to process, sell, and consume when processed in a licensed
facility, prescribed by a physician, and consumed by the patient under the
physician's care, in the manner prescribed by the physician, but become
illegal due to misuse. This can include
overconsumption of a drug by the person to whom the drug is prescribed, the
consumption of a drug by persons to whom the drug has not been prescribed, and
the consumption of the drug in settings where the effects of the substance can
impair the user's ability to function and can jeopardize the user's safety, the
safety of coworkers, or the safety of the public - such as when driving a
vehicle or operating machinery in the workplace.
