DRUG use and abuse date back to antiquity. Strands of hair from mummies have revealed the intake of drugs millennia ago by ancient Egyptians. Sumerians had opium around 3500 BCE, early Chinese consumed marijuana about 3000 BCE, and South American Incas used the hallucinogen vilca from 2100 BCE.

Greek Olympians, like contemporary athletes, and Roman gladiators used drugs to enhance performance. Both Allies and Axis soldiers during World War 2 ingested methamphetamine derivatives to sustain their fighting spirit, and Japanese Kamikaze pilots on suicide missions took high doses of the drug pervitin.