None, several medicnes are poisons, it is all a question of dosis
In pharmacy drug are also called medicine and are used for bringing or sustaining well-being of a person either by curing, preventions like prophylaxis, diagnosis like barium meal, elevating pains like analgesics and placebo too. A drug may or may not be helpful like in the case of illicit drugs. Pharmaceutically all medicines are drugs. But clinically not all drugs are medicines. Drugs, most of which would be medications that are illegal to produce, own use or sell. Drug is the main chemical component in a medicine. That is why a placebo can not be a drug. When a drug is mixed with other pharmaceutical ingredients, medicine is obtained as a final product.
Thanks you all for such nice information. I have used Sorafenib to cure my animals in my PhD Research, should a write sorafenib as medicine or drug.
Dear Shazia Kanwal Azeemi
In your case you can use a term "drug", because it is already formulated biologically active substance.
In fact, the terms “drug” and “medicine” are often mistakenly used as two similar terms. However, in the strictest sense, the two have different meanings or definitions, and they can serve different purposes. http://www.differencebetween.net/language/words-language/difference-between-drug-and-medicine/#ixzz5Cuesnwfj
The previous answers are quite clear. If you still have any doubts I suggest you read the following article:
Article Clarification of Terminology in Drug Safety
Medicine is a substance or preparation used in treating disease, while drug is any chemical compound either synthesized in laboratory or of plant, animal or marine origin which is intended to bring change in normal physiological functions of body. All medicines are drugs but all drugs are not medicines.
Medicines generally are not addictive in nature, unlike drugs. Medicines are made for the treatment of a particular disease, while drug is often considered as narcotic, a stimulant or hallucinogen. Medicines never cause stupefaction while drugs do. However, excessive use of medicines are harmful and can cause negative affects like drugs.
All substances from different sources are having therapeutic properties but this depends on how inteligentaly intervening in treatment or therapy. No substance is without medicinal properties but few are known and many are to be studied.
Food is also medicine and medicine is also food.
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A drug is a chemical substance that takes control of your body or mind depending on its own inherent nature. For example when you take a sleeping pill, it puts you to sleep no matter how much you want to be awake! It rules over your body & mind. You can repeat this exercise many times and you will experience the same each time.
A medicine is the substance that helps restore ‘normalcy’ to your body & mind. Normalcy is actually nothing but your volitional control over your own body & mind. Hence its action can be seen to be the exact opposite of the drug. Properties of a good medicine are that you will never compulsively require the medicine and there is no threat of discomfort or danger when not taken on time.
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This is according to the following link:
https://www.ebnl.org/blogs/drugs-medicines-what-difference
Both of these possess some properties to alter the metabolic paths...It is very hard to draw a line of separation between these two...still it may be stated that when drugs are used in diagnosis, curing and treatment, are called as medicines...in reverse manner all medicines are included as drugs but all drugs may not be essentially a medicine.
When does a medicine become a drug?
Basic difference is that medicines are non-addicting, while drugs are addicting and would cause withdrawal effects.
Most of the medicines will not result in withdrawal symptoms when discontinued except for the recurrence of the symptoms of underlying disease i.e. they do not cause addiction.
A drug when used as a medicine, will lead to withdrawal symptoms when its use is discontinued. Illustrative examples are sleeping pills, morphine or morphine-like pain killers, cocaine, amphetamines, alcohol, or or large doses of steroids.
Therefore, any medicine should not be used in large doses, and over a longer time unless advised by a doctor!.
To know drugs that can cause addiction in my answer, please have a look at this article:
Chapter Drug Abuse, Addiction and Dependence
Its an arbitrary difference. We're finding more and more different kinds of drugs that are just as useful or berhaps even better than current ones. Eg
- MDMA for PTSD treatment
- ketamine for suicidal/ewxtremely depressed people
- LSD for stopping with smoking (but also alcohol).
- Vaping for transitioning away from other tobacco products,
And there are many more examples I can gve.I think that while many recreational drugs can in deed just be fun. They also have a huge therapeutically..
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