Preventing drug use through legislation or religious laws are frequent methods used to prevent the recreational use of illegal drugs. Even though there are some drugs which are deemed illegal, many drugs are regulated by the government. For instance, there are rules and regulations in place that control how drugs are created, distributed, marketed, and how they are sold. The most common example are prescription drugs. There are only very specific drugs which have been prohibited without exception against use or possession.  These prohibited drugs, however, continue to be made available through the Black Market which continues to present problems for many governments.

 

Psychoactive drugs are the substances which are mostly frequently made illegal, but other drugs, such as steroids, have also fallen under a blanket prohibition. Many governments might prevent the creation or possession of a large amount of a certain drug, but won’t criminalize the personal use and possession of specified amount of certain drugs for personal use. Also, there are laws which place a precise volume of certain drugs, beyond what’s considered lawful, as evidence of trafficking drugs. There are several critics which say prohibiting drugs has empowered organized crime because the suggestion that the banning of drugs causes violence has been supported by research taken over wide time frames and across several countries.