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Drug addiction is the compulsive use of drugs despite the social, emotional, or physical harm
they may cause the individual. This problem has occurred to some degree throughout recorded history (see "opium"), though modern agricultural practices, improvements in access to drugs, and advancements in biochemistry have exacerbated the problem significantly in the 20th century with the introduction of purified forms of active biological agents, and with the synthesis of
hitherto unknown substances, such as methamphetamine and gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB). While "addiction" has been replaced
by "dependency" as a clinical term, the terms are used interchangeably here.
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