A drug, broadly speaking, is any substance that, when absorbed into the body of a living organism, alters normal bodily function.

There is no single, precise definition, as there are different meanings in drug control law, government regulations, medicine, and colloquial usage.

The Use of Drugs
A practice that is laying the foundation of a vast amount of disease and of even more serious evils is the free use of poisonous drugs. When attacked by disease, many will not take the trouble to search out the cause of their illness. Their chief anxiety is to rid themselves of pain and inconvenience. {CCh 105.2}
By the use of poisonous drugs, many bring upon themselves lifelong illness, and many lives are lost that might be saved by the use of natural methods of healing. The poisons contained in many so-called remedies create habits and appetites that mean ruin to both soul and body. Many of the popular nostrums called patent medicines, and even some of the drugs dispensed by physicians, act a part in laying the foundation of the liquor habit, the opium habit, the morphine habit, that are so terrible a curse to society. 152 {CCh 105.3}
Drug medication, as it is generally practiced, is a curse. Educate away from drugs. Use them less and less, and depend more upon hygienic agencies; then nature will respond to God's physicians--pure air, pure water, proper exercise, a clear conscience. Those who persist in the use of tea, coffee, and flesh meats will feel the need of drugs, but many might recover without one grain of medicine if they would obey the laws of health. Drugs need seldom be used. 153 {CCh 105.4}

458. In our sanitariums, we advocate the use of simple remedies. We discourage the use of drugs, for they poison the current of the blood. In these institutions sensible instruction should be given how to eat, how to drink, how to dress, and how to live so that the health may be preserved. {CD 303.5}

By indulgence, the reading of sensational or demoralizing literature becomes a habit, like the use of opium or other baleful drugs, and as a result, the minds of thousands are enfeebled, debased, and even crazed. {CW 133.2}

The curse of liquor-drinking is demonstrated by the awful murders that take place. Intemperance is widespread. How much man's senses are perverted by intoxicating drugs it is impossible to say.--Manuscript 11, 1899. {Ev 529.4}

Drugs.
730. Every poisonous preparation in the vegetable and mineral kingdoms, taken into the system, will leave its wretched influence, affecting the liver and lungs.--F. of F., p. 140. {HL 176.5}

My attention was then called to still another case. I was introduced into the sick room of a young man who was in a high fever. A physician was standing by the bedside of the sufferer with a portion of medicine taken from a vial upon which was written Calomel. He administered this chemical poison, and a change seemed to take place, but not for the better. {2SM 445.3}

"This is the influence of mercurial preparations. This young man had remaining, sufficient nervous energy, to commence a warfare upon this intruder, this drug-poison to attempt to expel it from the system. Many have not sufficient life-forces left to arouse to action, and nature is overpowered and ceases her efforts, and the victim dies." {2SM 447.3}

806. This is the effect of calomel. . . . It frequently manifests itself in tumors, ulcers, and cancers, years after it has been introduced into the system.--H. to L., Chap. 3, p. 59. {HL 190.5}
807. The disease, which the drug was given to cure may disappear, but only to reappear in a new form, such as skin diseases, ulcers, painful, diseased joints, and sometimes in a more dangerous and deadly form.--H. to L., Chap. 3, p. 61. {HL 190.6}

"This is the effect of calomel. It torments the system as long as there is a particle left in it. It ever lives, not losing its properties by its long stay in the living system. It inflames the joints, and often sends rottenness into the bones. It frequently manifests itself in tumors, ulcers, and cancers, years after it has been introduced into the system." {2SM 449.3}

A branch was presented before me bearing large flat seeds. Upon it was written, Nux vomica, strychnine. Beneath was written, No antidote. I was shown persons under the influence of this poison. It produced heat, and seemed to act particularly on the spinal column, but affected the whole system. When this is taken in the smallest quantities, it has its influence, which nothing can counteract. If taken immoderately, convulsions, paralysis, insanity, and death, are often the results. Many use this deadly evil in small quantities. But if they realized its influence, not one grain of it would be introduced into the system. {4aSG 138.1}

865. The drugs given to stupefy, whatever they may be, derange the nervous system.--H. to L., Chap. 3, p. 57. {HL 202.2}
866. The liver, heart, and brain are frequently affected by drugs, and often all these organs are burdened with disease, and the unfortunate subjects, if they live, are invalids for life, wearily dragging out a miserable existence.--H. to L., Chap. 3, p. 61. {HL 202.3}
867. Witness the mildest protracted influence of nux vomica upon the human system. As its introduction, the nervous energy was excited to extraordinary action to meet this drug poison. This extra excitement was followed by prostration, and the final result has been paralysis of the nerves.--H. to L., Chap. 3, p. 58. {HL 202.4}
868. Poisonous medicines, or something called a soothing cordial, . . . is poured down the throat of the abused infant. . . . If it recovers, it must bear about more or less in its system the effects of that poisonous drug, and it is liable to spasms, heart disease, dropsy of the brain, or consumption. Some infants are not strong enough to bear even a trifle of drug poisons; and as nature rallies to meet the intruder, the vital forces of the tender infant are too severely taxed, and death ends the scene.--H. to L., Chap. 5, p. 70.

1052. Drugs given to stupefy, whatever they may be, derange the nervous system.--H. to L., Chap. 3, p. 57. {HL 246.2}

1055. To use drugs while continuing evil habits is certainly inconsistent, and greatly dishonors God by dishonoring the body which he has made. Yet for all this, stimulants and drugs continue to be prescribed and freely used; while the hurtful indulgences that produce the disease are not discarded. The use of tea, coffee, tobacco, opium, wine, beer, and other stimulants gives nature a false support. Physicians should understand how to treat the sick through the use of nature's remedies. Pure air, pure water, and healthful exercise should be employed in the treatment of the sick.--U. T., 1892. {HL 247.1}

The intricate names given medicines are used to cover up the matter, so that none will know what is given them as remedies unless they consult a dictionary. . . . {MM 228.5}
Patients are to be supplied with good, wholesome food; total abstinence from all intoxicating drinks is to be observed; drugs are to be discarded, and rational methods of treatment followed. The patients must not be given alcohol, tea, coffee, or drugs; for these always leave traces of evil behind them. By observing these rules, many who have been given up by the physicians may be restored to health. {MM 228.6}

Slaves to Alcohol and Drugs.--On every side Satan seeks to entice the youth into the path of perdition; and if he can once get their feet set in the way, he hurries them on in their downward course, leading them from one dissipation to another, until his victims lose their tenderness of conscience and have no more the fear of God before their eyes. They exercise less and less self-restraint. They become addicted to the use of wine and alcohol, tobacco and opium, and go from one stage of debasement to another. They are slaves to appetite. Counsel which they once respected, they learn to despise. They put on swaggering airs and boast of liberty when they are the servants of corruption. They mean by liberty that they are slaves to selfishness, debased appetite, and licentiousness.--ST, June 22, 1891. (Te 274.) {1MCP 76.1}

A practice that is laying the foundation of a vast amount of disease and of even more serious evils is the free use of poisonous drugs. When attacked by disease, many will not take the trouble to search out the cause of their illness. Their chief anxiety is to rid themselves of pain and inconvenience. So they resort to patent nostrums, of whose real properties they know little, or they apply to a physician for some remedy to counteract the result of their misdoing, but with no thought of making a change in their unhealthful habits. If immediate benefit is not realized, another medicine is tried, and then another. Thus the evil continues. {MH 126.2}

For some time he [a patient at the Battle Creek Sanitarium] had thought he was obtaining new light. He was very ill, and must soon die. . . . Those to whom he presented his views listened to him eagerly, and some thought him inspired. . . . To many his reasoning seemed to be without a flaw. They told of his powerful exhortations in his sickroom. Most wonderful views passed before him. But what was the source of his inspiration? It was the morphine [NOTE: THE SOURCE OF MORPHINE IS OPIUM. A FAST-WORKING DERIVATIVE OF MORPHINE IS HEROIN.] given him to relieve his pain. [SELECTED MESSAGES, BOOK 2, P. 113.] {NL 53.3}

Water Treatments and Simple Herbs.--The Lord has taught us that great efficacy for healing lies in a proper use of water. These treatments should be given skillfully. We have been instructed that in our treatment of the sick we should discard the use of drugs. There are simple herbs that can be used for the recovery of the sick, whose effect upon the system is very different from that of those drugs that poison the blood and endanger life.--Manuscript 73, 1908 (Manuscript entitled "Counsels Repeated"). {2SM 288.1}

Remedies That Cleanse the System.--Christ never planted the seeds of death in the system. Satan planted these seeds when he tempted Adam to eat of the tree of knowledge which meant disobedience to God. Not one noxious plant was placed in the Lord's great garden, but after Adam and Eve sinned, poisonous herbs sprang up. In the parable of the sower the question was asked the master, "Didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?" The master answered, "An enemy hath done this" (Matthew 13:27, 28). All tares are sown by the evil one. Every noxious herb is of his sowing, and by his ingenious methods of amalgamation he has corrupted the earth with tares. {2SM 288.2}
Then shall physicians continue to resort to drugs, which leave a deadly evil in the system, destroying that life which Christ came to restore? Christ's remedies cleanse the system. But Satan has tempted man to introduce into the system that which weakens the human machinery, clogging and destroying the fine, beautiful arrangements of God. The drugs administered to the sick do not restore, but destroy. Drugs never cure. Instead, they place in the system seeds which bear a very bitter harvest. . . . {2SM 288.3}


I was shown that the innocent, modest-looking, white poppy yields a dangerous drug. Opium is a slow poison, when taken in small quantities. In large doses it produces lethargy and death. Its effects upon the nervous system are ruinous. When patients use this drug until it becomes habit, it is almost impossible to discontinue it, because they feel so prostrated and nervous without it. They are in a worse condition when deprived of it than the rum-drinker without his rum, or the tobacco-user deprived of his tobacco. The opium slave is in a pitiful condition. Unless his nervous system is continually intoxicated with the poisonous drug, he is miserable. It benumbs the sensibilities, stupefies the brain, and unfits the mind for the service of God. True Christians cannot persist in the use of this slow poison, when they know its influence upon them. {4aSG 138.3}
Those who use opium cannot render to God any more acceptable service than can the drunkard, or the tobacco-user. Those who break off the use of this nerve and brain-destroying practice will have to possess fortitude, and suffer, as will the drunkard, and the tobacco slave, when deprived of their body and mind-destroying indulgences. God is displeased that his followers should become slaves to habits which ruin body and mind. Nux vomica, or strychnine, and opium have killed their millions, and have left thousands upon the earth to linger out a wretched, suffering existence, a burden to themselves, and those around them. {4aSG 139.1}
Mercury, calomel, and quinine have brought their amount of wretchedness, which the day of God alone will fully reveal. Preparations of mercury and calomel taken into the system ever retain their poisonous strength as long as there is a particle of it left in the system. These poisonous preparations have destroyed their millions, and left sufferers upon the earth to linger out a miserable existence. All are better off without these dangerous mixtures. Miserable sufferers, with disease in almost every form, mis-shapen by suffering, with dreadful ulcers, and pains in the bones, loss of teeth, loss of memory, and impaired sight, are to be seen almost every where. They are victims of poisonous preparations, which have been, in many cases, administered to cure some slight indisposition, which after a day or two of fasting would have disappeared without medicine. But poisonous mixtures, administered by physicians, have proved their ruin. {4aSG 139.2}

Were I sick, I would just as soon call in a lawyer as a physician from among general practitioners. [MRS WHITE IS HERE REFERRING TO THE "GENERAL PRACTITIONER" OF 1897 IN THE BACKWOODS OF AUSTRALIA, FROM WHERE SHE PENNED THESE WORDS. THE READER MUST KEEP IN MIND THAT UNTIL THE SECOND DECADE OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, PHYSICIAN TRAINING WAS LARGELY UNREGULATED AND WAS OFTEN MEAGER. IN MANY INSTANCES IT WAS ON AN APPRENTICE BASIS, SUPPLEMENTED AT BEST BY A SHORT PERIOD OF TRAINING IN A MORE OR LESS ORTHODOX MEDICAL SCHOOL. THE MEDICAL PROFESSION WAS WITHOUT WELL-ESTABLISHED STANDARDS. THE MAINSTAY IN THE MEDICATIONS OF THE ORDINARY DOCTOR WAS POISONOUS DRUGS, OFTEN PRESCRIBED IN LARGE DOSES.
THE FOLLOWING FACTS SHOW CLEARLY THAT MRS. WHITE'S STATEMENT SHOULD NOT BE USED TO DEPRECIATE THE LABORS OF THE CAREFULLY TRAINED CONSCIENTIOUS PHYSICIAN:
1. HER MANY STATEMENTS RELATIVE TO THE HIGH CALLING AND WEIGHTY RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE PHYSICIAN;
2. HER PRACTICE OF CONSULTING QUALIFIED PHYSICIANS AS ATTESTED BY THE PUBLISHED RECORD AND BY THOSE WHO WERE MEMBERS OF HER FAMILY;
3. HER COUNSEL TO AN ASSOCIATE WORKER WHO WAS ILL, TO "LET THE PHYSICIANS" "DO THOSE THINGS" FOR HER "THAT MUST BE DONE" (SEE PAGE 251 OF THIS VOLUME), AND URGING HER TO EAT, "BECAUSE YOUR EARTHLY PHYSICIAN WOULD HAVE YOU EAT" (PAGE 253);
4. HER MANY COUNSELS ADDRESSED TO PRACTICING PHYSICIANS PRESENTED IN THE MINISTRY OF HEALING, COUNSELS ON HEALTH, AND MEDICAL MINISTRY;
5. THE GUIDANCE FROM HER PEN IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST MEDICAL COLLEGE AT LOMA LINDA, DESIGNED TO PROVIDE "A MEDICAL EDUCATION THAT WILL ENABLE" ITS GRADUATES "TO PASS THE EXAMINATIONS REQUIRED BY LAW OF ALL THOSE WHO PRACTICE AS REGULARLY QUALIFIED PHYSICIANS."--ELLEN G. WHITE MANUSCRIPT 7, 1910 (PUBLISHED IN PACIFIC UNION RECORDER, FEB. 3, 1910). (SEE THE STORY OF OUR HEALTH MESSAGE (1955), P. 386.)] I would not touch their nostrums, to which they give Latin names. I am determined to know, in straight English, the name of everything that I introduce into my system. {2SM 290.1}
Those who make a practice of taking drugs sin against
291
their intelligence and endanger their whole afterlife. There are herbs that are harmless, the use of which will tide over many apparently serious difficulties. But if all would seek to become intelligent in regard to their bodily necessities, sickness would be rare instead of common. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.--Manuscript 86, 1897 (General Manuscript, "Health Reform Principles," written from Cooranbong, Australia). {2SM 290.2}

IN EACH OF HER GENERAL PRESENTATIONS ON HEALTH MRS. WHITE DISCUSSED POISONOUS DRUGS AND THEIR USE IN THE TREATMENT OF THE SICK. THIS PHASE OF THE SUBJECT--PROMINENT IN THE ORIGINAL HEALTH-REFORM VISION--FILLED EIGHT OF THE THIRTY PAGES OF HER INITIAL SPIRITUAL GIFTS PRESENTATION. SHE DEVOTED ONE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN THE "DISEASE AND ITS CAUSES" SERIES TO THE SUBJECT OF DRUGS. {2SM 277.1}
NOR WAS ELLEN WHITE'S VOICE ALONE AT THE TIME. THERE WERE CERTAIN PHYSICIANS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ATLANTIC WHO DEPLORED THE ABSENCE OF ADEQUATE DIAGNOSIS, AND GRAVELY QUESTIONED THE USE OF MANY COMMONLY PRESCRIBED POISONOUS DRUGS. AS A RESULT GRADUAL CHANGES TOOK PLACE IN THE TREATMENT OF THE SICK AS REGARDS THE USE OF DRUGS. THESE CHANGES HAVE BEEN MOST RAPID AND STRIKING IN THE YEARS FOLLOWING THE FIRST DECADE OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, WHEN MODERN MEDICAL EDUCATION, ALONG SCIENTIFIC AND EXPERIMENTAL LINES, DEVELOPED. {2SM 277.2}
IN HER EARLIER WRITINGS, PARTICULARLY, MRS. WHITE MADE SINGULARLY STRONG STATEMENTS CONCERNING THE PHYSICIANS OF THE TIME AND CONCERNING THE USE OF DRUGS. IN ORDER RIGHTLY TO EVALUATE THESE, ONE MUST KNOW SOMETHING OF THE MEDICAL PRACTICES AT THE TIME THE STATEMENTS WERE MADE. THIS KNOWLEDGE CAN BE GAINED BY EXAMINING THE MEDICAL LITERATURE OF THOSE TIMES AND FROM READING THE OPENING CHAPTER OF THE STORY OF OUR HEALTH MESSAGE, BY D. E. ROBINSON. {2SM 277.3}
IN HER BOOKS THAT DEAL SPECIFICALLY WITH THE PROBLEMS AND WORK OF THE CHURCH AND ITS MEMBERS, MRS. WHITE DEVOTES MORE SPACE TO THE SUBJECT OF HEALTH AND THE CARE OF THE SICK THAN TO ANY OTHER SINGLE TOPIC. THESE COUNSELS ARE SPREAD BEFORE THE GENERAL PUBLIC IN THE MORE THAN TWO THOUSAND PAGES OF THE MINISTRY OF HEALING, MEDICAL MINISTRY, COUNSELS ON DIET AND FOODS, COUNSELS ON HEALTH, AND TEMPERANCE, AND IN ARTICLES IN THE TESTIMONIES FOR THE CHURCH. THE READER IS DIRECTED TO THESE SOURCES FOR THE FULL, BALANCED PICTURE OF THE HEALTH-REFORM MESSAGE. {2SM 277.4}
THIS VOLUME CONTAINS FOUR CHAPTERS COMPOSED OF STATEMENTS DRAWN FROM VARIOUS SOURCES--SOME PUBLISHED AND SOME UNPUBLISHED--WRITTEN MOSTLY TO MEDICAL PERSONNEL IN CONNECTION WITH ADVENTIST INSTITUTIONS. THESE STATEMENTS ILLUSTRATE THE WAY MRS. WHITE HERSELF APPLIED THE PRINCIPLES REVEALED TO HER IN VISION. IN HER VARIOUS UTTERANCES ON THE SUBJECT OF THE CARE OF THE SICK, SHE EVER HELD UP THE IDEAL FOR WHICH TO STRIVE. AT THE SAME TIME SHE RECOGNIZED, AS SEEN BY THE TERMINOLOGY USED, THAT THERE WERE TIMES AND CIRCUMSTANCES IN SPECIAL SITUATIONS WHEN IT WAS JUSTIFIABLE AND NECESSARY TO EMPLOY EVEN MEDICATIONS THAT WERE KNOWN TO BE POISONOUS. {2SM 277.5}

When Asked for Counsel, Simple Remedies
Advised


There are many simple herbs which, if our nurses would learn the value of, they could use in the place of drugs, and find very effective. Many times I have been applied to for advice as to what should be done in cases of sickness or accident, and I have mentioned some of these simple remedies, and they have proved helpful. {2SM 295.1}
On one occasion a physician came to me in great distress. He had been called to attend a young woman who was dangerously ill. She had contracted fever while on the campground, and was taken to our school building near Melbourne, Australia. But she became so much worse that it was feared she could not live. The physician, Dr. Merritt Kellogg, came to me and said, "Sister White, have you any light for me on this case? If relief cannot be given our sister, she can live but a few hours." I replied, "Send to a blacksmith's shop, and get some pulverized charcoal; make a poultice of it, and lay it over her stomach and sides." The doctor hastened away to follow out my instructions. Soon he returned, saying, "Relief came in less than half an hour after the application of the poultices. She is now having the first natural sleep she has had for days." {2SM 295.2}
I have ordered the same treatment for others who were suffering great pain, and it has brought relief and been the means of saving life. My mother had told me that snake bites and the sting of reptiles and poisonous insects could often be rendered harmless by the use of charcoal poultices. When working on the land at Avondale, Australia, the workmen would often bruise their hands and limbs, and this in many cases resulted in such severe inflammation that the worker would have to leave his work for some time. One came to me one day in this condition, with his hand tied in a sling. He was much troubled over the circumstance; for his help was needed in clearing the land I said to him, "Go to the place where you have been burning the timber, and get me some charcoal from the eucalyptus tree, pulverize it, and I will dress your hand." This was done, and the next morning he reported that the pain was gone. Soon he was ready to return to his work. {2SM 295.3}
I write these things that you may know that the Lord has not left us without the use of simple remedies which, when used, will not leave the system in the weakened condition in which the use of drugs so often leaves it. We need well-trained nurses who can understand how to use the simple remedies that nature provides for restoration to health, and who can teach those who are ignorant of the laws of health how to use these simple but effective cures. {2SM 296.1}
He who created men and women has an interest in those who suffer. He has directed in the establishment of our sanitariums and in the building up of schools close to our sanitariums, that they may become efficient mediums in training men and women for the work of ministering to suffering humanity. In the treatment of the sick, poisonous drugs need not be used. Alcohol or tobacco in any form must not be recommended, lest some soul be led to imbibe a taste for these evil things.--Letter 90, 1908 (To J. A. Burden and others bearing responsibility at Loma Linda). {2SM 296.2}

Less Dangerous if Wisely Administered.--Do not administer drugs. True, drugs may not be as dangerous wisely administered as they usually are, but in the hands of many they will be hurtful to the Lord's property.--Letter 3, 1884 (To workers at St. Helena Sanitarium). {2SM 283.3}

Drugs Seldom Needed.--Many might recover without one grain of medicine, if they would live out the laws of health. Drugs need seldom be used. It will require earnest, patient, protracted effort to establish the work and to carry it forward upon hygienic principles. But let fervent prayer and faith be combined with your efforts, and you will succeed. By this work you will be teaching the patients, and others also, how to take care of themselves when sick, without resorting to the use of drugs.--Medical Ministry, pages 259, 260. {Te 88.2}

Vegetables, fruits, and grains should compose our diet. Not an ounce of flesh-meat should enter our stomachs. The eating of flesh is unnatural. We are to return to God's original purpose in the creation of man. {TSDF 85.8}