What is Narcotic?
A '''narcotic''' is a [[drug]] that causes a loss of feeling, or [[paralysis]]. The name ''narcotic'' was probably first used by the [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] [[physician]] [[Galen]]. Galen listed [[mandrake]] [[root]] or [[poppy juice]] among the main examples for such substances.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AWpxJREw_IAC&dq=hippocrates+narcosis&pg=PA152|title=Stimulants and Narcotics: their mutual relations|author=Francis Edmund Anstie|year=1865|isbn=9780405135682 |accessdate=2007-06-10}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chez.com/asklepios/areteus/|title=De Furore, cap VI|language=Latin}}</ref> Today, the word ''narcotic'' is mainly used for [[illegal drugs]], which do not necessarily have these properties. [[Marijuana]] and [[cocaine]] are considered to be narcotics, even they do not have the medical properties described. ==References== {{reflist}} {{med-stub}} [[Category:Drug control law]]