She was hospitalized Aug. 28 after going into cardiac arrest during outpatient surgery for her throat. Dan Steinberg/AP Joan Rivers shows off her diva necklace during arrivals for the 44th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles in 2002.
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Medical, Acronyms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia. narcotics. n. 1) techinically, drugs which dull the senses. 2) a popular generic term for drugs which cannot be legally possessed, sold, or transported except for medicinal uses for which a physician or dentist's prescription is required.
When used in a legal context in the U.S., a narcotic drug is simply one that is totally prohibited, or one that is used in violation of governmental regulation, such as codeine or morphine. From a pharmacological standpoint it is not a useful term, as is evinced by the historically varied usage of the word.or example, although federal law classifies both cocaine and amphetamine as Schedule II drugs, the penalty for possession of cocaine is greater than the penalty for possession of amphetamines because cocaine, unlike amphetamines, is classified as a narcotic. Both cocaine and amphetamines are stimulants.