[Characteristic features accompanying the development of addiction to drugs]

It was confirmed that recreational use of opiates causes social and health problems and the more addicted the person is, the more often such problems occur. One hundred and four subjects, the users of the Internet forum on psychoactive substances www. talk.hypperreal.info, who at least once in their life had used opiates to become intoxicated, were included in the study. Of the number of 104, 46 subjects were addicted, 43 were at risk of becoming addicted and the remaining ones had not used opiates within a period of 12 months. The mean age of the subjects was 22 +/- 3.5 years. The majority was males (76.9%). Most of the subjects lived in cities whose population was higher than 100 inhabitants (63.7%). Most frequently they used codeine and tramadol on their own. When they were becoming more and more addicted they were also more tolerant. They felt guilty because of the addiction, took drugs not only orally but they administered them in a different way, too. They tried to get opiates illegally and modified the activity of the drugs with other substances.