[Use and abuse of drugs: possibilities and limitations of education, information, and regulation].

Medicines have on a given person desired (therapeutic) effects and undesired (secundary) effects. Similarly, there are desired use and undesired use (abuse) of pharmaceutical drugs by individuals and society. Examples are given and their causes evoked. The means available to fight abuse and promote adequate behavior are particularly information, education, and regulation. For the author, the problems with information are the absence of objectives in terms of attitudes and behaviors, the absence of feedback, the difficulty in selecting information and the temptation of giving preference to the "thrilling". Health education answers these criticisms (it should have clear objectives, allows for feedback through interpersonal contact...), but requires more resources, especially for the adequate training of the (numerous) persons who have to provide it. Regulation is certainly useful, although it goes to an extent counter to the desirable responsabilization of the consumer. The various sectors concerned must commit themselves, ethically and practically, to use these means to the full extent of their possibilities. The article also describes a recent wavelike fad with the abusive consumption of a popular analgesic drug among youth in the part of Switzerland where the author works.