70 Drug Quotes About the Effects of Drug Use (2022)

These drug quotes will remind you how drug use can affect your mind, body, and spirit.

According to the 2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 20.3 million people aged 12 or older dealt with a substance abuse disorder in 2018.

Drug abuse affects your day-to-day life from many different perspectives including your career, your relationships, and your education. 

Are you or someone you love currently dealing with a drug addiction?

Stepping away from a life of drug abuse is no easy feat. To help you along the way, we have compiled these inspirational quotes about drug use to remind you how drugs can affect your mind, body, and spirit.

Use the drug quotes below to motivate you towards a sober lifestyle. For more inspiration, also check out our list of recovery and addiction quotes to help you heal.

Drug Quotes about the effects of drugs

1. “Drugs and alcohol are the cruel engine of many an artists’ creativity.” – Nathan Hartzenberg

2. “Drugs are a bet with the mind.” – Jim Morrison

3. “That’s all drugs and alcohol do, they cut off your emotions in the end.” – Ringo Starr

4. “There’s not a drug on Earth that can make life meaningful.” – Sarah Kane

5. “Drugs take you to hell, disguised as heaven.” — Donald Lyn Frost

6. “Addiction begins with the hope that something ‘out there’ can instantly fill up the emptiness inside.” – Jean Kilbourne

7. “Drugs are a waste of time. They destroy your memory and your self-respect and everything that goes along with your self-esteem.” – Kurt Cobain

8. “The mentality and behavior of drug addicts and alcoholics is wholly irrational until you understand that they are completely powerless over their addiction.” – Russell Brand

9. “All the suffering, stress, and addiction comes from not realizing you already are what you are looking for.“ – Jon Kabat-Zinn

10. “Addiction is like a curse and until it is broken, its victim will perpetually remain in the shackles of bondage.“ – Oche Otorkpa

Drug quotes about smoking cigarettes

11. “Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of times.” – Mark Twain

12. “The believing we do something when we do nothing is the first illusion of tobacco.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

13. “Smoking helps you lose weight, one lung at a time!” – Alfred E. Neuman

14. “Smoking is related to practically every terrible thing that can happen to you.” – Loni Anderson

15. “It’s better to hold a book between your fingers than to hold a cigarette.”― Bista Nirooj

16. “If you ever lit a cigarette in your life, you have very little will to live.” – Neale Donald Walsch

17. “A cigarette is the only consumer product which when used as directed kills its consumer.” – Gro Brundtland

18. “Lungs are meant to be filled with air, not smoke.”― Anthony T. Hincks

19. “Rather than you smoking a cigarette, the cigarette is really smoking you.” – Anthony Liccione

20. “It’s not the cigarette that kills you, it’s the thoughts behind the cigarette that does.”― Raghu Venkatesh

Don’t forget to also read these quotes about drug addiction to inspire recovery.

Drug quotes about drinking alcohol

21. “Drunkenness is nothing but voluntary madness.” – Seneca

22. “Alcohol decimated the working class and so many people.” – Martin Scorsese

If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of Martin Scorsese quotes from the iconic director.

23. “Alcoholism is a disease of the whole person.” – Maurice Gelinas

24. “Alcohol does not solve problems but becomes a problem in itself.” – Amit Abraham

25. “Alcohol is a good preservative for everything but brains.” – Mary Pettibone Poole

26. “Alcoholism is a thief of health, mental sanity, and human dignity.” – Dr. T.P. Chia

27. “Alcohol is a make-you-stupid drug.” – Beverly A. Potter & Sebastian Orfali 

28. “To dispute with a drunkard is to debate with an empty house.” – Publilius Syrus

29. “Drinking is fun! It makes me feel horrible and sexy!”― Warren Ellis

More drug quotes about alcoholism

30. “First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

31. “One more drink and I’ll be under the host.”― Mae West

32. “You know you’re an alcoholic when you misplace things, like a decade.” – Paul Williams

33. “Alcohol is the reduced form of spirit. Therefore, many people, lacking spirit, take to drink. They fill themselves with alcohol.“  – Carl Jung

34. “Alcohol is one of the quickest vehicles with which we escape shyness, our problems, and self-consciousness, for a few hours.” – Mokokoma Mokhonoana

35. “I like liquor, its tastes and effects, and that is just the reason why I’ll never drink it.” – Stonewall Jackson

36. “One reason I don’t drink is that I want to know when I am having a good time.” – Lady Astor

37. “Drinking makes such fools of people, and people are such fools to begin with, that it’s compounding a felony.” – Robert Benchley

Drug quotes about being drug-free

38. “Sobriety was the greatest gift I ever gave myself.” – Rob Lowe

39. “Drugs are not always necessary, but belief in recovery always is.” – Norman Cousins

40. “Sometimes becoming drug-free has less to do with addiction and more to do with sanity.” – Shane Koyczan

41. “Drugs are the enemies of ambition and hope, and when we fight against drugs we are fighting for the future.” – Bob Riley

42. “A strong positive attitude will create more miracles than any wonder drug.” – Patricia Neal

43. “It’s been one of the greatest challenges that ever came along in my life; it was one of the more difficult things to do.” – Buzz Aldrin

44. “Sometimes becoming drug-free has less to do with addiction and more to do with sanity.” —Shane Koyczan

45. “If you can quit for a day, you can quit for a lifetime.“ – Benjamin Alire Sáenz

46. “I don’t need drugs to make my life tragic.” —Eddie Vedder

47. “It takes a strong person to stand up to his or her fate and overcome the obstacles that stand in the way of freedom and success, but I believe in you.“ – Pax Prentiss

48. “I used drugs to feel better. I quit drugs to be better.“ – Unknown

49. “Days will pass, and you’ll abandon things you were addicted to, and leave someone, and cancel a dream, and finally, accept a reality.“ – Nizar Qabbani

50. “Getting sober was one of the three pivotal events in my life, along with becoming an actor and having a child. Of the three, finding my sobriety was the hardest thing.” – Robert Downey, Jr.

Drug quotes to help cut addiction

51. “Recovery is hard. Regret is harder.” – Brittany Burgunder

52. “It is easier to stay out than get out. – Mark Twain

53. “Alcoholism is a disease that creates temporary madness and insanity. Drug addiction is a disease that destroys health and humanity.” – Dr T.P.Chia

54. “You should just say no to drugs. That will drive the prices down.” – Geechy Guy

55. “The drug addict does not care about what is important or worthwhile in life, such as family, career, finance, and social relationships.” – Dr T.P.Chia

56. “Cocaine is God’s way of saying you’re making too much money.” – Robin Williams

57. “I’ve never had a problem with drugs. I’ve had problems with the police.” – Keith Richards

58. “I used to have a drug problem, now I make enough money.” – David Lee Roth

59. “Thou hast the keys of Paradise, oh just, subtle, and mighty opium!” – Thomas De Quincey

60. “Don’t do drugs because if you do drugs you’ll go to prison, and drugs are really expensive in prison.” – John Hardwick

Drug quotes to think about for a substance-free lifestyle

61. “Drug misuse is not a disease, it is a decision, like the decision to step out in front of a moving car. You would call that not a disease but an error of judgment.” ― Philip Dick

62. “We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold.” ― Hunter S. Thompson

63. “In her glamorous quest for the darkest light and the lowest high, she now found herself wallowing on the bottom of a filthy garbage bin.” ― Terri Blackstock

64. “It is impossible to understand addiction without asking what relief the addict finds, or hopes to find, in the drug or the addictive behaviour.” ― Gabor Mate

65. “There was a time when I was able to wake up, go to sleep, and have fun without a pill or a line to help me function. These days it felt like I might have a nervous breakdown if I didn’t have them.” ― Cherie Currie

66. “I didn’t care if he was a genius or a fucking idiot, he was rotting away, and it wasn’t fun to watch.” ― Anthony Kiedis

67. “People can become addicted to fame, money, and attention as deeply as they become addicted to drugs.” ― Dennis Prager

68. “I was making frequent use of cocaine at that time … I had been the first to recommend the use of cocaine, in 1885, and this recommendation had brought serious reproaches down on me.” ― Sigmund Freud

69. “Drugs suck more than anything else I have ever liked so much.” ― Ashly Lorenzana

70. “It was the hardest boyfriend I ever had to break up with [referring to crystal methamphetamines]” ― Fergie

How have drugs affected you throughout your life?

Loneliness can play a large part in fueling substance abuse. If you are suffering from a substance abuse disorder, it is important to remember that you are not alone.

Millions of people have dealt with the effects of drug use in some way, including many of the individuals referenced in the above quotes. 

Although the journey towards becoming drug-free may come with obstacles, it is important to remember that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Keep putting one foot in front of the other and you will eventually get to your destination.

Are there any other insightful drug quotes that you would like to share? Let us know in the comments section below.