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
Drug Quotes That Will Get You Thinking
71. “Drugs or overeating or alcohol or sex, it was all just another way to find peace. To escape what we know. Our education. Our bite of the apple.” — Chuck Palahniuk
72. “The drug culture has shaped at least one major change since the Sixties; It became the basis for overloading our prisons.” — Jimmy Carter
73. “Penalties against drug use should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself.” — Jimmy Carter
74. “All any drug amounts to is tweaking the incoming data. You have to be incredibly self-centered or pathetic to be satisfied with simply tweaking the incoming data.” — William Gibson
75. “Drugs take away the dream from every child’s heart and replace it with a nightmare, and it’s time we in America stand up and replace those dreams.” — Nancy Reagan
76. “Don’t waste good drugs on killing yourself. Share them with friends and have a party. Or send them to me.” — Chuck Palahniuk
77. “You can turn back on a person, but you can never turn your back on a drug, especially when it’s waving a razor sharp hunting knife in your eye.” — Hunter S. Thompson
78. “Drugs are reality’s legal loopholes.” — Jeremy P. Johnson
79. “Drugs have taught an entire generation of American kids the metric system.” — P. J. O’Rourke
80. “You find out so many interesting things when you’re not on drugs.” — Boy George
Short Drug Quotes To Elevate Your Mind
81. “Drugs is suicide, paid in installments.” — Titus Lenk
82. “Any kind of drug is a self-deception, which eventually turns into remorse.” — Franz Schmidberger
83. “It is not the use of drugs that is the problem, but the abuse.” — Patrick Betsch
84. “Whether you sniff it smoke it eat it or shove it up your ass the result is the same: addiction.” — William S. Burroughs
85. “If you abuse a drug, it takes you captive.” — Adreas Tenzer
86. “Under drugs you do not find yourself, but only your shadow.” — Konstantin Wecker
87. “It’s not the drugs that make a drug addict, it’s the need to escape reality.” — Sense8
88. “The best drug is a clear head.” — Harald Juhnke
89. “Drugs are a bet with your mind.” — Jim Morrison
90. “A drug is not bad. A drug is a chemical compound. The problem comes in when people who take drugs treat them like a license to behave like an asshole.” — Frank Zappa
Drug Quotes On Different Effects Of Drugs
91. “Everyone thinks I do heroin. It’s not even true, I do crystal meth.” ― Josh Henderson
92. “Addicts are addicted to their drugs, and their families are addicted to hope.” ― Fredrik Backman
93. “Always say no to drugs. It will drive the prices down.” ― Jim Davidson
94. “I’m sure most people have this experience: when you’re young you drink, you do drugs, you stay up late, and there are no consequences.” ― Moby
95. “Seems like everybody wants to know if an athlete is on drugs, so you got to stay clear of wild people.” ― Moses Malone
96. “I am glad that people are trying to have a rational conversation about drugs.” ― Carl Hart
97. “Drugs and drinking affect every family I know, country and city, middle-class and poor.” ― Bonnie Jo Campbell
98. “I’ve quit drugs and drinking and been into healthy stuff like yoga.” ― Princess Superstar
99. “It touches on drug use. I got caught up in that for almost two years.” ― Elliott Smith
100. “I don’t think any drug that can cause brain damage, failing kidneys, hardening arteries, pain, and suffering should be made available.” ― Layne Staley
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.