soft drug
1
4.8
- noun
- /sɔft drʌg/
- NSFW
:
droga blanda
- Soft drug users are forced into the arms of hard drug pushers precisely because both cannabis and hard drugs are available only through the same illegal channels.
Examples
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Many people believe that marijuana is a soft drug that is less harmful than hard drugs.
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This drug policy originated in the 1970s in an attempt to separate hard drugs from soft drugs so as to break the association of illegal drugs like cannabis and heroin, which is suggestive of similarity and therefore of similar consequence and effect.
Blog text (28) -
Language is more dangerous than any hard or soft drug, whether chemical, biological, or electromagnetic.
Fiction book (1998) -
The law here regarding soft drugs is at least 50 years old, and the police still act as if there is a national threat imposed by marijuana.
Blog text (12) -
These findings add to a growing body of evidence that young people's supplies of cannabis (and other so-called soft drugs such as ecstasy) are rarely purchased via formal illicit markets and that this is congruent with their access to other drugs such as alcohol and tobacco, where social supply is also an integral part of establishing a supply.
Academic text (2007) -
In the Netherlands, cannabis is considered a soft drug and is legal for personal use.
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Activists argue that regulating soft drugs can reduce the harm caused by more dangerous substances.
Antonyms
- NSFW
7
4.6
A strong illegal substance that people quickly become addicted to, like heroin or cocaine
How Addictive
- NSFW
7
4.6
- NSFW
1
4.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is a straightforward compositional combination: 'soft' (mild, not harsh) modifies 'drug' to indicate a less harmful or less addictive substance. This adjective+noun pattern is common and cross-linguistically familiar, so a B1 learner who knows both words can readily infer the intended sense.
Etymology
Soft drug is a term that comes from a simple picture: people think of soft things as gentle and not hard, so a soft drug is imagined to be gentler than a 'hard' drug. That's why the phrase means a substance seen as 'milder' and less likely to cause addiction.