Course Description
The subject of this course is the biology of drugs. With particular focus on the relevance
to human use of drugs, we consider the following questions: What are drugs and how do
they work? What are the side-effects of drugs? How do drug interactions occur? When is
a drug safe? What will the drugs of the future look like? We will attempt to answer these
questions about a large variety of common drugs with which many people have experience.
The majority of the course will involve consideration of “licit” drugs ranging from
antibiotics and antihistamines to birth control pills and blood pressure medicines. We will
of course also discuss some “illicit” Drugs such as marijuana and cocaine which some
people may also use. The approach to answering these questions will be to first look at how
the body works. Next we will look at how the body responds to various drugs and drug
combinations.