What's the difference between drug and medication?
Do you agree with Dose of medications=Dose of drugs?
Learn English – What’s the difference between drug and medication
word-differenceword-meaning
word-differenceword-meaning
What's the difference between drug and medication?
Do you agree with Dose of medications=Dose of drugs?
Best Answer
The word "drug" can have connotations of illicitness, whereas medication is always used in licit contexts. But a drug can refer to licit medicines as well. New drugs come on the market.
A drug is typically ingested (or injected) whereas medications can also be topical. Not that we don't say "topical drug" too, but "topical medication" is used more often and has been in use since the 1840s, whereas "topical drug" is a fairly recent usage, arising in the 1950s per Google ngram.
So, they're more or less interchangeable, except in illicit contexts, where drug is used. The criminal is said to be a "drug dealer", or a "drug runner", and the addict is said to be "hooked on drugs" or "on drugs". The patient is said to be "on medication".