[From the pharmacology of drugs to their use: formation of knowledge about psychotropic drugs].

Drug effects are complex events in drug users' lives. What do we know about the effects of major psychotropic drugs, and how have we arrived at this knowledge? An exercise is presented herein that assists the reader in assessing the state of her or his knowledge about the effects of certain psychotropic drugs. The exercise format allows the reader to explore how their and others' knowledge about psychotropic drugs are constructed, by examining cellular, organal, behavioral, and social levels of experience for specific drugs. Examples of effects for five specific drugs, identified from a variety of sources, are presented and described in the context of these different levels of experience.