According to many, alcohol and nicotine, while freely available for sale, are also hard drugs.
The difference between soft drugs and hard drugs is important in the drug policy of the Netherlands, where soft drugs are dealt with much lighter, up to being for sale as such in clearly recognisable coffeeshops, than hard drugs.
Some consider a few of the hallucinogens to be hard drugs, but this is false by definition, as most hallucinogens are non-addictive. The possible exceptions are PCP, DXM and the amphetamine based empathogens such as MDMA.
This line is further obscured by the drug policy of the Netherlands by classifying synthetic hallucinogens (such as LSD) as hard drugs, even if they have very similar action to naturally occurring drugs such as mescaline, which is considered a soft drug in its natural form of peyote.
The term harddrug generally refers to drugs illegal for nonmedical use that lead to profound and severe addiction, as opposed to soft drugs that are either only mildly psychologically addictive or non-addictive.
The term soft drug is most usually applied to cannabis (marijuana or hashish) because it is not associated with deaths, crime or violence amongst users and is without evidence of physical addiction.
The drug policy of the Netherlands classifies synthetic hallucinogens such as LSD (acid) and MDMA (ecstasy) as harddrugs, although they have very similar action to naturally occurring drugs such as mescaline, which is considered a soft drug in its natural form of peyote, or psilocybin in its natural form as psilocybe (magic mushrooms).
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