Why do people need drugs?

Of course the drug war is failing - the consumer society we live in which constantly pressures people to always have more is to mostly to blame. Also partly to blame (speaking of alcohol here) is the expectation that everyone has to be funny and charming as if they had no problems in the world - I mean nobody wants to go to a bar and hear their mates whinging about how sh*t life is, right? The only way for many people to slip out of the rat race is through the escapism of drugs, and the only way that drug use is going to decrease is if there is radical change in the way our society functions... I think the horizon is looking bleak in regards to increasing drug use.