All drugs of abuse — alcohol, opiates, cocaine, methamphetamine — have adverse side effects. They make people nauseous or they give people hangovers, so why do

All drugs of abuse — alcohol, opiates, cocaine, methamphetamine — have adverse side effects. They make people nauseous or they give people hangovers, so why do we find them so rewarding? Why do we remember the good things about them and not the bad? This seems like a weird question, at least in relation to alcohol. The pleasurable experience of alcohol is not only remembered but enthusiastically attested to by people currently under the influence. People have no problem remembering hangovers and talk about them frequently, and the other negative health effects are separated in time from the consumption experience, which weakens the association. I suspect this person has an unusual personal reaction to alcohol, but if it leads him to original discoveries, more power to him.