The term drug free is used to refer to personal abstinence and has many of the same issues in terms of contentious dispute (see abstinence).
This term is also used to describe areas or institutions where there are no drugs present – for example a drug free prison or school or a drug free society. There is an ambiguity here about what substances may be counted as drugs but usually the definition would be illegal drug or illegal drugs and alcohol.
Such drug free spaces are very hard if not impossible to establish as is shown by the failure to create drug free prisons. Even in these most controlled of environments preventing the entry of drugs and their use has not been possible.
It is also argued that creating and enforcing drug free environments would be potentially harmful as it would involve the exclusion of people who used drugs, for whatever reason, and creating such a secure environment that freedoms would be lost and human rights may be violated.