Because drugs are taken by addicts and sold by pushers, the helping professions have taken to using the word "medications" to denote what you get if you have a prescription filled. Unfortunately, this hasn't been taken up by drug stores, or the Physician's Desk Reference for Prescription Drugs. Also, few can explain how and why a medication can have the same chemical makeup as a drug, and yet be different. Be that as it may, people with a running prescription call them "meds". Groan.