Abuse Of Controlled Substances

One in three Americans are prescribed opioids from their doctor. Once someone is prescribed a medication and take it daily, as told to do so by the doctor, it is extremely easy to become dependent on the pills. Dependency on a drug means that the body physically craves it and may experience withdrawals when the prescription is stopped. Addiction characterizes as a mental need for the drug. The behavior changes and abusing the medication will begin.

Millions of people throughout the world are taking drugs on a daily basis. If you were to ask someone why they take prescription drugs, most people would be taking them for the right reason. However, it’s estimated that twenty percent of people in the United States alone have used prescription drugs for non-medical reasons.1 Prescription drug abuse is a serious and growing problem that often goes unnoticed. Abusing these drugs can often lead to addiction and even death. You can develop an addiction to certain drugs that may include: narcotic painkillers, sedatives, tranquilizers, and stimulants.1 Prescription drugs are the most common abused category of drugs, right next to marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and

Currently, America incarcerate a higher percentage of its citizens than any other industrialized nation in the world. The negative impact of addiction to alcohol and drugs on American culture and society is inescapable. Although various treatment models have been developed and implemented over the years, a monumental number of people struggling with substance dependence continue to be under treated. Whereas, many people are questioning the criminalization people face because they ingest or consume drugs, for the most part, the criminal justice system focus more on incarceration instead of rehabilitation for the offenders and addicts.

Prescription drug abuse is not a new problem within our society. Prescription drug abuse has in fact been an ongoing problem that is currently spinning out of control. There are many people within our society that are currently dealing with prescription drug addiction. Prescription drug abuse is the intentional use of a medication without a prescription; in a way other than as prescribed; or for the experience or feeling it causes (The Science of Drug Abuse & Addiction, 2014). Prescription drugs are developed to assist with various medical problems, and when prescribed by a medical professional are helpful for patients. The using prescriptions for those other than intended for may cause a number of serious issues

There needs to be a change in the criminal justice system. Convicted felons who are charged with any drug felony should not be put into jail or prison because it doesn’t help solve the problem. Rudy Haapanen states, “It is now generally agreed that the criminal justice system fails to rehabilitate offenders, to make them less likely to commit criminal acts as a result of treatment or training; that the system fails to deter potential offenders, to make then less likely to commit criminal acts out of fear of penal sanctions”. In this paper I will discuss drug use in the population, drug dealers, drugs and regulations. I will discuss drug use in the population so that you will see

Drug addiction is most often defined as a chronic progressive relapsing cycle in which an individual experiences excessive compulsions in using a mood altering substance despite the consequences associated with the drug. Drug addiction is also considered a disease that affects the brain; which results in a chemical imbalance caused by the abuse of illegal substances. The effects of drug usage can cause long term brain damage and can lead to many other self destructive behaviors such as violence and drug arrest. Many offenses are committed under the influence of an illegal substance such as DWI’s, fatalities, theft, domestic violence, homicidal and suicidal murders. These destructive behaviors can result in criminal convictions within the criminal judicial system. Drug related charges in the United States have quadrupled in number within the last ten years. The question that arises among the majority of the population: Is incarceration the ultimate solution in addressing the needs of an individual who may be suffering from the effects of a drug addiction?

Statistics show that 25.3 million people at the age of 12 or older had a drug abuse problem in 2009. Marijuana is found to be the most common used illicit drug. The government wanted to let people that where in jail for drug abuse be able to be on parole so that they could get drug treatment to help with their addiction. According to Jeffrey Singer “Research conducted on attitudes toward current drug policy showed that people firmly rejected the policy of ‘do drugs, do time.’ They believed treatment was much more appropriate than imprisonment for drug users. This belief was so strong that they were willing to parole offenders already in prison. Furthermore, they believed that when it came to prescribing drugs- even marijuana, heroin,

It is widely recognize that drug addiction is a disease, one that we have to try to illuminate through prevention, interventions, and comprehensive treatment. The criminalization of drugs is not just their to punish people who use drugs. The criminalization is there to serve as a deterrent and a reason for those who use illegal drugs to see the use as a problem. Without the punishments threatened and fines collected, users would just continue using like there is no issue with their behavior. The argument is made that with decriminalization more people would get help for their addictions, but in reality police and justice system intervention accounts for one third of all referrals to rehabilitation/treatment

Those incarcerated today are not given the chance to change their behavior patterns, especially when it is in regard to drug addiction. The criminal justice system in general does not consider drug abuse as anything but a crime and does not think about treating the disease of addiction in order to reduce or eliminate the crimes that come as a

The debilitating disease “addiction” naturally creates criminals, somebody willing to go to any extent to obtain there drug of choice. Sadly, The solution has always been to incarcerate the individuals involved, without taking into consideration the extenuating circumstances surrounding the offenders criminal behavior. This does nothing but fuel the addiction that ultimately led to the crime being committed in the first place, leaving the newly minted pariah with no where to go but back to all he 's ever known, an anti-social life style. Making another statistic to add to the already high recidivism rate in prisons. Treatment is a good place to start working towards a resolution, and is finally being implemented into the penal system as an alternative sentencing option. Saving and changing many lives while giving the offender an opportunity to turn his/her life around. While some members of our community might understandably disagree with what may be perceived as lenient sentences. The success rate and results can speak for themselves. The treatment alternative is proving to be as beneficial to the community as it is to the offender.

Tanzy, addiction is a progressive disease of the brain. The misuse of controlled substances and prescription pain killers if taken in excess eventually will take its toll on a person’s health. Controlled substances have health risk because drug use and misuse continue to create health challenges. Mental disorder and violence is associated with people who are not healthy in their thought process. They are known to have a chemical imbalance in their brain as paranoia and schizophrenia which is a severe mental disorder where people interpret reality abnormally and they maybe delusional which hinder their ability to function and they struggle to make the right decisions. However most individuals with mental disorders are not violent, substance

Originally, the thoughts on sending drug addicts to prison was rather negative, due to the possibilities to increase treatment options. Looking at the evidence now for various methods of treatment execution, it is more of a mixed feeling, gray area, as opposed to black and white. From hearing the class debate information, there is an increased belief in the prison system to handle addicts, though there should be less of a reason in the first place for addicts to need treatment via this method regardless. The process of prisons working to help those addicted to substances is a service that is useful but also seems to lack the long-term ability to treat, due to the lack of continuation after the sentence. The money being poured into this treatment

The use of drugs by members of society is a problem for some individuals and a larger problem for the legal system. The use of drugs has created crime among the dealers of illegal substances in many forms, the classification of that substance determines the level of the crime, and with different charges the legal system acts accordingly. In the case of drugs and the legal systems, action against the use or distribution of those substances, many people have been incarcerated in the United States where the tax payers have to support the criminals that are housed for a period of time. In the United States over half a million individuals have been incarcerated for drug crimes and that number is growing annually. Society cannot continuously

Compassion, counselling, empowerment, and empathy, and not incarceration, this must be the slogan for drug addicts. Imprisonment is not going to address the menacing issue of substance abuse and addiction. As a matter of fact, imprisonment is only going to increase the vulnerabilities of the addicts and is going to disrupt their psychological build up through the undue process of stigmatization. But adhering to the orthodox criminal justice system and adhering to the rigid regulations (that have been actually brought upon the criminal justice system by the means of the “War on Drugs”), law enforcement has to put the addicts behind the bars. Even though such system is hard to change, some

Drug abuse and crime is not a new concept and the statistics around the problem have continued to rise. According to (Office of Justice Programs, 2011), there were an estimated 1,846,400 state and local arrests for drug abuse in the United States. Additionally, 17 percent of state prisoners and 18 percent of federal inmates said they committed their current offense to obtain money for drugs (Office of Justice Programs, 2011). Based on this information, we can conclude that our criminal justice systems are saturated with drug abusers. The United States has the highest imprisonment rate and about 83 percent of arrests are for possession of illegal drugs (Prisons & Drug Offenders, 2011). Based on these figures, I can conclude that we should be more concerned about solving the drug abusers problems and showing them an alternative lifestyle rather than strict penalty of long term incarceration which will inevitably challenge their ability to be fully functioning citizens after release.