Claire Sterk Fast Lives Essay

Instead of a gateway drug, it should be considered as a gateway away from drugs. Secondly, marijuana is note a gateway drug because the use of marijuana will decrease if decriminalized. A 2004 study involved Amsterdam and San Francisco, where marijuana was decriminalized in Amsterdam and criminalized in San Francisco at the time. This study lead to the authors realizing the criminalization for marijuana did not reduce use, while decriminalization did not increase use. Lastly, marijuana should not be considered a gateway drug because marijuana is not involved in the several factors that act as a gateway to drugs. These factors included poverty and poor social environment, association with people who use hard drugs, certain mental illnesses like bipolar disorder, and that criminalization nad prohibition are the “real gateways to harder drugs” (newsweek.com)

The use and misuse of illicit drugs in today’s society can be blamed on both individual, and societal factors. With the use of societal factors researchers can show the effect for a larger population, and provide better information of the population. Blaming the individual for developing the addiction will not fix issues that lie in society that worked against the individual, the underlying issues of poverty and addiction, many scholarly articles mention bad neighborhoods, low income, and loose family ties with future drug use. I will be using evidence from articles involving both teen and adult drug use and addiction, as the effect on society is noticed in both age brackets. “Substance use is considered a problem by individual addicts who seek treatment, by institutions within society (such as the police or the medical system) that deal with substance use and its consequences on a day-to-day basis, and by national organizations such as governments or supranational organizations, such as the International Narcotics Control Board (a United Nations agency located in Vienna). (Adrian) I will be using scholarly articles to explain the sociological reasoning behind drug use, with theories involving low-income neighborhoods, leading to lessening of family involvement which can lead to drug use. “Drug abuse affects a community 's living conditions and economy, its youth, and the environment for crime.” (Watts)

Imagine a straight A student, getting a full academic ride to a state college. Now imagine he decided to take his first sip of alcohol at his first high school party. He starts focusing on parties rather than his studies; he starts going to more and more parties. Eventually he smokes his first joint, no big deal right? Wrong, marijuana is called the gateway drug, meaning it is the drug that gets you to try worse drugs. He starts trying other things with his friends. He is presented with his first pipe, with crystal meth in it. He didn’t like it at first, but he discovers that he likes the high. he likes how he feels a rush when using it. He starts to use it once every week, then it becomes

Women who use drugs tend to be caught up in a cycle of prison and reoffending. The article written by Margaret Pereira is her personal account of the damaging effect that incarceration can have on a woman and her family.

Finding how the women were introduced to the drug played a part in how the relationships would go. It also developed issues for the women who didn’t want to be controlled by people in the own pursuit of the drug. Many of the women did not want another person to be in control of their habits that they were able to provide there own financial means for the drugs. The factor about if a male or female friend introduced them to cocaine for their first time played a major part in their continuation of the drug and also how frequently they would do their next testing of the drug. The study showed that a male introduced nine of the women to cocaine. When a male introduced the women, they didn’t want the male to believe that he had control over her by using cocaine. It became an issue for the females because they believed that the men that had introduced them to cocaine for their first time would use it as a way to control them for sex. Even though many of the relationships that formed from men introducing women did involve some sense of sexual partners, the females did not want the men to be able to control their appetite for sex nor their appetite for drugs, or have the ability to use on or the other for them to achieve their own personal gain. The general way that women became introduced to cocaine was through a female friend. Having a female friend that introduced them to cocaine allows them not to have to worry about being used for sex, as in the situation when a male introduced them to cocaine. With females introducing them to cocaine, they were able to come up with excuses to be able and go out with friends in order to use cocaine. The issues with females introducing other females to cocaine, it was harder for the women in the study to be in control of their own choices of when they wanted to use. This played similar problems as when the men introduced. For the middle-class

There are two parts to the gateway theory: 1) those that use illicit substances like cocaine or heroin will use marijuana first and 2) the use of marijuana exerts a casual influence on one’s likelihood of using other illicit substances. According to the "Can Social Psychological Delinquency Theory Explain The Link Between Marijuana and Other Illicit Drug Use?” article, the study set out to disprove the second qualification of the gateway theory. However, it failed to do so because the results suggested “those who use marijuana are between three and five times more likely than counterparts to use other illicit drugs even after adjusting statistically for the influence for strain, social bonding and differential association.” It noted that the “results were observed across multiple time points and across multiple methods, one of which adjusts statistically for the influence of unmeasured variables.” It conceded the point that the use of marijuana may contribute in a casual manner to one’s probability of using other illicit drugs. It has been widely regarded that “postponing youths’ marijuana initiation, prevention efforts will reduce the likelihood of hard drug use and abuse” (Yamaguchi & Kandel 1984b; Kandel et al. 1992; Golub & Johnson 2001). Postponing one’s marijuana initiation to a certain extent only brings them closer to the drug underworld. In a

First people consider cannabis as a gateway drug. An opinion that says the cannabis isn 't harmful, but it will lead to the use of harder drugs like cocaine and heroin. People who use cannabis have a strong connection with the use of other drugs. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a person who smokes cannabis is more than one-hundred four times more likely to use cocaine than an individual who never tries

Marijuana is the most popular and widey used illegal drug internationally. According to Room et al, 4 percent of the adult around the world population used marijuana(Room et al, 2011, pg.1). This number represents much more than other illicit drugs used combined, including cocaine and other extreme serious drugs. However, our global attention on drug problems focus on the serious drugs which is known to be very harmful, and destructive when the number of marijuana users are consistently rising every year(Schelling, 2011).

By the time Daiga was 12, she started smoking marijuana. She and her best friend found a large mason jar full of weed in her best friend’s older sister’s room. They wanted to try it, so they continued snooping and discovered a pipe and promptly went into her back yard and smoked. “We were both just waiting to feel something, but I don’t think I got high at all that first time. But after that, we would always try and smoke if we had the chance,” Daiga said. Most of the people interviewed who enjoy marijuana have started smoking at a younger age. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, this leads society to call it a ‘gateway drug’ because the use of marijuana is more likely to be used before

Since marijuana is so expensive, drug users often don’t have the means to pay for it. A large number of drug buyers come from low-income families, which only enforces that inability to afford the drugs they use. Also, an article on WebMD points out that although marijuana is not considered a physically addictive drug, it is psychologically addictive and often causes the same symptoms (“Marijuana Use”). Users’ rational thought is sometimes impaired by the intense need to fulfill their drug addictions. This leads to increased levels of violent crimes such as robbery, assault, even murder.

A lot of people see cannabis as a gateway drug. As I work with drug affected people on a daily basis many people say that the first drug they ever used was cannabis, which by its self is harmless and non-addictive. However after a while of using cannabis by itself, people look for ways to get more of a high and start to use laced cannabis. Laced cannabis is marijuana with another drug mixed in which is commonly ice or cocaine. After the experience with laced cannabis users may become addicted to the other drug which is incorporated with it. This is the point where user can experiment with more serious drugs such as ice, cocaine, ecstasy and LSD. This is where people get the assumption that cannabis is addictive and dangerous.

The question being addressed is “What can be done to prevent adolescent marijuana users from shifting to harder drug use?” This paper specifically is referring to adolescents within a secondary education level, between the ages of 12 to 19.

Many believe that Marijuana is addictive, and for that reason, should not be legalized. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, “Marijuana use can lead to the development of problem use, known as marijuana use disorder, which in severe cases takes the form of addiction.” According to recent data, it is suggested that around 30 percent of marijuana users may suffer from some degree of marijuana use disorder and people who started using marijuana when they were younger than 18 are 4-7 times more likely to develop this disorder (“Addictive”). Similar to addiction, this disorder is associated with dependence to marijuana, which means that the user may feel withdrawal symptoms when not taking the drug. These symptoms can include irritability, decreased appetite, and sleep difficulties. These generally last about a week or two after giving up the drug (“Addictive”). This happens when the brain’s production of endocannabinoid neurotransmitters slows or stops because it has adapted to large amounts of marijuana (“Addictive”). Marijuana disorder becomes an addiction when the user is unable to stop using even if the effects of marijuana interfere with many aspects of their life (“Addictive”). In 2014, it was estimated that about 4.176 million people in the US, roughly 1% of the total population, abused or were dependent on marijuana, but it is hard to estimate the number of people addicted to marijuana because epidemiological studies of substance abuse use

Marijuana addiction is one of huge problem in most of the people. It affects the health of everyone and collapses the society: Marijuana refers to the dried leaves, flowers, stem, and seed from hemp plant the Cannabis Silva. The plant contains the mind-altering chemical and related compounds. Its use is widespread among young people. However, the number of young people believes marijuana is risky is decreasing

Imagine feeling trapped in an hourglass – wanting to break free of a burdened life of addiction – screaming from the inside out with no one to hear the desperate cries begging to be rescued before the sands of time run out. The song lyrics from “The River” by the Tea Party define an addict who is in danger for her life, because of her entrapped lifestyle. In addition, she struggles to survive, but the more she uses, the more drugs are desired causing her addiction. There are many reasons a person may use drugs. To illustrate, one might take drugs to feel worthy, to mask pain/problems, to improve, from peer pressure, or to feel better.