Detrimental Social Problems: Substance Abuse Essays

There is no doubt that there is a prevalence of substance abuse throughout several age groups. To a certain extent, a society is faced with the reality of controlling substance abuse. Or allow it run rampant throughout the community. Often times, we hear and read about the level of substance abuse among teen, young adults and mid-aged

Across the United States and throughout the world there is an epidemic of epic proportion involving drug addiction. Here in North Carolina the majority of the Department of Corrections inmate population is known to have substance abuse problems. (Price, 62) Along with this epidemic is the growing problem of prison overcrowding. There is a correlation between the two. Many of today’s correctional facilities house inmates that have committed drug related crimes or crimes that they committed while under the influence. There is a solution that would help society and lessen the overcrowding of the penal system. The solution is to help those that are committing crimes because of an addiction disorder. There is viable evidence that this solution

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.

For over a century, America has waged a failing war on drugs even as it feeds a cultural apathetic and underground acceptance of drug and alcohol use. The views of the dominate group have placed blame on society’s ills on the evils of rampant drug use throughout the past few hundred years, which have given way to a practice of outlawing , persecution, and imprisonment. Such a view has led to the overflow of our state’s prisons, the race to build even more, and need to

Drug addiction in this country takes a toll on every single aspect of productivity, healthcare costs and on the criminal justice system. The addict themselves suffer from impaired judgment, poor anger management and violent behavior which could all lead to crimes committed and being locked up (Drugabuse.org,2017). Treatment for the users offers an alternative to imprisonment. Drugabuse.org insists that treatment offers the best alternative for interrupting the drug use and criminal behavior patterns of the offenders (2014). Additionally, untreated drug offenders “are more likely to relapse into drug use and criminal behavior, jeopardizing public health and safety and taxing the criminal justice system.”

Substance abuse and incarceration have had a long, and some would say infamous relationship in the United States. According to May, Cooper, Soderstrom and Jarjoura (2009) (as cited by Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2009) "more than one in three arrests in the United States are related to drug and alcohol use" (p. 669). Many have theorized why there is such a high incarceration rate among substance abusers.

In 2015, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that 19.9 million Americans use illegal drugs and more than half of The U.S. prison population is convicted of a drug related crime (Foundation for a Drug-Free World, 2015). The U.S. has the largest prison population in the world and drug related crimes continue to add to the prison population. Due to the high incarceration rate in the U.S., controversy over the effectiveness of our current drug legislation has emerged (Tyjen Tsai and Paola Scommegna, 2015). Current drug laws focus on imprisonment and isolation for the drug offenders. This creates a cycle of drug related criminality because the laws do not treat the motives for drug related crime. These motives include the money and addiction involved with drug offenses such as abuse, crimes to gain money for drugs, and drug selling. While arguments have been made that current drug laws are needed to ensure the stability of society, the solution to ending the cycle of drug related criminality is to focus on rehabilitation that treats motives for drug offenses by educating and treating addiction for felons. (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2015).

Substance Use Disorder’s (SUD) have become an escalating issue in the mental health field over the last few decades. The alarming incline to drug related and co-occurring maladaptive behaviors has created a dedicated science to better understand and define this problematic situation. Definition allows the therapeutic process to evolve around the symptomatic problem in order to deliver the hope of recovery. Social stigmas often view drug abuse and addiction as one in the same, but when viewed by the clinician, they take on an important role in defining treatment. Drug abuse is viewed as a reoccurring use of a substance outside of its intended purpose resulting in negative consequences. The use of drugs in any form, is often voluntary and has a high risk factor of developing dependency that leads to addiction. The American Society of Addiction Medicine has characterized addiction by the inability to consistently abstain, impaired behavior control, craving, diminished cognitive behavior in regards to relationships, and dysfunctional emotional response (ASAM, 2011). At this point, the progressive substance use cannot be changed without a course of treatment. The therapist’s subscription to a particular pharmacological theory, such as the disease model, behavioral/environmental model, or diathesis-stress model can determine the therapeutic approach.

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?

A social problem is when the people in the world cannot adjust to the ongoing social changes they face each day. “When enough people in a society agree that a condition exits that threatens the quality of their lives and their most cherished values, and they also agree that something should be done to remedy that condition, sociologists says that the society has defined that condition as a social problem” (Kornblum; Pg. 5). To sum it all up social problems, occur when the world pronounces a certain issue an issue for everyone. For example, drug abuse is high social problem, and has been a problem for years. Using the empirical approach, researches try and observe the dangers and health issues that drugs can create. Millions suffer from hundreds

According to the text, a social problem is a social condition or a pattern of behavior that people believe warrants public concern and collective action to bring about change. Social problems create disorder and chaos because everyone has different opinions on how things should be handled in society. Social order can be defined as the totality of structured relationships in society. Social problems can reinforce social order in many ways. Social problems may cause an uproar sometimes, but they also brings individuals together and help create a balanced society. For example, substance abuse is considered a social problem because it is a health issue and it affects society on many levels. Society is affected because substance abuse can lead to

Starting in the 1970s, self-report data and biological data have shown a significantly high rate of drug use among those who are incarcerated and those arrested (Duane C McBride, pg. 100). Drugs introduced in the 19th and 20th centuries offered pain relief but many people did not take into account the problems that could come from the overuse of certain drugs. The National

In this paper, the problem I will be addressing is substance use during pregnancy. I am expanding my efforts to spread awareness on this issue with a policy brief (Priluker, 2014) I wrote last year for my SWPSII class surrounding pending legislation bill S.710, seeking to “expand the definition of ‘abused child’ or ‘neglected child’ to include prenatal exposure to controlled substances (S. 710, 2014). This social issue has been ongoing for over 30 years. Policymakers have debated exhaustively on how to deal with the issue of prenatal exposure to controlled substances, while pregnant women have been prosecuted for using drugs during their pregnancy in a number of states since the late 1980’s (Dailard, Nash 2000). These women

Drug addiction is one major problem in today’s society. Really, every country faces such issues today. A ton of measures are taken to battle against medication misuse, and, certainly, a few improvements are obvious. Nonetheless, this issue is not dispensed with and, maybe, will never be. Today, Americans are losing their employments, families, and even their lives over the misuse. There are a considerable measure of legal drugs that Americans are dependent on, yet there are additionally a great deal of Americans who are dependent on street drugs. In any case, drug abuse is drug abuse.

Drugs and alcohol have been evident in each and every generation, throughout the history of the United States. For this reason, substances have overtaken the lives of many consumers. Substance Abuse, commonly known as drug abuse, is the consistent use of a drug in which users, consume substances in amounts, that can be harmful to the individual and his/her surroundings. These substances can be items such as alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, heroin, or even prescription drugs.( Wulffson 1) Substance Abuse is a major problem that impacts society on many levels. Regardless of whether you struggle with substance abuse, the emotional and financial impacts of this disorder stems and shoots out through communities, cities, and states rapidly. In the United States, Substance Abuse alone costs our nation more than $484 billion per year. The cost of Substance Abuse is spiraled from traffic accidents, healthcare costs, job loss, and even crime. (NIDA 1) “According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an estimated 21.8 million Americans age twelve years and older (8.7 percent of the population) used illicit drugs within one month of the survey.” (Wulffson 1) Many substances that have addictive properties, therefore the user becomes dependent upon the substance and eventually, extremely addicted to it. Almost : substance that is abused yields negative effects on the users and their community. Abusing substances can lead to various health problems. For example, tobacco is a