Drug Abuse : Personal Trouble And Public Issues

The United States has the world's highest incarceration rate. With five percent of the world's population, our country houses nearly twenty-five percent of the world's reported prisoners. Currently there are approximately two million people in American prisons or jails. Since 1984 the prison population for drug offenders has risen from ten percent to now over thirty percent of the total prison population. Federal prisons were estimated to hold 179,204 sentenced inmates in 2007; 95,446 for drug offenses. State prisons held a total of 1,296,700 inmates in 2005; 253,300 for drug offenses. Sixty percent of the drug offenders in prisons are nonviolent and were purely in prison because of drug offenses (Drug War Facts). The question then arises,

Countries all over the world are dealing with a rise of drug use and drug-related public health concerns. Many nations adopt vaguely similar methods of battling the “War on Drugs”, from strict border control to harsh criminal punishments for drug-related offenders, violent or not. Even with these efforts put in place, many places are not seeing the desired results. Drug use is mainly treated like a crime, and that may be the problem. Countries that have concerns with rising drug use among their citizens should follow Portugal in decriminalizing the possession and use of small quantities of all illicit drugs.

Annotated Bibliography Thesis: In the American society today, many families today and individuals are affected by the constant abuse of drugs and alcohol. Both alcohol and drug abuse victimize children and teens of all ages, ruin lives and damage families. Crimando, William, and T. F. Riggar.

Mark Rodriguez English 3 Honors Christina Nidowicz 29 October 2017 Annotated Bibliography Dr. Tedros. “Substance Abuse.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, 2017, www.who.int/topics/substance_abuse/en/. Dr. Tedros, director of the World Health organization, refers to the harmful and hazardous use of psychoactive substances. He explains how the use of these drugs can lead to a change in behavior, a strong desire to take the drug, difficulty in controlling its use, and a severe change in behavior. He then explains the many policies his organization has to prevent the use of non medication cannabis.

One of the fastest growing epidemics in the United States is prescription drug abuse as reported by the DEA (Partnership for Drug Free Kids, 2013). All ages are guilty of abuse of medications, however, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) (2016) reports young adults abuse these prescription drugs at the highest rates compared to all other age groups. The NIDA reports misuse and abuse is highest among opioid pain relievers, ADHD stimulants, and anti-anxiety drugs (NIDA, 2016). The use of these prescription drugs to treat a variety of physical and mental health issues is quickly becoming a top conservative treatment option. While pharmaceutical companies make extreme amounts of profit off of these physical and mental issues, young adults are increasingly taking on the consequences of addiction and overdose.

In 1971, Richard Nixon launched the war on drugs stating, “America’s public enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse. In order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary to wage a new, all out offensive” (Sharp, 1994). Since this war was declared 45 years ago the prison population has risen dramatically and has cost tax payers a substantial amount of money, with no end in sight. Nearly sixty five percent of the 2.3 million U.S. prisoners meet the criteria for substance abuse or addiction, yet only eleven percent receives treatment during their incarceration and a large majority of these offenders return to prison within years of being released. Our society needs to become more proactive when fighting this war versus what we have done in the past by being solely reactive. We need to give these nonviolent drug offenders a chance to succeed by offering rehabilitation services instead of sending them to prison (Howard, 2015).

In the United States of America, we, the people value several things, some of which

America has been at war for a lot years dealing with drugs in the United States. Law enforcement has been fighting to decrease this drug abuse for almost centuries. Presidents have personally have been trying to find different methods on how to stop this drug war. Unfortunately law enforcement has not been able to win this battle. You could see how they are losing because there been so many cases that involve drug abusers that had to go to get treatment or some even go to prison. This is causing so many problems especially with the drug trade business which sometimes involves violent crimes in different neighborhoods which is only benefiting the organized crime members and the drug dealers. The United States has put so much effort on stopping this Drug epidemic by spending billions of dollars to stop this war. In order to see how has law enforcement and the United States been trying to stop this war we have to go back to the history when drugs were introduced to the United States. According to Elaine Casey

President Donald Trump declared the opioid epidemic a public health emergency Thursday, ordering his administration to act in addressing addiction and opioid misuse though not providing government agencies with additional financial resources for the matter.

I believe that one of the important social problems facing the United States is drug abuse. Not only is drug abuse killing people it is affecting poverty, sex trafficking, education, and in places over population. Most of our drugs come from southern countries but the Biggest is in Mexico in my opinion. There are very many drug cartels that get in through Texas, California, and Florida. We see so many tv shows that have to do with catching the bad guys that let these drugs into our country.

“In 2014, nearly two million Americans either abused or were dependent on prescription opioid pain relievers (“Injury Prevention and Control: Opioid Overdose,” 2016.)” The CDC is now saying that the United States is in an epidemic. The purpose of this paper is to explore the increasing drug use in the United States over the last decade. The primary focus is on the administration of opioid analgesics and the addicting mechanisms of these medications, and what they are used for. It will talk about the deaths related to these medications and the health effects, and the other types of drugs these medications can lead to, such as heroin. This paper will also talk about the costs related to opioid analgesics in the hospitals and in the community, and what we as health care providers can be doing to help stop this epidemic.

Drug abuse is happening in many countries. Millions of dollars are exhausted universally to prevent drug use, to treat addicts, and to fight drug-related misdemeanors. While drugs menace many civilizations, their result can also be combated triumphantly. This essay topic glances at some of the consequences of drug use on the world, and proposes some resolution to the complication. Drug addiction and drug abuse sinfully changes your state of body and mind with chemical substances. (What is the scope of Marijuana use in the United States?)

Upon the reality of ever-present street violence rests the pieces, struck together with the unhinged furor of human suffering, of a truth that has come to pass unnoticed. It is while staring straight into the visceral scorn of substance abuse that humans learn it: that addiction is not merely some crime or failure of character and morals, but rather a neurotic compulsion motivated from feelings of alienation. The notion that drugs should be deemed, as Richard Nixon and Felipe Calderon insisted, “public enemy number one” is misguided at best, and profoundly immoral at its extremes. It cannot be sustained that the physical object that a drug, or drugs in general, are themselves criminal offences,

A drug is a chemical substance applied into treating, diagnosing and preventing one from disease infections or a substance that is used by a person to enhance his or her physical and mental state in the perceived effect. Drugs used for different purposes and their effect depend on which cause for usage. It causes both positive and negative consequences directly to the user and in the long-run it affects the whole society or community. Drug addiction is the activity of uncontrollable dependence on a substance by the user no matter the harm caused by its usage. It is a habit that has been in many years hard to curb especially among the youths. “We must recognize that substance abuse and addiction is a disease, not a moral failing or easily abandoned self-indulgence,” (Califano, 2008).The cases of drug abuse have been on the rise over the recent years and resulted in crimes. The cases have a great effect affected the society in general since the reliable energetic youths have turned to drug abuse. However, some measures have been initiated to mitigate, curb and treat drug addiction in the society as outlined in the essay.

Substance abuse is one of the most detrimental social problems found in all societies. It has been the leading cause for generational breakdowns of families and communities, and is probably the most controversial social problem when developing corrective solutions. Substance abuse can be defined as the chemical dependence, or pattern of usage of both legal and illegal substances, that has adverse physical, psychological, and psychomotor effects on the human body. The use of substances does not always have to be a drug, but can also be anything taken into the body that can cause a mood-altering effect, such as inhalants or solvents. Additionally, substance abuse has many different faces and is the one social problem that crosses all