How Substance Abuse Can Be Harmful At The Societal And Individual Level

Substance abuse is a very widely known public epidemic in today's society. Many people are unfortunately plagued by this issue. According to Emedicinehealth.com (2012), “People abuse substances such as alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs for varied and complicated reasons, but it is clear that our society pays a significant cost,” (para. 1). People that are affected by substance abuse includes a very different range of people. Many that abuse the substances end up having health-related problems which in turn increases the need for health care. Other people that are affected by substance abuse are the family members and friends of the abusers because they have to deal with the person abusing the substances. Things that can be abused are

The negative impact the drugs and alcohol abuse and addiction has on the overall health of the user must be considered. Every process and system in the body is adversely affected by the over-indulgence of drugs and alcohol. Some of the health problems regularly noted include organ damage, kidney and liver disease, organ failure, congestive heart failure, respiratory depression, memory lapses, brain damage, infection, stroke, heart attack, and overdose.

ADD TITLE Illegal drugs has been a problem for many years in North America especially United States. Illegal drugs like cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and others are dangerous towards the society because they comprise harmful chemicals and toxins. These drugs trigger certain behaviour in some which causes them to act in a way that has an effect on their family and community. Some go beyond just impacting their family and community, and fall in the hands of association with criminal activities.

Substance abuse is the harmful or dangerous use of any psychoactive substances including drugs, alcohol and even tobacco. The term ‘Substance Abuse’, as understood today was first used in 1987’s DSM-IIIR, before that social & cultural factors were not considered. Even with that change, many Americans still today consider drug and alcohol abuse to be moral weakness or character defect.

Today in the United States, 73% of drug users are employed, costing American businesses billions of dollars annually in lost productivity and health care costs. Studies reveal that employees who abuse drugs have a tremendously harmful effect on the workplace—they are more likely to have extended absences from work, show up late, be involved in workplace accidents, and file workers’ compensation claims.

Substance abuse, along with the behaviors that go accompany the disease of addiction, are incredibly dangerous and life-threatening. Not only do the substances themselves raise the chances of disease transmission, long-term negative health effects, as well as overdose, the situations in which those fighting substance use disorders find themselves are equally dangerous. It is clear that there an ethical approach to prevention and intervention with this issue would seek to limit, decrease, and hopefully, eliminate these patterns. However, with a variety of different circumstances in each individual’s unique worldview, certain strategies have the potential to cause iatrogenic harm.

Substance abuse is notorious for having severe repercussions for physical and mental health. It is a major issue that leads to an uncontrollable behaviour driven by the desire of consuming addictive substances. (Ersche et al., 2012). At a global level, the implications of addiction for public health can be dramatic because drug use is associated with the transmission of many serious infectious diseases – AIDS, hepatitis, and tuberculosis – as well as with aggressiveness. It is important that people are aware of the implications of substance abuse (Leshner, 1997).

This leads to an increase in criminal activity such as neglect of familial duties, robberies to fund their dependency, and violence to defend their habits. The ‘drugee’ becomes a nuisance to society. Some become homeless and exhibit poor health habits such as malnutrition and tooth decay. Other negative effects include the transference of diseases because of needle sharing. Though drug use is a personal choice, the effects on the rest of society are undeniable. The best intentions are formulated on a personal level, but this is overcastted by its negative effects. This argument, however, is a bit one-sided because the reason for using and dependency varies between users.

Substance abuse and addiction have become a social problem that afflicts millions of individuals and disrupts the lives of their families and friends. Just one example reveals the extent of the problem: in the United States each year, more women and men die of smoking related lung cancer than of colon, breast and prostate cancers combined (Kola & Kruszynski, 2010). In addition to the personal impact of so much illness and early death, there are dire social costs: huge expenses for medical and social services; millions of hours lost in the workplace; elevated rates of crime associated with illicit drugs; and scores of children who are damaged by their parents’ substance abuse behavior (Lee, 2010). This paper will look at

If you have ever seen the movie The Wolf on Wall Street, there is no doubt you have seen the effects drugs can have. Leonardo DiCaprio portrays a high-strung stock broker reliant on a multitude of illegal drugs to keep up with his hectic life style. His addiction gets so severe that at one point in the movie, he is lying on the floor, unable to move due to the drugs’ effects on his body. Even though the movie is set in the 90’s, a decade infamous for its use of drugs, today, drug usage and abuse has never been more of an issue. According to Alice Park (2016), “More people died of drug overdoses in 2014 in the U.S. than in any other year” (p.49). What people fail to realize is that drug abuse effects more than just the individual that uses them. The loved ones trying to support the user, the community the user is in, can all be affected by drug abuse. In fact, all members of society are affected by the abuse of drugs. In short, no one benefits from drug abuse. In the words of the Nation Institute of Drug Abuse, “Drug abuse is a major public health problem that impacts society on multiple levels. Directly or indirectly, every community is affected by drug abuse and addiction, as is every family. Drugs take a tremendous toll on our society at many levels” ( Magnitude, 2016).

Substance abuse is not abnormal in many countries including the United States of America. In fact, about 700 billion dollars are lost every year due to crime related to the substance, lost work productivity, and health care. Billions more are spent preventing drug use and treating addicts. Although substance abuse may threaten many societies, the impact can be cushioned for the future generations of America with the almighty tool of education. Addiction is a topic I recently learned more about in Health class and it will impact my future choices.

The use of drugs is a controversial topic in society today. In general, addicts show a direct link between taking drugs and suffering from their effects. People abuse drugs for a wide variety of reasons. In most cases, the use of drugs will serve a type of purpose or will give some kind of reward. These reasons for use will differ with different kinds of drugs. Various reasons for using the substance can be pain relief, depression, anxiety and weariness, acceptance into a peer group, religion, and much more. Although reasons for using may vary for each individual, it is known by all that consequences of the abuse do exist. It is only further down the line when the effects of using can be seen.

“The human brain is structured to ensure that individuals will repeat behaviors necessary to survival and well-being. To do this, the brain associates such behaviors with a “reward,” or feeling of pleasure”(Addiction). This natural occurrence in the body, this “pleasurable feeling”, has led to a plethora of harmful and dangerous substances being grown, manufactured, and sold, whether it be medicinal- for the use of sickness or injury (usually prescribed)- or illegally, which tend to be more harmful and more “alluring” so to speak, because of its illegality. Either it be legal or illegal, misuse of substances and eventual addiction harms not only the individual, but the community and society.

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

Drug abuse is a major public health issue that impacts society both directly and indirectly; every person, every community is somehow affected by drug abuse and addiction and this economic burden is not exclusive to those who use substance, it inevitably impacts those who don 't. Drugs impact our society in various ways including but not limited to lost earnings, health care expenditures, costs associated with crime, accidents, and deaths. The use of licit or illicit drugs long term, causes millions of deaths and costs billions for medical care and substance abuse rehabilitation and the effects of drug abuse extend beyond users, spilling over into the society at large, imposing increasing