My Life Without Drugs, By Russel Brand

Drugs are not only legal in the society, but encouraged. In my opinion, the drugs are used to keep people’s minds occupied and to suppress their ideas or opinions. A reason that the people in the society turn to drugs is a lack of love. They are not shown any love by their family, and they do not feel any love towards their family. This causes a void that they feel the need to fill. Because the people are encouraged to use drugs, they do not question it, and they rely on them for their happiness. Once, when Millie overdosed on drugs, Montag called emergency services. When they came to help Millie, they said, “Hell… we get these cases nine or ten a night,” (Bradbury 15). This shows how heavily drugs are relied on. Although drugs are not legal in today’s society, we are somewhat close to Bradbury’s picture. There have been protests all over to legalize marijuana, and some states, such as Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington, have legalized the drug. Also, our family life also contributes to the increased drug abuse. For example, in the article “Risk Factors for Adolescent Alcohol and Drug Use/Abuse Prevention”, it states, “Family factors appear especially important in the early initiation to drug use and the initiation to illicit drugs…” (Bogenschneider). Because many teens today have parents who are uninvolved in their lives, it is very easy for them to abuse substances. This just proves the point that our society is close to the society that Bradbury created in his novel Fahrenheit

The basic thing nobody asks is why do people take drugs of any sort? Why do we have these accessories to normal living to life? I mean, is there something wrong with society that’s making us so pressurized that we cannot live without guarding ourselves against it? – John Lennon. Drug and Alcohol addiction is a serious physical and psychological problem that can affect many aspects of an individual. Drug addiction is a serious problem that is gradually overcoming the community and organizations must be eager to avoid this continuation. Drug and Alcohol abuse leads to increased accidental deaths, internal conflict and detachment with family members.

When I learnt that I was going to be shadowing at a clinic for service users with drug and alcohol problems I was quite worried and intrigued as to what would take place. Then I realised I had to be holistic and also realistic, and although I am not close to anyone that has a heroin, crack cocaine or even an alcohol addiction I have been surrounded by people that have used certain drugs such as cannabis or cocaine. I also feel that I will not always know that this is the case as not everyone demonstrates through their behaviour that this is an issue for them, also some individuals feel ashamed as drug and alcohol use is frowned upon and individuals will deny using drugs. Some individuals explain that they use drugs as a way of numbing their problems or to gain confidence and self esteem. Beliefs about oneself and about the role of drugs or alcohol in one's life are sometimes called existential models (Greaves, 1980). Khantzian (1985) has proposed that addicts use drugs to offset

Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, industrialized nations have seen the medicalization of a plethora of diseases including the ongoing trend of acknowledging addiction as a ‘brain disease.’ The claimsmaking made primarily by Nora Volkow in the documentary Addiction encompasses the constructionist ideologies of socially constructing a problem, or in the case of deviant drinking and drug use, a disease. The functionality of medicalization in America is seen with many different conditions and diseases. For example, the recent spike in the prescription of medications for ADD and ADHD is a prime model for how a deviant set of traits can be spun into a more socially acceptable and treatable “disease.” Whether or not drug and alcohol addiction

In the speech,”Everything you know about addiction is wrong,” spoken by Johann Hari, attempts to inform the audience about how society takes drug addiction the wrong way and is completely normal for a human to use drugs as a last resort in life. The presentation starts off when he explains to the audience the many different drug addicts he has met in his life a few years ago while traveling a long 30,000 mile journey. He then goes onto stating from his research that everything humanity has been taught about drugs is completely backwards. A experiment was done in the 50’s to show the relationship between drugs and social life. The reason people start drugs is not because they want to, but it is caused by not being able to bear a present in your life. Moreover, there is cruel punishments of drug abuse in America and how Portugal has tried to change it in their country. Luckily people can get over any kind of addiction when they have a friend or blood relative that they can call on if they have a crisis. Finally, people should be more supportive and open in their heart when it comes to others that have a addiction. The author uses logos and pathos to emotionally connect and comfort the people that have thought about drugs in their life and people that dislike drugs and addicts, but using ethos he tries to make a change in the natural drug habitat.

History has shown us an ineffective way to address addiction. Addiction has always been around a long time. However. people just didn’t always talk about addiction. They just ignored the issue and pretended that everything was alright. When the government first tried to deal with this issue they banned alcohol and made other drugs illegal. This action forced people to secretly use the substances. This only made the problem worse. I think that the government kept in the history of this problem in mind when create the current policy. Let’s dive into the history.

All around the world anyone can find people that are addicted to some form of drug. Drug addiction is a huge issue that has been occurring for about thirty years now and is occurring to this day for many reasons. Some of those reasons may be that something is going on back home and they have had enough, or because of stress, peer pressure, biological reasons and the list goes on. However, there has been law enforcement due to drugs since the mid 1980’s. People have many viewpoints to when it comes to drug use and addiction. There are three perspectives people have that view the use of drugs and drug addiction which are structural functionalism, conflict, and symbolic interactionist.

It is just an alternative perspective to drug abuse because the American society’s prohibitionist ideologies pushed people to believe that abstinence was the only way to solving the problems of drug abuse.

The article “The drug that pretends it isn’t” was written by author Anna Quindlen. This article became available to the public in april,9,2000. This article brought to life a lot of issues regarding drugs and changed people’s perspective regarding the use of drugs. Throughout the article Quindlen presents multiple points towards the use of alcohol, and mentions the fact that it is very dangerous and should be consired a drug. Guindlen brings up very valid points regarding the alcohol abuse issue. She mentions that users don’t label alcohol as a drug because, they are blind towards the effect it brings on you and don’t realize that when you drink you are not in control of yourself that’s what a drug is. I am completely in agreement with Anna Quindlen and I agree that there should be more control towards alcohol. I am tired of witnessing so many drunk drivers taking the lives of many innocent adults and children on the road by driving when they are under the influence. Its Ludacris how they allow so much alcohol use at stadiums where there are at least thousands of kids trying to enjoy a game with their parents, oh I know because of the revenue it brings in. like a drug, it can cause you to react in a different manner, and its unpredictable whether you might act aggressive and require to be contained.

After reading the memoir titled The Heroin Diaries, in which the author, Nikki Sixx, presents a first hand account of his battles with heroin addiction over the course of one year, we must incorporate certain concepts in order to better understand his condition. In this essay I will explore concepts such as empathy, self responsibility and personal identity as identified in Identity and Agency: Conceptual Lessons for the Psychiatric Ethics of Patient Care as well as the concepts of detached and affective blame brought forth by Hannah Pickard in Responsibility Without Blame: Philosophical Reflections on Clinical Practice. Through exploration of these concepts I will show how they apply to Nikki Sixx and his seemingly endless battles with addiction.

Although, there are many efforts to reduce the stigma of addiction, false concepts among individuals still persist. Many individuals may describe drug addicts as “people who are morally weak and cannot control their impulses”, or simply just “people who cannot get their life together”. Such misconceptions suggesting that

Addicts use drugs to overcome their feelings. If an addict is feeling sad, happy, or angry, they use. This leads to their addictions. After a while, the addict can’t hold a steady job,

For years people have been abusing drugs and alcohol. “People take drugs because they want to change something about their lives”(www.drugfreeworld.org).

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.

Although some people argue for the legalization of drugs, addiction to these substances has caused a huge increase in violent crimes in the home, at school, and on the street. Many people do not understand why individuals become addicted to drugs or how drugs change the brain to create compulsive drug abuse. They mistakenly view drug abuse and addiction as strictly a social problem and may characterize those who take drugs as morally weak. One very common belief is that drug abusers should be able to just stop taking drugs if they are only willing to change their behavior. This is a false and uneducated belief. Drug abuse may start as a social problem or social escape but one the addiction has taken ahold of a person