Persuasive Essay On Drug Abuse

The victims have a master inside of them who controls every inch of their mind, body, and soul. It only takes a few slip ups to fall deep into the hole of despair. He deceives them but also brings them happiness. The victims have a mental battle with themselves but he is ruthless and shows no mercy. As they continue to disregard the few careless encounters, their condition deteriorates and leads to an addicted relationship with him. Society nowadays has become corrupted with addiction. Drug abuse has become prevalent and is impossible to avoid. There is so much influence around substance abuse that people are usually sucked into it before they learn the dangers of it. Nowadays, people are proposing solutions for this spreading epidemic and suggesting ways to treat people who are already affected. Addiction should be treated as a learning disorder that exacerbates as people mature rather than as there is something wrong with their character. The best feasible solution for treating this epidemic is early intervention. By doing this, potential victims can be educated about the dangers of it and be on the path to a healthy lifestyle.

Most teens look up to their parents, so if their parents demonstrate good behavior at home and never drink alcohol around their teenage children, then the children will be less likely to start drinking at an early age. There have been many scenarios where teenagers follow their parent’s footsteps in lots of different aspects. Studies shows that teenagers are more likely to develop a drinking habit while living under a household of alcoholics than others who do not. Many parents expect their kids to behave with good manners and to never do bad things or drink alcohol and feel like they have done a bad job as parents when the child drinks, but they never realize the main reason that this issue is taking place. Even though most parents may not be aware of their kids drinking while still being underage, some may just not know what is the appropriate way to handle the situation.

The systematic scheduling of drugs in the United States is arbitrary which leads to a discriminative social injustice. Some psychedelic substances such as Psilocybin are schedule 1 drugs, while alcohol and nicotine are legal. According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) both alcohol and nicotine are proven to be harmful and addictive (2017). Conversely, Psychedelic substances have not been proven to be addictive. This equates to a social injustice that discriminates over someone who may prefer the effects of psilocybin to nicotine, even under the science that has shown nicotine and alcohol have a higher potential for abuse. Unfortunately, many political factors come into play regarding the legal status of drugs and industries such as the pharmaceutical, tobacco and alcohol industries, who harbor the most money and have an influence in the legality of drugs whether they are safe or not. While legalizing psychedelic substances would most likely cut into profits for these large industries they would bring about economic benefits as well.

Although all sorts of families can be devastated by addiction, but single parent units (the most common lower class structure) are the most obscured. Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches supports, “In every family unit, each person plays a role (or multiple roles) to help the family function better and to maintain a level of homeostasis, stability and balance. When substance abuse is added to this dynamic, the family roles naturally shift to adjust to the new behaviors associated with drug or alcohol use, and to continue maintaining order and balance.”4 In single parent units there is an inability of a second parent to fill the void role of the addicted parent. The National Center for Biotechnology Information states, “Frequently, children may act as surrogate spouses for the parent who abuses substances. For example, [young] children may develop elaborate systems of denial to protect themselves against that reality of the parent’s addiction. Because that option does not exist in a single‐parent household with a parent who abuses substances, children are likely to behave in a manner that is not age‐appropriate to compensate for the parental deficiency.”2 So a child growing up in a compromised family unit where addiction is present may develop altered norms and mature into an addict themselves.4

Just Say No.” This phrase was uttered in 1982 by Nancy Reagan, the first lady of the United States, in response to a schoolgirl’s question of what she should do if offered drugs (Weinraub A5). These words became the slogan for a nationwide substance abuse prevention program that followed the then recently enacted drug policies intended to discourage the manufacture, sale, and use of illicit drugs in the United States. These zero tolerance policies carried harsh penalties and strict enforcement for all drug related offenses. Almost four decades later, these policies are still in effect, as is their focus on criminalization as a means to reduce the availability and usage of drugs. Their ineffectiveness is evidenced by the facts that drug use rates have remained steady over the past four decades and incarceration rates have exponentially rose during that same period. I believe that a new course of action should be taken, and a bold new drug policy should be enacted. Decriminalization would result in a substantial decrease of the prison population, relieve the unnecessary burden that has been placed on our criminal justice system, shift the paradigm from drug enforcement to drug treatment, reduce the health risk of HIV, AIDS, and heroin related deaths; and provide unprecedented benefits from the regulation of the manufacturing and sales of substances that are currently illegal.

According to a federal official, the ongoing scourge of prescription-drug addiction is beginning to reach epidemic proportions, ballooning about 75 percent in the United States within the past five years (“Prescription-drug Abuse Escalates”). Prescription drugs have become extremely overused due to the pain killing aspects, along with a sort of “high” when they are being abused. This high has been something people chase and will do anything to get. A report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration indicated that there were more American adults using prescription painkillers than cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, or cigars combined (Ingraham). The over proliferation of prescription drugs has become a major problem with adults.

ParentsMatterToo provides endless information about drug use, a common topic that would be discussed with the support groups would be the warning signs. Parents need to be observant if they suspect that their child is using drugs. Warning

Substance use has been studied in great detail in military service members as well as military children. Acion, Ramirez, Jorge, and Ardnt (2013) conducted a study on the risk of substance use in military children when a parent was deployed. They looked at four main outcomes: “ever drink alcohol, past 30-day binge drinking, past 30-day marijuana or other illicit drug use, and prescription drug misuse” (p.1419-1420). The categories they used was a recently deployed parent, recently returned from deployment parent, and non-military parents. Their results indicated that there was higher substance use within the deployed parent group than the non-military group. Between the deployed and recently returned groups there wasn’t a significant

However, drug addiction and alcoholism causes physical illnesses but it, also causes mental illnesses. When a child is introduced to this disease in the past it, can cause a psychiatric disorder. When a child is in an environment with a substance abuser he or she will play a certain role in the family who will later affect the child’s mentality. For instance the child can play the role of a scapegoat who takes the blame, the hero who saves the day, the mascot that entertains, the chief enabler, the little parent or the lost child fades away in a family (AWA, 2009). These certain roles that they play as a child can cause a variety of mental disorders and change of behaviors. If a “lost child” feels unhappy because he or she gets no attention from the family this can lead to

When a teenager is a binge drinker it doesn 't only affect them mentally but it also affects their family. Teens who use alcohol may withdraw from the family and have difficulty with family relationships, they may also demonstrate behavioral problems as well. But not every time is it just the child 's fault, sometimes families that are alcoholics or have a past of abuse may also lead the teen to drink as well, “According to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence,

So many people condemn their doctors for medication addictions, according to Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN, “Most of the blame, however, belongs on the shoulders of the American doctors themselves,” but is there others who are at fault? Doctors aren't the only ones who should be blamed for prescription drug abuse or addictions. Doctors are supposed to help people, but they are put into quandary about choosing who they help, because they are uncertain whether their patient is a drug addict. Some addicts will go far enough to fuel an addiction by dissimulating that they have chronic pain, and doctors wouldn’t be capable of determining if a patient is truly having internal pain, therefore the doctor would chiefly give the benefit of the doubt and would prescribe them to a medication. Also, patients should be au fait with medication, instead of just taking it and accusing doctors for a possible outcome of them abusing or becoming addicted to medicine.

Children of the 50’s and 60’s might remember their father’s drinking. A drinking problem wasn’t really a problem but romanticized and seen as more manly. The drugs of the early century LSD in the 1940s, Valium in the 1960s, ecstasy in 1990s with advances from these such as Heroin and Methamphetamines (Nutt, 2007). At this time society had an attitude of scorn or “sweep it under the rug” with children having to deal with the consequences of their parents substance abuse. Nowadays we have a system in place and different programs that better protect children from the parental abuse the exacerbation of drugs and alcohol. Society now sees substance abuse now as major public health and social problem, with eighty-two percent seeing it more of a problem than Cancer, Heart Disease and HIV/AIDs combined (Magnitude, 2001). Parental substance abuse is not as easily seen as something you hide behind closed

On Friday February 10, 2017, Kentucky Emergency Services responded to fifty-two calls that had come in regarding people overdosing on heroin. This calls started to heavily come in in about people overdosing beginning at midnight, through eight in the morning. In the past week, the Louisville emergency spokesman, Mitchel Burmeister, stated that there had been twenty-five reported overdoses from the same drug in a thirty-two hour span the week before.

Since the beginning of time, humans have had vices, many of them psychoactive drugs. Similarly, mankind has always had a history of prejudice and mistreatment of groups with different beliefs or different skin color. In America, legislation of these drugs has often been used as a method to control minority groups. From alcohol in the 1800’s through opium in the mid 1800’s to cocaine in the early 1900’s and marijuana in the 1930’s, drug legislation has largely been driven by groups of people with prejudices against certain minority and ethnic groups. Through gaining support in Congress and often the backing of big industry money, these groups would push to ban or restrict these drugs that were usually associated with a minority group they opposed.

Imagine being a parent and finding out your child is doing drugs, not smoking cannabis but worse, heroin. Or imagine you walk into your child's room and finding a couple of empty vodka bottles. As the years go on and society advances it seems teenagers begin to use drugs and drink at younger and younger ages. For years parents have wondered why teens use these substances even though millions of dollars are spent on the advertisement against substance abuse, it still seems like teenagers are not getting the message of how dangerous drugs and alcohol can be. Although many people believe most teenagers abuse and use these substances because they are bored and want something to do, this is not the case. One of the biggest reasons teenagers use drugs are because they are easy to access. Teenagers who abuse drugs and alcohol are depressed, because because there is a lack of parent involvement, and of course the media plays a big role in making drugs and alcohol look fun.