Persuasive Speech On Substance Abuse

There are some barriers or weaknesses common to most interventions that target addictive behaviors in the community. Heterogeneity in the population and cultural barriers has contributed to the lack of knowledge regarding substance use and its effects. Issues related to taboo, denial and loss of face mask understanding of the extent of the problem. Institutional barriers and lack of community infrastructure make treatment efforts difficult in serving a diverse population (Ja, 1993). In addition to the psychological barriers, other physical problems also exist. Most primary care physicians do not feel competent to treat alcohol and drug related disorders. Physicians generally do not like to work with patients with these disorders and do not find treating them rewarding. There is substantial evidence that physicians fail even to identify a large percentage of patients with these disorders (Miller, Sheppard, Colenda, & Magen, 2001). Financial barriers include inability to access treatment services by addicted individuals as indicated in various studies. There is also a competition for resources that has to be considered. Local governments allocate some part of their funding for specific issues and there is a competition among several stakeholders to ensure that their cause is represented. Research shows that prevention programs in the community on the issues of substance abuse, risky sexual behavior, school failure, juvenile delinquency and violence have to be

“Substance use disorders” or “substance-related disorders” are intended synonymously and are used interchangeably when referring to the broad category of addiction to psychoactive substances. Additionally, the word “drug” should be considered in the context in which it appears and can refer to alcohol specifically and/or other psychoactive substances such as cocaine or heroin etc. Again, this is because of the large overlap within the broader category of substance use and the high prevalence of polysubstance use. For the sake of clarity, “drug” as used in North America to generally refer to any illicit or controlled substance has been avoided. Instead, “medication” will be used to denote a prescribed substance used to treat physical symptoms. However, many legally prescribed medications (such as morphine) can and are abused and have addictive quality, making them just as devastating as “street drugs” or alcohol (Compton & Volkow, 2006).

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

“Addiction is a choice not a disease”, is a common phrase that stigmatizes drug addiction in our everyday language. The lack of public knowledge about this social problem causes widespread stigmatization and discrimination of the ill. As a result, many individuals who seriously need professional help feel isolated and hopeless, making it harder for them to recover.

Drugs and alcohol is a major social issue (J. David Hawkins, Richard F. Catalano, and Janet Y. Miller, 1992). It is not something that can be solved by the law (Lee P. Brown, 2008). Throughout history, many attempts have been made to try and legalize and control alcohol and drug addiction but has failed.

In the past, law enforcement was taught to arrest anyone distributing or using opioids. The state believed that jail was the best method to get addicts off the streets and to stop using drugs. The issue with this method was when these addicts were released from jail, they went right back to using. United States President Barack Obama, has been working on a plan to reform the nation’s criminal justice program. He proposed that drug courts, which are fundamentally substance-abuse boot camps, are the best way to help treat addiction (Redmond A3+). Obama’s plan involved getting rid of mandatory minimum sentences, which he believed would also be a very cost saving solution. Obama stated, “We should invest in alternatives to prison, like drug courts and treatment and probation programs which ultimately can save tax payers thousands of dollars each year” (Redmond A3+). The problem with Obama’s method is that he does not seem to be concerned about the mental health of these

There is a debate in the American government system on how to handle the use of drug and alcohol. In the 1960s drugs were uprising along with youth rebellion and in 1971 Nixon declared a “War on Drugs” (Citation a brief). This name is not to be confused with the band War on Drugs, but the term is still popularly used to describe the policies that Government officials are making regarding drugs and alcohol. This debate got reheated when Colorado legalized weed for medical and recreational use, followed by several other states. There has slowly been a shift in mindset from, “alcoholics are drug addicts are all criminals and we (the law) should throw them in jail” to “addiction is a disease.” Even the way that addicts/alcoholics are treated has changed to treatment centers with specialist versus throwing them in the hospital to detox and hoping for a change. Policies that are shifting the penalty from incarceration to treatment reflect these changes and help the individual suffering from the disease to get back on their feet. The war on drugs rings on, but changes are being made.

Drug use affects every sector of society, straining our economy, our healthcare and criminal justice systems, and endangering the futures of young people. This needs assessment is performed to identify what additional services might be needed to

Today in the United States a land that claims to be the freest nation on the face of the Earth more people will wake up inside of a federal/state prison or a county jail cell than in any other country on the planet. As of 2012 this figure was a staggering 2,228,400 (jail 744,500; prison 1,483,900) add in to this the additional sum of just over 5 million people on parole (851,200) and probation (3,942,800) giving us a grand total of over 7 million citizens under some level of Federal or State supervision (Glaze and Herberman). This is up from only 1,840,421 in 1980 a percentage increase of 281.56% (Glaze and Herberman). As of 2012 over half of the inmates in the federal prison system (50.6%) were incarcerated for drug charges (Caron and Golinelli) while according to 2011 statistics just under 17% of state prisoners were locked away for offenses related to illegal substances (Carson and Sabol). The cost of maintaining this level of incarceration is in all honesty a tremendous burden upon both our justice system and our tax base. If you were to go to the website www.drugsense.org you would see their drug war clock which increases by $500 every second based upon the National Drug Control Policy’s 2010 statistics (Drugsense.org). The country needs to make serious changes in order to alleviate this Promethean like burden that has been placed on our tax payers and our infrastructure. Our system desperately needs reform in order to rescue society from these metaphorical

Legal consequences to broken laws are important, but the consequence should match the crime. For instance, a few days in jail for accidentally running a red light would be over the top. Think about how many people could potentially lose their jobs over a traffic violation! But this is happening to many people struggling with addiction. They are charged with possession and given a prison sentence, with lawmakers hoping the time away from drugs will cure them. One major issue is overdose upon release. This is very dangerous to someone in active addiction, because depending on the length of time away from the drug of choice, the addict’s tolerance level could decrease significantly. The problem lies mainly with intravenous drug users and alcoholics, as there is a fine line between injecting or drinking to excess to obtain a high and overdosing (Knezevich). Luckily, many prisons are recognizing this and taking steps to keep it from happening. Offering counseling and support groups for addicts in prison is common, but some prisons are taking a step further to curb the overdose upon release

Nonviolent drug abusers have no significantly beneficial rehabilitation programs to fix their addiction and must be placed or forced into programs that are created to repair the broken lives. Simply incarcerating drug abusers does not fix their problems. In most cases it makes their addiction worse. Prisons need to develop better and more extensive rehab programs and although rehab programs are beneficial “Some inmates will refuse to comply with rehab program. Along with not complying they are just

One of the most profound problems that plagues our society is drug addiction. With drug addiction comes those who offend and have run-ins with the law. Our country deals with these drug-addicted offenders by placing them in jails for a year or longer, only to have them come back out to society when their sentence is over. They are still drug-addicts and so they return to the street only to commit yet another crime. From here the cycle of crime, arrest, jail, and return to society continues, solving absolutely nothing. Therefore, placing drug-addicted offenders in jails fails to confront the major problem at hand which is that of the drug abuse. If drug-addicted offenders were placed in drug treatment centers instead of being incarcerated,

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

It is common knowledge that America has the world’s largest population of prisoners, and in 2008, a study was completed by the Pew Charitable Trusts which indicated that half of the inmates in jail and prison are serving time for nonviolent drug charges (http://www.pewstates.org/news-room/press-releases/new-pew-study-finds-36-percent-increase-in-prison-time-served-85899394970). Since the “War on Drugs” approach about forty years ago, the criminalization of the addict has done very little to address the problem of substance abuse in society. While there is no one clear cause of substance abuse, there have been patterns identified in substance abusers, that may be the underlying factors that lead to the addiction. Some of these factors include mental health and biology.

The use of criminal restrictions for drug related crimes is not always an entirely punitive tool, and that penalties, or even the threat of them, often urge individuals struggling with addiction or substance abuse to get the treatment they might never seek or receive on their own, therefore increasing their opportunities to become productive members of society. In fact, more than one-third of all treatment referrals in the U.S.