Substance Abuse And Its Effects On Society

The cost of alcohol and substance abuse in the United States reaches heights of four hundred eighty four billion dollars per year (“Drug Abuse is Costly, n.d.”). That’s about seven hundred eighty times the amount it cost to diagnose and treat sexually transmitted diseases in the year 2000 (Chesson, 2000). The social issue I will be analyzing in this writing is substance abuse. Much of my childhood and adolescence was spent dealing with the consequences of substance abuse of many of my family members. I would not only like to help bring more awareness to this issue, but also help in some way to end the stigma associated with substance abuse, because it is a mental illness all on its own. And these individuals do need proper intervention and care.

Throughout history, drug addiction has been one of the many factors of why people across the United States become unsuccessful. Being an addict controls the mind, body and souls of some people and with that, it usually hurts them in the long run. A disease is a disease, no matter if it’s alcoholism, gambling, food addiction or a drug addiction. Not all drugs do the same to people, but in some cases, it gets them high for a couple minutes and makes them keep coming back for more and from time to time again, they want to get higher than the previous session, which leads to them trying other gateway drugs.

Although the English word “drug” was only coined in the early 1300’s, humans have been partaking in the recreational use of substances since prehistoric times. Hallucinogens, alcohol, and opium existed before 6,000 BC; alcohol and tobacco use were common in the 1600’s ; and cocaine, LSD, marijuana, and heroin use rampaged in the last century despite harsh laws put in place.

Thousands of years ago, humans first started drinking wine, then later on in around 4000 B.C. narcotics were used, but during the 19th century is when the active substances in drugs were found. Many of these substances were given over the counter and weren 't regulated, which meant that people could easily obtain substances such as morphine, cocaine, landuam, and many others. During the early 1900s, an estimate of about 250,000 people were abusing a substance within the United States. Substance abuse is a serious problem which can affect one 's physical and psychological capabilities, their relationships, and also their daily life overall. Overusing a substance may lead to addiction, which can be hard to overcome, but it 's not impossible.

The history of drug use represents lessons that were long been seen but obviously overlooked by doctors as well as pharmaceutical companies. The earlier efforts by government to regulate drug use or alcohol consumption began with some regulations on Jamaican rum. Since distilled liquor was used in social events, the government approaches in regulating the trafficking of the “distilled liquor” was by levying heavy fines on the general tariff bill. The cost of importing Jamaican rum was costlier than distilled liquor here in America. Again, at the time, the government was mostly dealing with the abolition of slavery and again the issues around alcohol consumption were minimally dealt with. Distilled spirits in earlier America was part of bringing Americans together during times of unity. It was a time to earn easy money and have an all-around good time (pg. 354). People enjoyed alcohol in the morning for breakfast as well as a celebratory thing. The government knew that drinking alcohol or distilled liquor caused some medical issues but again, the

Alcoholism is a psychiatric disorder that affects both the addict and the society around him. The American Psychological Association classifies alcoholic addiction as a disorder in the spectrum of substance use disorders in the DSMV, 2013 (Tuithoff et al., 2014). Numerous remedies for the alcohol addiction have been suggested, most of which have focused on management of the psychological status of people that have the compulsion to consume alcohol despite the negative consequences. This has led to the development of a full body of knowledge that currently guides the methods used to deal with this disorder (Chick, 2004). In addition to contributing to therapeutic methods, research has found many areas that require study in the future to enable human beings to deal with this problem. Alcoholism is a psychological disorder that has negative physical, psychological, economic, and social impact on individuals’ behavior and the society around them and, therefore, the scientific community is working tirelessly to deal with the problem and provide viable foundations for future research that may eradicate more than 50% alcoholic addiction cases twenty years from now.

Substance abuse is a national public health burden that has significantly increased the rate of disability and mortality worldwide (Azizi, Borjali, & Golzari; 2010; Wheeler, 2014; Wu, 2010). In fact, the most recent Global Burden of Disease Report estimated that almost twelve million people, who abused drugs, had moderate to severe disability (Wu, 2010). With regard to physical health, legal issues, social relationships, and occupational functioning, substance abuse affects all aspects of the individual 's life (Azizi et al., 2010; Wu, 2010).

Narcotic abuse has become a scary epidemic in today’s society. More and more people are sucked into the horrible addiction. An addiction is an actual disease that occurs in the brain. Many times these drugs affect the brain and in result, cause the addiction to occur. More and more there are people coming into the hospital from a heroin overdose, are released from the hospital, go back out, and inject the drug. The drug is so powerful that these individuals do not see what is happening to them as they slowly kill themselves.

First, consider the history of drugs and their status in the United States. Drugs have always been used by Americans, from opioids in common medicine to cocaine in a popular brand name soda. “[D]rug prohibition did not begin until the early part of the twentieth century. In the nineteenth century, purchases of opium, morphine, cocaine, and marijuana were subject to almost no restrictions” (Husak 319). Although drug use was legal, philosopher Douglas Husak speculates that “even though criminal penalties were not imposed for the use of opiates and cocaine, these drugs were probably less popular than today” (Husak 319).

Throughout the course of this class we have learned about various different drugs and the effects it has on society and the person. Within the last few years alone, the usage and overdoses of heroin has almost tripled. Heroin is a very addicting, if not the most addicting drug available right now. Many are turning to heroin because it is more accessible and often more affordable than prescription pain killers. The potential for abuse is extremely likely, even after just one use.

Opiate abuse in the United States is an epidemic. It is argued whether addiction is being handled correctly, and if the amount of resources for combating addiction should be increased. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, “The number of past-year heroin users in the United States nearly doubled between 2005 and 2012, from 380,000 to 670,000” (2014). This nation-wide increase of heroin abusers leads to another issue: how to treat them. One method of treatment is giving them another medication to treat the cravings, it is called an agonist medication. One of the more prominent of these medications is buprenorphine, brand name Suboxone or Subutex. It is known as a partial receptor because its effects on opioid receptors is

According to research done by the National Institute on Drug Abuse in April of 2017, drug-related deaths have more than doubled since 2000. In 2004, the University of Michigan and the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, showed that 70.6 percent of high school seniors had used alcohol in the past year. Substance abuse is when a person can not control their intake of drugs and/or alcohol. This disease causes major health issues and distorts the thinking a person’s mental health. This crisis is important because it ruins the lives of millions of addicts, and affects all types of race, gender, sexuality, and age group. Because this is manipulative illness heavy influences social environments, addiction affects the lives of many impressionable adolescents.

Drugs have become a big problem in today’s society especially in today’s youth. It has caused so many deaths and violence within the community that it is well known what drugs are in society and the effects of it. Even though many people know the effects and outcomes of drugs they still continue to use it and sometimes never realize their life is hitting rock bottom. Some people use drugs as a doorway to get away from stress, and or to be socially acknowledged in which then leads them to get hooked causing them to sidetrack into more crime since some need the drug so bad it makes them have to commit a crime to be able to buy the drug they need. Drug users report greater involvement with crime and are more likely for nonusers to have criminal records, persons with criminal records are much more likely to be drug users more than others, and crime rise when drugs rise (Chiaken and Chiaken, 1990).

Throughout history, the use of drugs, both for recreational and medical purposes, has had a profound impact on society that is still prevalent in today’s society. After the end of the Second World War, the pharmaceutical industry was booming and drugs became this tool that could solve all of human’s problems. Many companies invested in this area which led to many breakthroughs for cures; however, during this time period, another branched stemmed from all of this glory of drugs. The 1960s drug culture was a major epoch when the use of recreational drugs became widespread with the help of the media. The government missed an opportunity to enforce their drug laws during the emergence of drugs during this time which led to many problems afterwards; the government should have been stricter with their drug enforcement laws which could have prevented many problems: the widespread of LSD was dangerous to society, laws should be enforced so people cannot break them without consequences, and the damage of drug use depends on the type but is, ultimately, harmful to the user.

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.