The Drug Of Drugs And Drugs Essay

Every year thousands of people die from an overdose, leaving behind friends and family. Once someone starts using drugs they get addicted and they can't stop. They will go out of their way to get drugs and will do anything to use. People go against their family and friends and end up caring about themselves and nothing else. Being addicted to drugs is like having a disease that is very hard to get rid of.

The United States has the world's highest incarceration rate. With five percent of the world's population, our country houses nearly twenty-five percent of the world's reported prisoners. Currently there are approximately two million people in American prisons or jails. Since 1984 the prison population for drug offenders has risen from ten percent to now over thirty percent of the total prison population. Federal prisons were estimated to hold 179,204 sentenced inmates in 2007; 95,446 for drug offenses. State prisons held a total of 1,296,700 inmates in 2005; 253,300 for drug offenses. Sixty percent of the drug offenders in prisons are nonviolent and were purely in prison because of drug offenses (Drug War Facts). The question then arises,

According to the text, what factorshave been major contributors to the demise of the two-parent household?

The textbook pointed out that drug prevention and drug ________ might have different goals and use different approaches.

Prescription drug abuse has become an epidemic in the United States especially among the youth of our country. The Partnership for a Drug Free America says that 2,500 teens a day abuse prescription drugs. Abuse of these narcotics can lead to serious mental and physical consequences. Why is this such a problem, what can we do to solve it, and how is it affecting our social lives?

1b. List and describe briefly the major structures of the brain, as presented in your textbook, including the function of those elements that are most related to psychoactive drug reaction.

Most people are familiar with prescription medications; almost everyone has taken them at one point or another during their lifetime. Not all prescription drugs are addicting, but a large number of them are. Prescription drug abuse is a disease that has become a major problem in the United States, which affects over six-million Americans. Prescription drug abuse not only affects the individual, but can additionally have far-reaching consequences that affect family, personal health, employment, communities and society as a whole. Research has shown that at least 10% of people prescribed an addictive medication will become dependent on the medicine. Due to prescription drug abuse, states are beginning to monitor doctors who prescribe certain medications, more closely, which may scare some physicians away from prescribing helpful medications to people who truly need them.

Drug addiction is something that everyone is vulnerable to, and that unfortunately is something that many people are going through in today’s society. Everyone is exposed to drug addiction, no matter what, it’s just up to the person to determine if they have a strong enough will power to not take the drugs. However, drugs are available to anyone who is willing to buy them, and many people are willing to spend everything they have in order to buy drugs that might give them temporary relief of a situation that they are currently struggling in; drugs are many people’s escape from the reality they are forced to be in. People have different reasons as to why they start using and abusing drugs; some may choose to do it simply because they like the feeling the drugs causes or occasionally because of the environment or situation the person was or is in, but I mostly think it’s because the person isn’t strong enough to stop taking the drugs or to say no to them.

Prescription drug abuse is defined as using prescription drugs in a way that is not prescribed by a doctor or using someone else's prescription. People abuse prescription drugs for a variety of reasons (Misuse of Prescription Drugs). Some people abuse them to get high, others keep using to avoid withdrawals from the drug. Whereas stimulants such as adderall are often abused by students to improve academic performance.

“One in eight persons needs treatment for depression during his or her lifetime” (Prozac.com). Prozac is claimed as the wonder drug cure for obsessive compulsive disorder, depression, bulimia, and panic disorder by fixing the imbalance of chemicals in the brain. Many documented cases have been made about side effects of Prozac and how it has negatively affected many of its users. Doctors need to have more responsibility and stricter guidelines for diagnosis of adolescent depression and should consider medication a last resort while pharmaceutical companies should develop a new youth-friendly antidepressant with fewer side effects.

States are under a burden that seems to be growing out of control. Since “the war on drugs” the prison population has increased exponentially, and the states are trying to keep up with the burden of housing, feeding, and giving medical treatment to prisoners. The state’s financial burden in becoming great and the government is starting to look at treatment measures that could save money. Substance abuse is an overwhelming factor in crime, for example 50% of homicides involve drugs and alcohol. (Parks, G., Marlatt, A. 1999) Treating offenders for substance problems could make the difference in recidivism rates. There are several models of programs the state should consider when deciding treatment options for offenders.

Despite efforts to decrease the number of deaths and overdoses related to narcotic medications, such as OxyContin, and minimize the number of people illegally obtaining them, the measures that the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) in specific are taking are not enough. The literal definition of a narcotic is a drug that produces numbness or stupor; often taken for pleasure or to reduce pain; extensive use can lead to addiction. Narcotics are normally prescription medications that are given to patients to help ease the constant pain cause by cancer or other long term illnesses.

Individuals who are addicted to drugs will do anything possible to get “a fix” when they are feening. They commit crimes such as, robberies, simple assaults, and breaking and entering just to get money for their next high. Individual’s who are addicted to drugs loose self esteem and morals. They will walk the streets pan handling for money, hang out on the street corners holding signs for help, and have sex with random people, just too get enough money for their next high. We as society have to worry what these individuals will do when they need that fix and can’t get it.

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.

The “War on Drugs” is the name given to the battle of prohibition that the United States has been fighting for over forty years. And it has been America’s longest war. The “war” was officially declared by President Richard Nixon in the 1970’s due to the abuse of illegitimate drugs. Nixon claimed it as “public enemy number one” and enacted laws to fight the importation of narcotics. The United States’ War on Drugs began in response to cocaine trafficking in the late 1980’s. As the war continues to go on, winning it hardly seems feasible. As stated by NewsHour, the National Office of Drug Control Policy spends approximately nineteen billion dollars a year trying to stop the drug trade. The expenses shoot up, indirectly, through crime,