The Effects Of Drug Abuse On The Body

How do people become addicted to illegal drugs? Here’s how: Put aside the fact that it’s an illegal drug for a few minutes and let’s focus on the chemistry side of things. The moment when a person takes that first snort, puff, and shot trillions of potent chemical molecules surges through one’s bloodstream and gets into a person’s brain cells. Once in the brain they set off a cascade of chemicals and electrical nerves inside the brain, which increases the dopamine that is originally in the body. Dopamine is a natural chemical that’s in the body that makes you feel good”. When this natural chemical surge through the body of the patient and the wares off the patient who is consuming the drugs wants more, Which causes an addiction, and could lead to more dangerous drugs. This essay will be analyzing drug addiction, its causes, its effects, interventions strategy and preventions.

As a nation we face a serious enemy that is not on foreign soil but here at home. The drug problem in this country has truly affected many lives and families. This enemy has no limits and affects our domestic tranquility. All drugs should not be legalized because they have the ability to impair judgment and do much bodily harm. Drugs have been a dark shadow lingering over our country for many years. In recent years, the heroine epidemic has spread throughout the nation; it has taken many lives and hurt many families along the way.

We should decriminalize drugs in the U.S. instead of legalizing them. Decriminalization refers to the lessening of criminal penalties of certain acts. According to De Marneffe, “… the legalization of drugs … [is] the removal of criminal penalties for the manufacture, sale, and possession of large quantities of recretational drugs, such as marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine” (346).

I do not think that drugs should be decriminalized because then individuals will sell, and take drugs even more. There needs to be control, and by decriminalizeing drugs the situation will only get worse. In some places such as San Francisco, marijuana has been decriminalized for medical use. A campaign director in Denver, CO tried to persuade voters to make marijuana legal by saying that it was safer than alcohol. In the Netherlands, marijuana is already legal and statistics show a significant increase in drug addiction, and crime also due to the legalization of drugs (Simon). It seems like from places that have legalized drugs , crime and addiction have become worse.

Drugs should be legalized and/or decriminalized in the future in Washington State and the Unit-ed States. However, along with legalization should come counseling for drug abuse and should give the pros and cons to using drugs. Since smoking was legalized and more information has come out about smoking there is 50% less smokers and it is less of a public issue. And as far as the concern with there being more people using drugs and driving a car, yes we will have drivers using just as we have drivers drinking and driving. Also with legalization will come more control for the purity of drugs and users will be less like to become dependent because of this. One other issue is that more money needs to be spend on rehabilitation. Incarceration is

Illegal drugs influence people every day of their lives. Illegal drugs affect people, whether they are users themselves, drug dealers, or victims of drug related crime. Throughout, the years many people have been going against drug legalization. Even though drugs are unhealthy and unsafe, prohibition is not the answer to the country's drug problem. The United States should consider legalizing drugs and ending drug prohibition. There are several reasons to legalize drugs in the United States.

The current policy in use by the United States concerning illegal drugs is both outdated and unfair. This so-called war on drugs is a deeply rooted campaign of prohibition and unfair sentencing that is very controversial and has been debated for many years. The war on drugs is designed so that it will never end. This current drug was has very little impact on the overall supply of prohibited drugs and its impact on demand seems non-existent. United States’ taxpayers are spending billions of dollars on this failure of policy. They are spending billions to incarcerate drug users instead offering drug treatment which could help lower demand. Legalizing illicit would lower abuse and deaths from use and could have a positive economic impact on the United States. Certain industries are making massive sums of money by capitalizing on the drug war.

Every property crime committed by a drug user is potentially a violent crime. Many victims are beaten, severely injured, and murdered each year. A New York City crack user murdered five people in an eight-day period to get the money to buy drugs. The user survived the crack, but his victims did not. So in actuality, the act of prohibiting drugs is to blame for so called “drug-related violence.” Legal drugs like morphine, alcohol, and a pack of smokes are more detrimental to the user and those around the user than one joint smoked a week. Plus, if pot were to be legalized, it would be regulated, and DUIs could be given to those who drive while high.

There always seems to be debate on whether the decriminalization of drugs would be of great public interest. It is a very important and controversial issue that has many people wondering if legalizing drugs would be a right move or not. In the article, “Decriminalization Would Increase The Use and The Economic and Social Costs of Drugs” by David Mineta, Mineta argues about why drugs should not be decriminalized and how keeping illicit drugs illegal outweigh the possible negative consequences of legalizing these substances. Mineta himself writes that, “Our position is simple and evidence-based: both decriminalization and legalization of illicit drugs would increase their use, along with their associated health and social costs” (Americas Quarterly). According to Mineta the decriminalization of drugs will only allow more people to become addicted causing more health and social costs because seen as they will be more widely used. (Americas Quarterly)

Drugs are illegal for a reason, and that reason is to deter use and provide a proportional punishment for those offenses. Drug addiction is a health problem that should be treated by a doctor and handled in a very professional manner, but legalizing all drugs is not the answer to the growing drug problem in the United States. It is necessary to keep policing drug possession in order to effectively keep drug use to as low as it can possibly

The debate over the legalization of drugs continues to disturb the American public. Such an issue stirs up moral and religious beliefs, beliefs that are contrary to what Americans should believe. I ask all of you to please keep an open mind and hear me out on this very controversial subject. All of us have in some way or another been affected by drug, whether it is a family member or the economic burden on society. Americans often take at face value the assumptions that drugs cause addiction, which leads to crime. This is true but abundant evidence exists to support the view that legalizing illicit drugs can help solve the drug problem in America.

Drug prohibition is rarely viewed negatively by many Americans. The failure of drug prohibition has sparked some debate in the last fifty years, however, the ignorance about illegal substances has led to little discussion on alternatives to prohibition. Legalizing all drugs would be a better alternative than perpetuating the failed war on drugs. The drug war has negatively impacted many lives by demonizing users and corrupting public officials. Criminalizing alcohol did not work in the 1920s and the same thing is true today about illicit drugs. Prohibition has stripped away a fundamental right we should have in a free society, and that is the right to consume whatever you want as an adult. The choice to consume alcohol was stripped from us at one point, however, Congress eventually passed the 21st Amendment making alcohol legal again. Alcohol prohibition has given us the opportunity to see the transformation of a once illegal drug become a legal and regulated substance. The 18th Amendment of the Constitution made alcohol consumption, distribution and production illegal. Prohibition subsequently gave birth to a criminal industry. Prohibition fostered the growth of powerful criminal organizations. It is clear that criminalizing a substance previously legal and letting the criminal market regulate it was a failure. The illegality of alcohol led to a black market where users were persecuted by society, which is exactly what the war on drugs is doing now.

However, drug use is a matter of supply and demand. As Bakalar as demand exists, someone is going to supply it, either legally or illegally. Supporters of legalization believe that if government regulates drugs such as cocaine and marijuana by imposing taxes, then the black market will be eliminated (Bakalar).      However, the higher the tax rate, the higher the price of the drugs, and not many users gangs who sell marijuana and cocaine under the market price. In addiction, children and teenagers will be obviously banned from purchasing marijuana and cocaine.

In the following paper I aim to highlight the roll of the brain in the body and it’s different parts that come together to form the most complex organ in the body and what drug use and abuse can do both in the short term and long term. The focus of this paper will be on two specific substances; cocaine and opiates. It will examine what each substance and does to the brain and what, if any, long term affects it has on the brain.

Drugs are a very strong controversy and people have such strong opinions about whether or not they should be legal or not. I don’t have a strong opinion on this topic, I am easily swayed to either side. For the most part though, I think that they should be legalized because people already do them anyways and will continue to do them. If they were legal then the government could regulate their usage and sale then the government was receiving the profits rather that the drug dealers.