The Importance Of Illegal Drugs

The use and misuse of illicit drugs in today’s society can be blamed on both individual, and societal factors. With the use of societal factors researchers can show the effect for a larger population, and provide better information of the population. Blaming the individual for developing the addiction will not fix issues that lie in society that worked against the individual, the underlying issues of poverty and addiction, many scholarly articles mention bad neighborhoods, low income, and loose family ties with future drug use. I will be using evidence from articles involving both teen and adult drug use and addiction, as the effect on society is noticed in both age brackets. “Substance use is considered a problem by individual addicts who seek treatment, by institutions within society (such as the police or the medical system) that deal with substance use and its consequences on a day-to-day basis, and by national organizations such as governments or supranational organizations, such as the International Narcotics Control Board (a United Nations agency located in Vienna). (Adrian) I will be using scholarly articles to explain the sociological reasoning behind drug use, with theories involving low-income neighborhoods, leading to lessening of family involvement which can lead to drug use. “Drug abuse affects a community 's living conditions and economy, its youth, and the environment for crime.” (Watts)

The launching of the 1960’s brought with it a public health issue concerning the use and abuse of illegal drugs. Responding to the crisis, the US department of Justice established the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous drugs, which was designed to control illegal drugs, specifically marijuana. Building on the prohibition, in 1971 President Richard Nixon officially declared a “war on drugs”, which resulted in an increased federal role in the warfare by providing the federal government with power to institute new mandatory sentencing laws. New policies, including the passing of the Controlled Substances act, which, “superseded earlier legislation and classified cannabis as having a high potential for abuse, having zero medical use, and being unsafe for use without medical supervision,” (Barry, 2014) produced a dramatic rise in national incarceration rates, disproportionally representing those people of color. In fact, according to the FBI, in 2011 there were 750,000 marijuana arrests (the vast for majority) alone.

The War on Drugs had its official start during the Nixon administration when the president declared that drug abuse was now “public enemy number one.” Since then, over one trillion dollars have been spent on various programs to combat drug abuse. Ultimately, however, the War on Drugs did not limit national daily drug use. Instead, the War on Drugs had a greater impact on the United States’ justice, education, and healthcare systems than it did to limit citizen drug use.

In 2014 1,297,348 people were arrested for non-violent drug charges (drug policy, 2015). These people’s lives are now forever changed because of a mistake they made. This mistake is continually made every single day and Americans are being punished in extreme ways for a non violent crime. The United States needs to decimalize all drugs because the drug war is costly, causes high incarceration rates, and isn’t effective as European drug solutions.

Illegal drugs have addictive properties that make it hard to stop abusing them. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse more than sixty percent of patients suffering from drug addiction relapse into abuse(National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2000). Depending on the type of illegal drug, the level of addictive

As the use of illegal drugs and alcohol continues, substance abuse across America has become a very serious social problem. It is mental illness that has an effect on different races, classes and genders. The affects of substance abuse has caused countless of people to feel heartache and develop feelings of hopelessness. With alcohol and drugs readily available through prescription or on the streets (Butler,2010), it is obvious why many are acquiring addictive patterns to these accessible substances, and that the continual abuse of these substances has a severe long-term effect. Characteristics such as age, gender, race, socio-economic class, sexual orientation, different social groups, and geographical location are contributing factors

During the year 1960, only four million Americans had ever tried illegal narcotics; today that number has risen to 74 million (DEAMuseum). The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) concluded that over the past thirty days, more than 20 million Americans over the age of twelve have used illegal drugs (NCADD). As one of the top health-related problems facing the nation today, the prevalence of drug abuse in society strains the economy, health care system, criminal justice system, and poses a major threat to public safety. This is because once they are hooked on a particular drug; addicts will do whatever it takes to come into possession of more of it. To illustrate that point, a 2004 study conducted by the Department of Justice (DoJ)

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) updated reports on the prevalence of substance addiction in 2015, illegal drugs use has been increasing in the entire United States. In 2013, approximately 24.6 million United States citizens aged 12 and above used illicit drugs. The increase represented a 9.4% of all the population consuming illegal drugs. In 2002, the total population of illicit drug use in America was approximately 8.3%. The increase in substance abuse has been attributed to the breakdown of social ethics in the society.

60 million Americans are abusing the use of drugs to “help” with their minor pain or ailments (consumer health care productions association). But does the use of so many of these

The criminal justice system has been evolving since the time the system was created. The criminal justice system has helped control the crime in the United States and also attempted to help those charged to lead better lives. The government has enforced and passed legislation that drastically alters the criminal justice system and how authorities should treat those convicted. In the YouTube video, John Oliver directly hits major points and concerns in the criminal justice system. He unleashed information that most people do not want to discuss about the system and John Oliver made it an awareness to the public to realize how the system is failing those incarcerated. Throughout the paper, the topics that will be discussed includes the drug problems

Since the early 1960’s there have been an alarming increase in drug use in the United States in 1962, four million Americans had tried an illegal drug. By 1999, that number had risen to a staggering 88.7 million, according to the 1999 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse.

Although some people argue for the legalization of drugs, addiction to these substances has caused a huge increase in violent crimes in the home, at school, and on the street. Many people do not understand why individuals become addicted to drugs or how drugs change the brain to create compulsive drug abuse. They mistakenly view drug abuse and addiction as strictly a social problem and may characterize those who take drugs as morally weak. One very common belief is that drug abusers should be able to just stop taking drugs if they are only willing to change their behavior. This is a false and uneducated belief. Drug abuse may start as a social problem or social escape but one the addiction has taken ahold of a person

I agree with the sociocultural view of drug use. According to this view, people are likely to abuse substances when they are living under stressful socioeconomic conditions (Comer, 2013, 305). In my experience teaching in an inner-city school, many of my students would come to school high. I tried to talk to some of them individually about their drug use, and they freely admitted to it and said that it was the only way they could cope with their home lives. They knew I was not from such a dire background, so they knew I could not fully relate to their situation.

Since 2000, the drug use rate in America has risen to the highest it’s ever been. In a survey done in 2009, 8.7 percent of people age 12 and up said that they used illegal substances within a month of taking the survey, a 9 percent increase since 2008 (Abuse, National Institute on Drug, 2010). This statistic alone is very concerning due to

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.