The Role Of Drug Addiction In The United States

Heroin addiction is one of the leading killers of adolescents and adults in the United States. In recent years, addiction has skyrocketed, and “the rate of heroin-related overdose deaths increased by 286 percent between 2002 and 2013.” In 2002, “100 people per 100,000 were addicted to heroin, and that number has doubled by 2013” (The National Institute on Drug Abuse 2013). The most affected populations include low income males, adolescents, and those who have a family history of addiction, due to their increased susceptibility and crime-ridden environment. While it may seem as though heroin addiction is “just another drug problem” in the U.S., it is actually a problem of major public health importance because there are numerous physical, economic, and social risks associated with heroin dependence. Heroin dependence in the United States accounts for brain damage, increased homelessness, crime, and incarceration rates, as well as economic decline.

Imagine waking up from a warm bed, taking a shower, getting dressed, either went to work, school, or both. These are all basic needs, basic needs that many people in the United States today do not have. Most people would agree that a day like this is fairly ordinary. Shelter, clothes, food, education, and family are all things that are usually taken for granted and things that every person deserves. Unfortunately, these things do not belong to everyone. Far too many people in this country have no homes. They own only the clothes that they wear. They do not know where their next meal will come from and they don't have family or friends to lean on for support. The government should supply resources for the homeless like free education/ job training,

It might seem like the United States has become more lenient on drug enforcement and addiction. Considering that municipalities removed penalties for bringing in someone overdoing on drugs into the emergency room and have lowered the minimum amount of time someone spends in prison for drug possession.

The Domino Effect can be interpreted as an abstract theory associated with one event playing off of another, causing a predictable and connotatively negative, outcome. Since 2002, drug use within the United States has been on a strong incline upwards, resulting in 12% of Americans claiming to have used illicit drugs in the past month, up 4% in the past decade (National Trends). An illicit drug refers to a substance, either prohibited by law or medically prescribed, that is being abused in great quantities. The impact of this abuse has resulted in a five time increase of infants born with opiate addiction (Hove). A few widely abused opiates, across the United States, consistent of heroin, hydrocodone, codeine, and morphine (What Drugs…). While

The United States is not immune to the worldwide drug addiction epidemic. Drugs pour in from Mexico daily, then distributed to throughout the country. The economic crisis in America is creating an excuse for drug use (e.g., depression, hopelessness). This chemical fix not only creates problems for the addict, but the family and community as well. Every addict has an enabler, a person who makes the addiction possible through various venues of support (e.g., financial, denial). Addicts are only concerned with their next fix and will resort to any means to obtain it (e.g., theft, prostitution, pan-handling). Some have even resorted to extremely desperate measures; for example, murder for inheritance or life insurance proceeds.

In the United States of America, we, the people value several things, some of which

In and around most large cities in America, the rising substance abuse epidemic has brought about a renewed interested in determining the root cause of substance abuse, the effects of substance abuse on individuals and societies, and the substance abuse treatment modalities that achieve the best outcomes. In reviewing the current research on substance abuse there seems to be no one clear cause of substance abuse disorders, although there is strong evidence that a number of life circumstances may predispose an individual to a substance abuse disorder, as well as a number of protective factors that may reduce an individual’s risk of developing a substance abuse disorder. One important risk factor that is commonly associated with substance

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.

Drug abuse has been an ongoing issue throughout the United States. The misuse of drugs impacts every culture, age group, gender, race and social class of people. In 2012, approximately twenty-two million individuals throughout the United States were either abusing or had an addiction to alcohol and drugs (Friedman, 2014a, p. 385). Out of the twenty-two million people, four million individuals turn into being dependent or abusing marijuana (Friedman, 2014b, p. 387). Furthermore, two million were dependent on OxyContin and Vicodin, which are opioid prescription medicines (Friedman, 2014c, p. 387).

One out of ten Americans over twelve are addicted to drugs and/or alcohol and only eleven percent of those people get treated. Having an addict who is going through withdrawals while staying with you as they go through the process of trying to recover from the use of drugs that they use is not one of the best experiences to have while growing up. They go through different side effects from not using the drug. These side effects sometimes make it unbearable to be around them.

Addiction is a dependence on a substance in which the affected individual feels powerless to stop. Millions of Americans have addictions to drugs, alcohol, nicotine, and even to behaviors such as compulsive gambling and shopping. Recent studies suggest that millions of Americans are addicted to food, as well.

Drug use in America is one of the major issues we face and the problem has skyrocketed over the past three decades. Heroin and painkiller addictions exceed all other countries. It is important that we address some of the causes that lead to the abuse, how to treat the abuse, and how to prevent the distribution of illegal prescription drugs.

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 's impossible to live without a job, but work can cause a great level of stress. Unfortunately, that stress leads many people to turn to alcohol or drugs to self-medicate. But what jobs or professions suffer from the highest rates of addiction? The answers may surprise you: it isn 't focused entirely on high-stress and low-income jobs.

Data indicates that anti narcotic budget in the United States has jumped up from $9.7 billion in the 90s to around$18 billion in year 2000. Moreover, The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) field agent has increased from 3,191 in 1990 to 4,561 in 2000. Despite these increase in DEA agent the number of drug abusers in the United States has boosted from 5.8% in early 90s to around 6.7% in the 1998. Approximately around 15 million of the US total population was abusing drugs in various ways in 1999. Among these 15 million around 200,000 were roughly using heroin which estimates to more than thrice the numbers in 1993 which was around 68,000 (Massing, 2000). In spite of the al the efforts being made by the law enforcement agencies against drug traffickers the numbers of drug abusers in the United States has risen tremendously in the last ten years (Bakken et al 2010).