The Social Impact of Drug Abuse

“Drug policy regarding the control of the traditional illicit substances (opiates, cocaine, cannabis) is currently moving through upbeat times in almost all Western countries. Prohibition on the basis of repressive law enforcement not only seems to fail on a large scale, but also to create vast additional costs, problems, and harm for drug consumers, who often find themselves in extreme social, economic, and health conditions” (Fischer 1995: 389).

Many drug addicts do not have jobs or any legal means of generating income; they resolve to criminal activities such as theft, robbery, or aggressive panhandling. Due to the addictive nature of drugs, the user will be compelled to want more and more in order to continue feeling “normal”. It is what fuels their addiction and as a result, a lack of motivation to do anything other than obtaining more drugs. The drug addict’s family suffers from the effects of the drug addiction as well through emotional stress and psychological decay. Drug addicts also encourage illegal drug trafficking by helping fund criminal organizations. In fact, drug addicts are the reason why the billion dollar drug industry is as lucrative as it is. Without drug addicts, drug traffickers would have no customers or buyers to help generate income. Huge amounts of tax revenue is going towards the war on drugs which includes money going into police departments, border agencies, harm reduction programs, and anti-drug campaigns. The tax money being used to fight drugs could be used to better our education or health systems; instead it is being used to fund harm reduction programs such as Insite.

When concerned with the ethics of development in a global environment, the issue of drug abuse is of particular importance. All of the different aspects of the drug trade impact a nation, and specifically the development of a nation within a global environment. Within the United States, drug abuse has been prevalent among specific populations in society for almost a half of a century now. Historically speaking, drug abuse has erupted in many directions; new drugs have offered new markets, new trends have developed new habits. These patterns have become societal concerns on many levels. The creation of new drugs has added another dimension to prescriptive drug abuse. Though science is making

Drugs. They have entered our communities, our schools, our neighborhoods, our homes. For generations now they have been affecting our society; influencing politics, laws, wars, science, and the overall structure of society. Russia and Mexico have had some of the highest involvement in drugs, and the fight against them. In Russia almost 6 percent of the total population, which is about 8.5 million people are drug addicts, or regular users. Russia has also become increasingly involved in the trafficking of drugs. In comparison Mexico has been one of the largest marketplaces for drugs, and has been a major producer and exporter of marijuana and heroine. In order to further better their countries, Russia and Mexico have implemented certain policies to restrict, outlaw, or limit drugs and the trafficking of them. This paper is going to compare Russia’s and Mexico’s policies on drugs, it will explore the history and background of both countries policies, the effectiveness of each of the countries policies, and will compare the two countries policies. In this comparison we will discover which country if any has had a more effective policy on drugs.

Social conflicts and struggles are an inevitable part of any society in any country. These struggles can include an increased rate in crime, unemployment, domestic/general violence, and overall civilian depression. When governments cannot seem to find a means to an end, they often turn and look for something to blame for their struggles, and that thing is more often than not, drugs. For many years, several opiates and drugs were primarily used for medicinal purposes, were seen to have an abundance of health benefits and was widely accepted among communities. Although, with the increasing social conflicts and economic conditions, authorities turned to and targeted many different forms of once accepted drugs, and made them the scapegoat for the problems they were facing.

Narcobusiness is entrenched in economies and in lives of people in the drug producing countries. It provides much better income than traditional jobs. Weakening of the state, its inability

It is clear that there have been increased occurrences of drug trafficking in the United States and the world as a whole. This increase in drug trafficking has resulted to a radical increase in the number of people who are affected by the illegal drugs. In the United States, the number has risen to about 19.9 billions. This paper will therefore discuss drug trafficking, its causes, effects, prevention and war against it. Whoever will read this paper, he or she will be able to take care of themselves from drug selling, consumption and production. The person will also be able to teach and help others on how to leave or protect themselves from drug abuse and trafficking.

Alongside the need or want for drugs, a market is available to move, buy, and sell drugs usually run by small groups of individuals. There have been certain key players in regards to nations that have provided an environment for this market of cultivation and production of substances and trafficking. Often it is due to a lack of a strong government and a weak economy, pushing otherwise hard working, honest people to make a living by other means. Despite Colombia’s relatively strong economy and stable government, the following introduction of coca from Peru and Bolivia took hold. Colombia became one nation that largely contributed to cocaine and heroin trafficking. A country that initially produced and exported small amounts of cocaine in the early 1970’s now has a major role throughout the world.5

As a result of my experiences with higher academia, I have begun to recognize the inaccurate assumptions that I have made about the drug market from exposure to biased instruction from adults, media, and politics. From this realization, I feel confident in stating that the general public’s knowledge on this illicit economy consists of falsified stereotypes. Information provided throughout this course has presented a proper education regarding where the supply is produced, how drugs are trafficked into different countries, and who distributes illegal substances to users. The nation of Colombia thoroughly demonstrates a country involved in all of the aspects, production, trafficking and street sales, of a drug economy. Through a more comprehensive

In the drug world, there are a great number of networks. Trafficking of drugs is a very serious operation and there is a lot of money involved inside this system. With the millions of individuals that use drugs, it would prove to very difficult to meet the demands without people trafficking (4). Despite their reason for taking drugs, there is always illegal substances on the market. Users are willing to spend well above the price for these substances (2). Areas in Asia and South America have a vast amount of resources and many people make their living off of the drug industry. Coca plants are grown all around the country.

This leads to an increase in criminal activity such as neglect of familial duties, robberies to fund their dependency, and violence to defend their habits. The ‘drugee’ becomes a nuisance to society. Some become homeless and exhibit poor health habits such as malnutrition and tooth decay. Other negative effects include the transference of diseases because of needle sharing. Though drug use is a personal choice, the effects on the rest of society are undeniable. The best intentions are formulated on a personal level, but this is overcastted by its negative effects. This argument, however, is a bit one-sided because the reason for using and dependency varies between users.

Drug trafficking and drug abuse has long been a frustrating feature of United States and other country around the world. The United Nations Office of Drug Control and Crime Prevention points out that the fight against drug

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.

Substance abuse is one of the most detrimental social problems found in all societies. It has been the leading cause for generational breakdowns of families and communities, and is probably the most controversial social problem when developing corrective solutions. Substance abuse can be defined as the chemical dependence, or pattern of usage of both legal and illegal substances, that has adverse physical, psychological, and psychomotor effects on the human body. The use of substances does not always have to be a drug, but can also be anything taken into the body that can cause a mood-altering effect, such as inhalants or solvents. Additionally, substance abuse has many different faces and is the one social problem that crosses all

Drug abuse is a major public health issue that impacts society both directly and indirectly; every person, every community is somehow affected by drug abuse and addiction and this economic burden is not exclusive to those who use substance, it inevitably impacts those who don 't. Drugs impact our society in various ways including but not limited to lost earnings, health care expenditures, costs associated with crime, accidents, and deaths. The use of licit or illicit drugs long term, causes millions of deaths and costs billions for medical care and substance abuse rehabilitation and the effects of drug abuse extend beyond users, spilling over into the society at large, imposing increasing