The Street Scene : Statistics And Impact Of Recreational Drug Use

     Drug abuse has changed over the years due to the trends that Americans face from the encouragement of different cultures. The abuse of substances creates many health problems. The following will discuss the past and current trends of drug use and the effects these drugs have on the health of the individuals who abuse the drugs.

In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, drug use became a major concern for most Americans. As the War on Drugs and “Just Say No” campaign were being thrust into the spotlight by the government and media, the public became more aware of the scope of drug use and abuse in this country. The federal and states’ governments quickly responded by creating and implementing more harsh and punitive punishments for drug offenses. Most of these laws have either remained unchanged or become stricter in the years since then.

Drugs have played a part of the United States of America criminal justice fabric for generations. The scare tactics of the 1960s gave way to the contradictory messages of the late ’70s and early ’80s. In the 1970’s drugs became glamorous and recreational to many citizens. Prior to the 1970’s, citizens that abuse drugs was seen by policymakers as suffering from a social disease that could only be helped by treatment. Policymakers posture change drastically in the mid 70’s. In 1973, only twelve percent of the population reported to the Gallup poll that they had tried drugs. By 1977, that number was doubled. Notably, in 1978, 66 percent of Americans said Marijuana was becoming a serious issue in their respective communities (Riley, K.

In regards to the “drug menace”, the main goal to evaluate is whether or not the use of drugs in America has been significantly lowered. According to an article published by Reuters in 2008, the World Health Organization did a study on drug use within 17 countries including the United States; the study found that the “United States leads the world in rates of experimenting with marijuana and cocaine despite strict drug laws” (Fox). Furthermore, nearly four times as many people in the United States stated that they had used cocaine at some point compared to individuals from New Zealand which rated second in terms of cocaine use in the study (Fox). This shows that the U.S. not only leads the world in this category, but that it leads it in a drastic fashion. Although the United States only led by a 1% margin when it came to marijuana, it was still found that 42% of the Americans polled had used marijuana at some point in their lives (Fox). These numbers are important, as they provide a way to compare the effectiveness of the U.S. drug policy against the rest of the developed world. By gaining this international perspective, it becomes clear that the drug policies enacted have been unsuccessful in their goal of decreasing the use of drugs. Furthermore, the United States has been largely unable to reduce rates domestically as well. Statistics from the National Institute on Drug Abuse from this June provide a perspective on how drug use has changed over time in the United States. According to their data, “Illicit drug use in the United States has been increasing” (DrugFacts: Nationwide Trends). In respect to marijuana, the amount of people who use the drug has gone up from 14.5 million in 2007 to 19.8 million in 2013 (DrugFacts: Nationwide Trends). This shows a massive increase in marijuana use of over 35% in 6 years. It must also be noted that according

This paper explores drug abuse as a problem that crosses ethnic lines for all Americans and translates to a major problem for all society. The articles used show the impact of drug abuse and how it is felt by all Americans. As a result of this paper, the author has discovered the institutional response to drug abuse and how it is felt disproportionately among the poor and among African Americans and Hispanics. According to the research it was discovered from a global survey data from the World Health Organization, that Americans are more likely to try illegal drugs than anyone else in the world. Approximately forty-two percent of American adults have tried marijuana and Americans are also number one in terms of annual prescription

Historically speaking, according to Narconon (2015), the issue of prescription drug abuse began in the 1800’s when consumers could self-prescribe medications such as cocaine and morphine. In the 1900’s, the Pure Food and Drug and Harrison Narcotic Tax acts were put into place as measures to control the sale and distribution of these substances (Narconon International, 2015). Today, the prescription drug problem continues to be a growing issue that has many consequences in our society.

In the United States, the rise in both illicit drug and alcohol abuse is continuing at an alarming rate. In 2009 alone, the United States saw 23.5 million people over the age of 12 needing treatment for drug or alcohol abuse (National Institute of Drug Abuse, 2011). Per the Drug Enforcement Administration, in the same year (2009), almost 32,000 arrests on drug related charges were carried out (Drug Enforcement Administration, 2015). Even with the threat of prison time, and most federal prisons being filled with inmates on drug and alcohol related charges, 46.4% in 2016 the use and abuse of these substances is still on the rise (Federal Bureau of Prisons, 2016). Because of this, and the seemingly ineffective incarceration system, the call for

The consequences of drug and alcohol abuse in America are very costly. Boren, Onken, Carroll, write, “although the costs can be evaluated in dollars, they are more readily understood in human terms: family discord, neglect of children, personal misery, financial and medical problems, fetal alcohol syndrome, HIV infection legal problems…combating and reducing the source of these problems have proven to be difficult indeed…” (Boren, Onken, Carroll, 2000).

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.

Substance abuse and addiction have become a social problem that afflicts millions of individuals and disrupts the lives of their families and friends. Just one example reveals the extent of the problem: in the United States each year, more women and men die of smoking related lung cancer than of colon, breast and prostate cancers combined (Kola & Kruszynski, 2010). In addition to the personal impact of so much illness and early death, there are dire social costs: huge expenses for medical and social services; millions of hours lost in the workplace; elevated rates of crime associated with illicit drugs; and scores of children who are damaged by their parents’ substance abuse behavior (Lee, 2010). This paper will look at

"In 1988, the National Institute on Drug Abuse estimated that 12 percent of full-time employed Americans between the ages of 20 and 40 used an illicit drug" (Goldburg 62). Twenty percent of the 14.5 million Americans who use drugs are employed. This fact has convinced many that

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

Over the course of the last twenty years, drug usage has changed rather dramatically. From the kinds of drugs used to their potencies to how much is used, there are multiple factors to observe. Some drugs that didn’t even exist or were almost unheard of that long ago are some of the most abused today and are growing in popularity. In this essay I will be analyzing how people use drugs differently today than they did 20 years ago, in 1997, as opposed to how it is used today in 2017. In addition to this, we will be looking at how this change is affecting society and whether or not we’re better off than we were in the late 1990s.

Drugs and alcohol have been evident in each and every generation, throughout the history of the United States. For this reason, substances have overtaken the lives of many consumers. Substance Abuse, commonly known as drug abuse, is the consistent use of a drug in which users, consume substances in amounts, that can be harmful to the individual and his/her surroundings. These substances can be items such as alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, heroin, or even prescription drugs.( Wulffson 1) Substance Abuse is a major problem that impacts society on many levels. Regardless of whether you struggle with substance abuse, the emotional and financial impacts of this disorder stems and shoots out through communities, cities, and states rapidly. In the United States, Substance Abuse alone costs our nation more than $484 billion per year. The cost of Substance Abuse is spiraled from traffic accidents, healthcare costs, job loss, and even crime. (NIDA 1) “According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an estimated 21.8 million Americans age twelve years and older (8.7 percent of the population) used illicit drugs within one month of the survey.” (Wulffson 1) Many substances that have addictive properties, therefore the user becomes dependent upon the substance and eventually, extremely addicted to it. Almost : substance that is abused yields negative effects on the users and their community. Abusing substances can lead to various health problems. For example, tobacco is a

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