The abuse of substances such as alcohol and other harmful drugs (perhaps even a vicious combination composed of a number of the many possible constituents) is an aspect of life that arises simply from the manifestation of human nature itself—an incredibly profound and complex calamity which stems from this vague, yet familiar, source. It is a sword with many edges and a lust for its victims, and if taken to the extents of excess, will function as an inescapable common denominator for the division of an addict’s life and priorities. There is a certain notion, often espoused by former drug abusers, “that you can get a lot higher without drugs than you can with them.” However, throughout history there has existed a countess number of people, groups, and cultures who have employed drugs and alcohol as a means of “fuel”/self-propulsion, in similar magnitudes to what it takes an average American family to run a car for a year, and without which would have left nothing near as great of a scar on the facet of history’s withered skin. Hunter Thompson once noted, when attempting to get a handle on the meaning of the infamous Hell’s Angels mystique, that it is a fine line between survival and disaster—a fair definition of luck as well:
The Edge…There is no honest way to explain it, because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over. The others—the living—are those who pushed their control as far as they thought they could handle it, and then pulled back, slowed down, or did whatever they had to when it came to chose between Now and Later. But the edge is still out there. Or maybe it’s in. The association of motorcycles with LSD is no act of publicity. They are both a means to an end, to the place of defi...
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... entertainment, revenue, and so on. Any theme that is prevalent in the real world universally is undoubtedly an appropriate theme in literature.
Works Cited
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“Drugs and Alcohol Theme in The Glass Menagerie.” Online. Accessed: 5 June 2010<
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“Drug and Alcohol Quotes in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Online. Accessed: 5
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Thompson, Hunter S. Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga. New York, NY:
Random House, 1966.
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003.
“The harmful use of alcohol is a global problem which compromises both individual and social development. It results in 2.5 million deaths each year. An intoxicated person can harm others or put them at risk of traffic accidents or violent behavior, or negatively affect co-workers, relatives, friends or strangers. Thus, the impact of the harmful use of alcohol reaches deep into society.” This is a scary statistic which figuratively states that every thirteen seconds someone dies in a death related to alcohol. CBS news reported that more than 30 percent of American adults have abused alcohol or suffered from alcoholism at some point in their lives. This is a staggering number which is widely overlooked because alcohol is legal. Those who suffer feel helpless and trapped by their addiction being unable to stop and quit on their own. Thankfully a man named, Bill Wilson, lead a group of men to write how to become set free from the slavery of addiction.
Addiction is one of the hardest problems to overcome, yet people often find some reward in abusing drugs. We all ask the question to what makes a person an addict, or why is it so hard for drug addicts to kick a drug problem. However, can we say that getting a hold of drugs is much easier in today’s society, or is it made available to easy. In this day and age, heroine seems to be a major epidemic; furthermore, opiates have been around for centuries. Therefore, people have been battling addiction for as long as opiates have been around. In Drugstore Cowboy, the film takes a look in to the life of four people who rob drugstores in order to support their habit; however, this lifestyle
Tennessee Williams. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1978. 1. See Section 167. Heilman, Robert.
Throughout “Chasing the Scream” many intriguing stories are told from individuals involved in the drug war, those on the outside of the drug war, and stories about those who got abused by the drug war. Addiction has many social causes that address drug use and the different effects that it has on different people. In our previous history we would see a tremendous amount of individuals able to work and live satisfying lives after consuming a drug. After the Harrison Act, drugs were abolished all at once, but it lead to human desperation so instead of improving our society, we are often the reason to the problem. We constantly look at addicts as the bad guys when other individuals are often the reasons and influences to someone’s decision in
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press, 1989.
The reason with the old ways do not work, Alexander say, is because “self-destructive drug users are responding in a tragic, but understandable way” (226). It is not their drug- problem that caused the dislocation, but the dislocation that cause the drug problem. He uses the term dislocation to describe the lack of integration with “family, community, society and spiritual values” (226). Alexander goes on to explain that history proves that inability to achieve health opportunities can take on the form of violence, and damaging drug use. Therefore, the “drug problem” (226) is not the problem. The problem is more the “pattern of response to prolong dislocation” (226). Alexander supports this by explaining the reason for the dislocation as being globalized by a society that is market driven which can only be established by the displacement of tradition, economy, and relationships. This has been seen in history before in England during the 19TH century, when “a brutal, export-oriented manufacturing system” was accompanied by work...
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. In Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing, 4th ed. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995. 1519-1568.
From the inception of the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914, the social concept of drug addicts or those recovering from abuse as “criminal deviants” is still stigmatized today even though we have gained ground and won the war on dru...
That being said, drugs and alcohol, can cause ones to lose their lifestyle and even their loved ones. Using and abusing drugs and alcohol can also lead to addiction. This creates a whole different empire in one’s life. Some may even steal, lie and cheat, just to obtain their ability to get there next fix. Sometimes getting their next fix can even create a door way to putting them in jail or prison. Even to the point of no return, this could create the loss of one’s own
“For every family that is impacted by drugs, there are another 10 to 15 families impacted by alcohol abuse. It's a pretty big deal. We have a tendency to only look at part of the puzzle.” (Kevin Lewis). As a society we tend to categorize the severity of addiction in a way that drugs are the most dangerous and alcohol being just a problem. Because alcohol addiction can be a slow progressive disease many people don’t see it in the same light as drug addiction. An addiction to drugs is seen as being a more deadly and dangerous issue then that of alcohol because a drug addiction can happen more quickly and can kill more quickly. Alcohol is something that is easy to obtain, something that is found at almost every restaurant. People with an alcohol addiction can not hide from alcohol as easy as a drug addict. Approximately 7 million Americans suffer from alcohol abuse and another 7 million suffer from alcoholism. (Haisong 6) The dangers of alcohol affect everyone from children with alcoholic parents, to teenagers who abuse alcohol, then to citizens who are terrorized by drunk drivers.
Drugs are used to escape the real and move into the surreal world of one’s own imaginations, where the pain is gone and one believes one can be happy. People look on their life, their world, their own reality, and feel sickened by the uncaringly blunt vision. Those too weak to stand up to this hard life seek their escape. They believe this escape may be found in chemicals that can alter the mind, placing a delusional peace in the place of their own depression: “Euphoric, narcotic, pleasantly halucinant,” (52). They do this with alcohol, acid, crack, cocaine, heroine, opium, even marijuana for the commoner economy. These people would rather hide behind the haze than deal with real problems. “...A gramme is better than a damn.” (55).
Drug in the American Society is a book written by Eric Goode. This book, as the title indicates, is about drugs in the American Society. It is especially about the misuse of most drugs, licit or illicit, such us alcohol, marijuana and more. The author wrote this book to give an explanation of the use of different drugs. He wrote a first edition and decided to write this second edition due to critic and also as he mentioned in the preface “there are several reason for these changes. First, the reality of the drug scene has changed substantially in the past dozen or so years. Second much more information has been accumulated about drug use. And third, I’m not the same person I was in 1972.”(vii). The main idea of this book is to inform readers about drugs and their reality. In the book, Goode argued that the effect of a drug is dependent on the societal context in which it is taken. Thus, in one society a particular drug may be a depressant, and in another it may be a stimulant.
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. In Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing, 4th ed. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995. 1519-1568.
Belasco, Susan, and Linck Johnson, eds. The Bedford Anthology of American Literature. Vol. 1, 2nd Ed., Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. 1190-1203. Print.
Substance abuse is an issue that plays a major social problem in society, the effect of drugs on families and communities is destructive. This paper will discuss evidence showing how substance abuse is a specific social problem that is widespread, and is affecting every level of our judicial system. Many people turn to drugs for many different reasons, they will try just about anything to relieve the pain. In our society today many people go through devastating experiences in their life. Furthermore people turn to drugs to mask the horrible memories and find relief. Drugs can temporarily relieve the symptoms of angry, loneliness or boredom, but it may be a temporary fix to an individual problems. They may