Society Treat Substance Abuse

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 boundaries, such as race, class, socioeconomic status, age, and gender, to name a few. Historically, substance abuse has been identified in many different ways, and society’s, namely the United States in this paper, approach in identifying and addressing the problem has changed over time.

Chris Mauti SOC 341 Professor Norton-Hawk 11 December 2013 Final Paper America’s drug problem has been a major issue of this country for many years. There are many different reasons that people will argue that America hasn’t been able to find a solution to this drug war that is eating away at America and the people both in its boarders and outside. Drugs haven been around forever, but as time goes on, we are starting to notice their negative effect more and more. The addiction, crime, money and corruption is taking its toll on everyone surrounded by drugs. When we rely on the supply and demand explanation for America’s drug problem, we can find ourselves with many questions.

American Drug Abuse Our society has found itself directly in the middle of a transcontinental drug surge. An estimated 23 million of the world’s population regularly take illicit drugs, and the Drug Enforcement Administration estimated that 13.6 million of those who habitually used illegal drugs in 1998 were Americans. Even in our current everyday motions of life and productivity, we have set the path for self-destruction. “We awake to the kick of caffeine, soothe our nerves with tobacco, ease our tension headaches with aspirin, wind down the day with alcohol, and swallow an antihistamine to help us sleep – all perfectly legal, respectable, and even expected (“Drug Abuse” 195).”

Substance use disorders and mental health disorder can be challenging for human services professionals as well as for the individual; combined these disorders together and treatment can be seemingly insurmountable. The complexity of the disorders separately, as well as together raises the need for treatment that looks at the whole person not just a set of symptoms. The debate between which disorder came first is useless at helping to resolve the problems that are currently occurring with these complex disorders. According to Stevens & Smith (2013), over five million adults have a co-occurring disorder. With such high number it’s no surprise that the amount of money that is spending on co-occurring disorders is staggering and far exceeds that

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 enormous advancements in the field of disease treatment, the discoveries are at the same time adding additional routes to becoming drug addicts on the prescription front. In addition, although illicit drug use by teens has been incrementally decreasing since 2001, it still affects a large enough population to interfere with the ever developing nation of the United States. As drug abuse continues to be initiated in adolescence, the chances of it manifesting itself in adult society remain high. Efforts to contain both prescriptive and illicit drug abuse have both failed and succeeded, on different wavelengths. One of the first drug abuse prevention programs, D.A.R.E., has recently been classified as ineffective. More institutionalized, nationally funded efforts of the United States government have begun to target foreign hierarchical drug pyramids in an effort to halt drug use within America. This paper will examine these issues surrounding prescriptive and illicit drug abuse, with the former ...

This medicalized interpretation of heroin addiction heavily emphasizes a constant state of suffering for those who are affected (Garcia 2010, 18). Furthermore, Nuevo Dia employees take this framework into account when contributing their efforts to treat addicts, on the premise that relapse will soon follow recovery (Garcia 2010, 13). When detox assistants assure themselves that their patients will return to the clinic, as if they never went through a period of treatment, one can expect that the quality of such to be drastically low. The cyclical pattern of inadequate therapies, temporary improvements in health and detrimental presuppositions all widen the health inequality gap in New Mexico. Garcia shares that the “interplay of biomedical and local discourses of chronicity compel dynamics of the Hispano heroin phenomenon,” which is evident in how the judicial system handles the social issue of addiction (2010,

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...

cultural change in our country that could face the dependence on drugs. We don’t need millions

Substance abuse is just one of the problems facing the United States today. Even though it seems like a big problem, it actually first started in the 1800’s when the first drugs were smuggled. This only began the never ending path of illegal drugs flowing through the U.S.

The consequences that follow the use of any drug are unfavorable. Although many individuals may see drug addiction as a mere lifestyle choice, it is a problem that many individuals suffer from and inevitably a growing issue that leaves major social and economic impacts.