The Effects of Substance Abuse

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Substance abuse affects hundreds of millions of people around the world. It can be a debilitating and destructive force in people’s lives and cause them to negatively affect not only themselves but those around them. There are many different reasons for the prevalence of substance abuse and the effects these substances have on people. Different drugs affects individuals in many different ways but substance abuse can often be connected both directly and indirectly to criminal activity. These reasons include but are not limited to pharmacological, psychological, and social variables involved in substance abuse and are what lead to the association between drugs and crime.
It is estimated that in the year 2010 anywhere between 153 million and 300 million people aged 15-64 used an illicit substance at least once (“World Drug Report 2012," 2012). The substances that are considered illicit drugs are ones that are illegal such as marijuana, amphetamines, cocaine, and opiates. Although, the estimate’s minimum and maximum are quite spread out one must remember that some of these estimates come from remote countries and regions where there are either very unreliable or no statistical data available. None the less this number is very alarming because it means that anywhere between 3.4 percent and 6.6 percent of the world’s population between the ages of 15 and 64 have used illicit drugs. Roughly 12 percent of those users are dependent on drugs or have some kind of drug disorder (“World Drug Report 2012,” 2012). A separate study done in in the United States by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration estimated that roughly 22.6 million Americans over the age of 12 years are illicit drug users (Bartol & Bartol, 478). The ...

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...NC. Retrieved from http://www.ncadd.org/index.php/for-youth/drugs-and-crime/230-alcohol-drugs-and-crime
Bartol & Bartol,, C. R., & Bartol & Bartol,, A. M. (2014). Criminal behavior: A psychosocial approach. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson Education.
Benet, Hess, & Orthamnn,, C. M., Hess, K. M., Cho, H. L., & Bennett, W. W. (2013). Criminal investigation. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar Cengage Learning.
Synthetic Drugs (a.k.a. K2, Spice, Bath Salts, etc.) Office of National Drug Control Policy (n.d.). The White House. Retrieved from Whitehouse website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/ondcp/ondcp-fact-sheets/synthetic-drugs-k2-spice-bath-salts

WORLD DRUG REPORT 2012: RECENT STATISTICS AND TREND ANALYSIS OF ILLICIT DRUG MARKETS. (2012). Retrieved from United Nations Office on Drug and Crime website: http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/WDR2012/WDR_2012_Chapter1.pdf

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