Drug Addiction

The concept of drug addiction is often surrounded vast stigma and beliefs that it is completely of one’s own volition. Though choice is a significant factor in the matter, there are numerous causes and predispositional factors which may make an individual more likely to become addicted to drugs. This is especially relevant when referring to addiction following prescription drug usage as a form of pain management, mental health management, or insomnia treatment. Drug addiction can be caused by a combination of several factors which can be socio cultural, environmental or, in many cases, biological. The biological mechanisms which involve the drug directly changing the chemical makeup, pathways, or the ways through which neurons interact with

As technological advances occur, medicine evolves. These changes in medicine have brought an increase in the concentration and effects of psychoactive drugs while also improving our ability to obtain certain drugs (Cohen and Inaba 4). Ranging from the nineteenth century to the modern day, they changes have progressively improved availability of drugs and effectiveness (Cohen and Inaba 4). These changes make the problems of drug abuse and drug addiction much more prevalent and significant in modern day.

Drug abuse can have detrimental effects to individuals, communities, and society. National Institute on Drug Addiction cites studies show the correlation between acts of violence and the use of drugs theft, assault, and homicide (“Magnitude”) . These studies date back to 2000 but they show how drug abuse has been around for a considerable amount of

Since there was a large need for pain treatment and the manufacturing companies of the pain medication started falsely advertising that there was a new and effective drug which was non-addictive. The advertisements, and the doctors who were sponsored by the drug companies, stated that OxyContin was a “slow-release” drug, and thus less addictive (OxyContin: Time Bomb). Those who used the medication were under the influence that it was safe and were less likely to notice when they were experiencing addictive behaviors. Afterwards, people began using the drug without the fear of becoming addicted but they were not able to prevent it. Since there were neuroadaptive changes, numerous people were affected by this