Drug Addiction: The Causes Of Substance Abuse

Drug abuse is the habitual use of substances in dangerous amounts or even methods that may bring harm to the user of the substances (World Health Organization, 2009). The substances commonly used are psychoactive substances which can easily lead to a dependency problem by the substance user. Drug abuse is a sociological threat that poses a danger to all people especially the youth. Addiction is possible not only with illegal drugs such as heroin and cocaine, but also with prescription drugs such as oxycodone. According to National Institute on Drug Abuse, the United States government loses about $700 billion every year due to crimes caused by people under the influence of drugs, medical costs, and addicted workers.

The death rate from benzodiazepines has more than quadrupled from 1998 to 2013 (Storrs). Now, anti-anxiety drugs like Xanax account for half of all overdoses nationwide (Mellor). Xanax abuse is part of whatIt is often called the shadow epidemic, because the general public mainly focuses on drugs like heroin, cocaine and opiods. This centralized focus on only a couple types of dangerous drugs gives a sort of tunnel vision effect, blinding people from seeing or caring about “better” drugs like

What would you do if someone whom you love becomes addicted to heroin? Most people would try everything they can to take that person out of addiction. Others, learn to deal with it by making it a permanent part of their life. However, some people find alternative solutions to the problem. Likewise, in “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin, Sonny is able to replace his heroin addiction with music.

During adolescence, teenagers are trying to figure out who they are and where they belong in society. The patient may have got involved with a group of friends that experimented with drugs and this could have resulted in her to think, "if everyone else is doing it then it must not be too bad." This is a prime example of an individuals actions’ that are influenced by social pressures and environmental cues. This is demonstrated through sociocultural perspective to help understand abnormal

Alcohol affects reaction time, reasoning, judgement, coordination, self-control and impulse, resulting in decreased ability to resolve conflicts and increasing overall likelihood of violence occurrence(5.5). Consequently leading to brawls, fighting, unethical or aggressive behaviour and outbursts. Statistics present that 1,600 of the 5000 adolescent deaths (under 21) resulting from binge drinking are homicides(6). Binge drinking is heavily associated with violence, linked with the adolescent’s individual temperament, inexperience, intake and unique drug effects. Economical and physical impacts can be deduced when approximately 10,000 adolescent admissions (aged 15-20) experienced forms of physical injury resulting from alcohol in 2008.

To what extent do drugs affect the human body? There are good and bad ways for people to deal with pressure and one of the bad ways is by taking illegal drugs. Drugs have been part of the human culture since the middle of 20th century. An investigation tells us that approximately 208 million people worldwide consume illegal drugs. Different types of drug affect our body in a number of ways.

Second to marijuana prescription drugs are now the most common illicit drug used by young adults to get high. Misuse can lead to addiction, and even overdose deaths. Some people have an increased genetic risk of getting addicted to medications but environmental factors such as economic level, lack of employment and pressure from peers also have a significant impact. The definition of abuse of prescription drugs is using

There many causes of substance abuse amongst teens in SA but the main ones are Depression and peer pressure. Teens experience and temporary high or wooziness during the intake of the drug. The long term effects on substance abuse are muscle fatigue, lung failure, kidney failure and brain damage and potentially cancer. Substance abuse plays a big role in death due to drunk driving and death due illusions created

The drug user continues to use substances and the compulsive behavior despite the harmful consequences, and tries to systematically avoid responsibility and reality, while he or she tends to isolate himself/herself from others because of guilt and pain (Angres, & Bettinardi-Angres, 2008). All these characteristics led to the conclusion that drug addiction is a chronic, relapsing brain disease that is characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use. It is considered as a brain disease because drugs change the structure of the brain, and how it works. Every drug affects different systems of the brain. For example, in the case of cocaine, as the brain is adapted in the presence of the specific drug, brain regions responsible for judgment, decision-making, learning, and memory begin to physically change, making certain behaviors “hard-wired.” In some brain regions, connections between neurons are pruned back.

Causes and Effects of Drug Abuse Substance abuse is a form of substance-related disorder. It refers to the harmful or hazardous use of substances that affects almost every community, including alcohol, tobacco and legal or illegal drugs. Drug abuse is one of the most commonly substance abuse in teenagers. It is a disease that is defined as a destructive pattern of using drugs that can cause significant problems or distress. The most commonly abused drugs among them are marijuana, cocaine, heroin and hallucinogens.

Drug abuse is a major problem that impacts negatively on its users and the society at multiple levels. In one way or another, substance abuse affects members of the community taking a tremendous toll on the society at large. The cost incurred to reduce the effects of substance abuse and addiction in the US alone surpasses the cost of treating terminal illnesses such as diabetes and cancer. Substance abuse costs the nation at least $484 billion per year. This cost includes healthcare expenditures, costs associated with accidents and crime, and lost earnings.

“I started off by taking them by mouth and after about three years I began to snort them,” said Stashak. Though Stashak may not have grown up in a socially disorganized home, the drug dealers that sell to him may have. The dealers are not only hurting the buyer, they are also hurting themselves and the rest of society. Drugs can easily destroy someone’s normal life, whether they grew up in a good neighborhood or not. They can and will affect anyone who choses to abuse them and that is a clear indication that drugs are a major issue in today’s

Aaleyah Patterson Tom Scales U.S. Public Policy & Democracy 10 March 2016 The “War On Drugs” Is A Public Policy Failure Here we are, four decades after Richard Nixon declared the war on drugs in 1971 and $1 trillion spent since then. What do we have to show for it? Externalities that were unforeseen. It has led to mass incarceration in the U.S., corruption, political destabilization and violence in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. It negatively affected the lives of millions of people all of this while America wastes billions of dollars every year only to create and fuel powerful drug cartels while the goal of the war on drugs seems less achievable than ever.