Substance Abuse
Drug crime and abuse are widespread tendencies in American society. The research of the Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that in contemporary prisons, around 50% of inmates are incarcerated for drug-related offenses (Carson, 2015). The problem of substance abuse concerns everyone in the modern USA and needs to be addressed as soon as possible as it causes social, political, and economic instabilities in the state.
Sociocultural Determinants of Substance Abuse
Several sociocultural influences can be viewed as the determinants of drug abuse and chemical dependence. Among such factors, there are physical features of the individuals such as their age, gender, and ethnicity, and there are socio-economic features such as poverty, criminal records, convictions, displacement, lack of education. Besides, the environments, where the individuals grow up and dwell, impact the patterns of drug abuse. For instance, the rates of addictions and drug crime are higher in the inner city areas and the communities dominated by criminal gangs. Moreover, drugs can be a part of the cultural heritage of art and fashion communities, sports environments, or just a historical period when different kinds of substances were deemed socially acceptable.
Use Trends
The most widely used illicit drug in the United States is marijuana, the survey conducted in 2013 showed that about 20 million people in the country are users of this drug (DrugFacts: Nationwide Trends, 2015). The overall use of drugs has been steadily growing over the past few years and jumped from 9.4% in 2013 to 8.3% of the American population in 2002 (DrugFacts: Nationwide Trends, 2015).
Monetary Costs
Substance abuse costs the American nation tens of billions of dollars. Its cost includes the treatments of drug use, harm reduction programs, anti-drug campaigns, raids to identify and capture the drug traffickers, the support of all the incarcerated drug offenders to name a few. This issue has criminal, social, and public health sides and requires the participation of millions of citizens of various career fields. The approximate annual costs of all the actions targeting drug use in total are estimated at 190 billion dollars (Magnitude, n. d.).
Physical and Psychological Damage
Drugs are known to produce a strong negative impact on the human body and mind. Initially, drugs bring feelings of euphoria and happiness, but eventually, these are replaced by addiction – the need to consume a drug to be able to function normally. The psychological effects of drugs are depression, inability to enjoy life, paranoia, anxiety, risky and irrational behaviors, mental illness, and hallucinations (Tracy, 2015). Physical impacts are irregular heart rate, kidney, liver, and brain damage, stomach pain and disorders, seizures, and strokes (Tracy, 2015).
Crime and Accidents
The use of substances increases the probability of criminal behavior or accidents that may occur due to violent outbreaks, desire for risk, or reduced concentration. Substance abuse and intoxications are often associated with a range of criminal activities such as manufacturing and distribution of drugs, organized crime, trafficking. Moreover, the need to support the harmful habits leads to such crimes as theft and prostitution.
Interpersonal Relationships, Suicide, Homicide
Substance abuse maximizes the rates of suicidal behaviors among teenagers and young adults. The research showed that most of the homicides are directly linked to drugs and resulted from the rivalry between drug lords and drug transactions; in most cases either the victim or the suspect had prior records for use, dealing, or buying drugs (SASCI, 2002). As for interpersonal relations – the majority of couples where at least one of the partners is a user is unhappy. Alcohol and drug abuse are among the most common causes of divorce.
The Dynamics of Addiction
Denial of the habit happens when an individual refuses to admit the fact that they might be dependent on a substance. Denial can be explained as a failure to acknowledge the habit due to being too involved in its support.
Rationalization is close to denial; it happens when an individual applies what they perceive as rational thinking to the problem of dependency. Rationalization can be recognized as one’s attempts to convince themselves that one may quit using at any time and that their habit is not that harmful or dangerous.
Intellectualization can be explained as a passive way to address the habit through approaching it scientifically and doing research about it. An individual who intellectualizes their habit will find and read literature about it, explore its various aspects. In that way, an individual creates an illusion of a distant and rational approach to the habit that can be mistaken for having it under control.
Displacement occurs when an individual bothered and stressed by their dependency attempts to deal with the unwanted emotions redirecting them. As a result, such people may intentionally distract themselves with various tasks and duties to avoid having to deal with the actual cause of their frustration. The displaced emotions can be expressed in forms of workaholic behavior, extreme creativity, or reckless and risky lifestyle.
Reaction formation is an individual’s attempt to deal with their frustration about a habit employing shifting their emotions to the opposite of those they would typically experience. For instance, an addicted smoker may either be rather sarcastic and humorous about the habit or keep speaking about other people with this habit.
Reference List
Carson, A. E. (2015). Prisoners in 2014. Web.
DrugFacts: Nationwide Trends. (2015). Web.
Magnitude. (n. d.). NIDA. Web.
SASCI. (2002). The Link Between Drugs and Homicide. Web.
Tracy, N. (2015). Effects of Drug Addiction (physical and psychological). Web.