The drug abuse and violence-connected series present itself in several distinct and distinguishable different aspects: drugs of abuse may work on brain systems that cause an unsound individual to engage in aggressive and violent deeds. However, any person with heavy drug habits may act negatively and involve in violent acts punishable by law in order to get the capital for buying more drugs (Valzelli, 1967). Nevertheless, drugs are grouped variously depending on the effect they have on an individual, consequently, some drugs produce numbness or stupor and are often taken for pleasure or to reduce pain (extensive use can lead to addiction), some are psychoactive drugs that induces hallucinations or altered sensory experiences, and lastly, some drugs temporarily quickens some vital process. These various groups of drugs considerably vary and relate to violence in different ways.
The continually overwhelming drug-violence links as well as the current sudden violent spontaneous occurrence of ‘crack’ cocaine and; ice’ methamphetamine epidemics in the world present impressive examples of severe and complicated public health questions raised for consideration or solution that need to be compounded in a careful and broadway.
Much of the reason for the present criminal justice advance to drug control arises from the well-documented relationship between drugs and violent crime (Paul, 1975). The obvious underlying principle behind drug control policies stressing law enforcement and criminal justice interventions is that drugs cause crime and that declaring a ‘war on drugs will put a stop to drug-related crime. In considering or examining the relationship of drug policy to violent crime, however, it is of supreme significance to differentiate between violence caused by actual drug use or substance abuse (i.e. ‘drug-induced ‘violence, or violence caused by the actual physical and or mental alterations brought on by use of illicit drugs) and violence that is a consequence of the high stakes involved in the illicit drug trade.
Of late, the Department of Justice carried out a complete search of all of the existing evidence on the relationship between drugs and violence and issued a report of the finding.
In summary, some agreement seems to have emerged that the world government’s emphasis on the criminal justice approach to controlling illegal drugs not only has failed to resolve the problems of violent crime but has worsened them.
There is no doubt that some type of drug use may end in unwanted, intolerable, and anti-social behavior. However, it appears that the intense causes of violent crimes, which frequently find classification under the heading of ‘drug related’ are caused by different factors not linked to real pharmacological effects of controlled substances upon individual behavior.
Drugs develop a various manner of violent and aggressive action by the use of the central sensory and control apparatus consisting of a network of nerve cells (Solursh, 1975). This negative act, however, can make one or more partial changes to the network of nerve cells in a very complex method and at various degrees that eventually aim at the mechanisms of the part of the central nervous system that includes all the higher nervous centers within the skull.
In conclusion, experimental studies proved that the excessive use of drugs (especially alcohol, and marijuana) mostly results in committing violence and crime or being involved in an unlawful act (Tinklenberg, and Stillman, 1970).
However, the excessive use of drugs can be linked to violence and crime and at the same time causes damage to the proper functioning of the network of the entire nervous system.
Reference List
Paul, D. M. (1975). Drugs and aggressions. Medicine, Science and the Law 15: 16-21.
Solursh, L.P. (1975). Psychoactive drugs, crime and violence. Psychological Reports 37: 1177-1178.
Tinklenberg, J.R., and Stillman, R.C. (1970). Drug use and violence. Pp. 327-365 in D.N. Daniels, M.F. Gilula, and F.M. Ochberg, eds., Violence and the struggle for existence. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
Valzelli, L. (1967). Drugs and aggressiveness. Advances in Pharmacology 5:79-108.