Abuse of illicit drugs causes many social problems including crime. Up to 60% of adults in Federal prisons are there for drug related crimes. Crime and violence destroys families and peoples lives.
31% of American homelessness people suffer from drug abuse or alcoholism. These are just a couple of social implications drugs can have on society.
Illicit drugs that have high incidence of abuse are: Narcotics, hallucinogenics, stimulants, depressants, bath salts or designer cathinones, DXM and salvia divinorum.
In order to research one of the causes of illicit drug abuse I referred to a study conducted in 2012 that presented a lot of useful demographical information.
According to the National Institute on Drug abuse, who conduct annual surveys, in 2012 an estimated 23.9 million Americans aged 12 or older had used or abused and illicit or psychotherapeutic drug.
Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug. Some states permit medical marijuana. Twenty-one states currently have laws legalizing it in some form, whether for medical or recreational purposes. Marijuana is currently legal in Colorado and Washington for recreational use.
Research has shown that more than half of new illicit drug users begin with marijuana. The next most common are prescription pain medications.
Table1 represents the age and percentage of drug use in the past month. This graph is obtained from data collected during the 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. We can see from this that the 18 to 20-year-old bracket have the highest rate of use over a month period. The study did conclude that drug use is increasing among people in their fifties. They deduced that this could be due to the aging if the baby boomers whose rate has been historically higher than previous generations.
Table 1
Drug abuse is seen to be most prevalent among Black or African Americans, see Table 2.
Table 2
So why is the incident of drug abuse higher amongst the young black American?
Traditionally there is a higher incident of poverty amongst black Americans. In a survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation that showed the percentage of people living in poverty we can see that people of the Black race have a higher incidence, see Table 3.
Table 3. Location | White | Black | Hispanic | Other | United States | 13% | 35% | 33% | 22% |
Incidence of Poverty according to race. (2011-2012), U.S.
Poverty and the incidence of drug abuse is complex with many reasons. Features include; low-status and low-skilled jobs, dropping out of school, high arrest rates, high incidence of mental disorders, poor physical health, and high mortality rates.
In impoverished neighborhoods opportunities for education is lacking. This can be due to lack of funding and resources. Children are therefor not given the tools to succeeded in life and become something different than the people they are surrounded by. As we know from statics collected by varies studies Black Americans are collectively the majority in the USA said to be living within the poverty boundaries.
Black American children born into families where drug abuse and crime has become a way of life are at risk. Priority is not always placed upon education. Lack of parental support and supervision can lead to a young adult growing up amongst a society that has heavy peer influence.
Many children are born into families where drug abuse and crime has become a way of survival. There can be a lack of parental support and supervision. Children don’t graduate from school and can turn to a life of crime for survival, with that generally drugs are involved. If they do graduate they generally will not have the means to continue their education and become unemployed or they will have low skilled jobs.
The cycle will continue amongst these societies thus increasing the problem
Many times, drugs and alcohol are easily accessible in impoverished neighborhoods where some people actually sell drugs in hopes of overcoming poverty.
A person in an impoverished situation may abuse drugs as a way to cope with the dangerous environment she or he lives in, also it is a way to deal with financial stresses or a way to cope with physical or emotional abuse.
Thus we can conclude that as implicated in this short investigation regarding drug abuse in the USA people living within the poverty bracket of society are statistically the Black Americans. The incidence of illicit drug abuse is increased amongst the young adult. There are several factors that contribute to this increased incidence but for young people we can see that the lack of opportunity for education is one of the factors.
References
BlackDemographics.com | POVERTY. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://blackdemographics.com/households/poverty/
DrugFacts: Nationwide Trends | National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/nationwide-trends
NIDA - Drug Abuse and Addiction: One of America's Most Challenging Public Health Problems. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://archives.drugabuse.gov/about/welcome/aboutdrugabuse/magnitude/
Poverty Rate by Race/Ethnicity | The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/poverty-rate-by-raceethnicity/
DEA / Drug Fact Sheets. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.justice.gov/dea/druginfo/factsheets.shtml
State Marijuana Laws Map. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.governing.com/gov-data/state-marijuana-laws-map-medical-recreational.html
