...DRUG ABUSE IN AMERICA Drug Abuse in America Everett Burton Central Carolina Technical College Abstract Since the 19th century when Americans first discovered new wonder drugs like morphine, heroin, and cocaine, our society has confronted the problem of drug abuse and addiction. The United States--grappling with its first drug epidemic in the early 20th century--gradually instituted effective restrictions: at home through domestic law enforcement and overseas by spearheading a world movement to limit opium and coca crops. By World War II, American drug use had become so rare, it was seen as a marginal social problem. The first epidemic was forgotten. During the 1960s, drugs like marijuana, amphetamines, and psychedelics came on the scene, and a new generation embraced drugs. Today with the drug culture exploding, our government has developed new laws and agencies to address the problem. Drug Abuse in America` A major problem that exists within American society is the abuse of mind-altering substances. Such narcotics cause not only health problems, but also violent and potentially criminal acts. A mind-altering narcotic can be defined as both the legal and illegal type. The four main categories of drugs are: narcotics, CNS depressants, CNS stimulants, and hallucinogens. Most of these drugs are highly addictive and are usually obtained by prescription or are considered a banned substance and must be purchased illegally. ...
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...Drug Abuses in America Growing at Alarming Rates Drug Abuses in America Growing at Alarming Rates Drug abuse in America used to be a very bad thing, but now its pretty common. Drug users inhabit almost every city or town in America. Drug abuse or use doesn’t necessarily mean using illegal drugs. It can mean abusing the use of prescription medicines or using household chemicals to get high. There are different types of drugs and different street names. For instance, if I want to buy a hit of ecstasy I would ask for ‘E’ or ‘X’. Heroin would be ‘smack’, ‘H’, or ‘junk’. Methamphetamine would be ‘crystal’ or ‘speed’. LSD is called ‘acid’ for its scientific name lysergic acid. The different types of drugs are stimulants or ‘uppers’ and depressants or ‘downers’. Two examples of ‘uppers’ are crystal methamphetamine and MDMA or ecstasy. Two examples of ‘downers’ are alcohol and marijuana. ‘Uppers’ are called ‘uppers’ because they stimulate you and can keep you awake a few days if you are a frequent user. They also speed up your heart rate, make you hallucinate, and can lead to death if mixed with other drugs. The high they produce gives you a euphoric feeling or lead to violence depending on what type of mood you are in before using them. The high lasts for anywhere from 2 hours to days at a time depending on how much of the drug you use. It starts to hit you from around 5 minutes to around 30 minutes after you use. Some people take a hit then when the high starts to wear off...
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...Prescription Drug Abuse in America Kelsey Diamond Ferris State University Abstract Prescription drug abuse is a very real and prominent facet of American society. According to the staff at Mayo Clinic, “Prescription drug abuse is the use of a prescription medication in a way not intended by the prescribing doctor [and] includes everything from taking a friend's prescription painkiller for your backache to snorting or injecting ground-up pills to get high”. Because of the high rates of abuse and serious effects of prescription drugs, it is important that this topic is explained to and understood by the American public. The purpose of this research was to gain such understanding and organize it in a way that is informational and comprehensible...
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...Drug abuse is the use of drugs, or the abuse of over the counter drugs as well as the drugs. Marijuana is the most common abused drug in America today, people would use this plant to simulate their brain cells, in other words to get 'high'. My opinion among drug abuse is that using drugs for non medical reason is stupendous. Abusing drugs could cause harm to someone and and the others around them. Using drugs could harm ones body, and the way that the brain functions, it will cause them to become lazier and they would participate less in outside activities. The people who smoke who have smoked marijuana would most likely say that it gave them a nice feeling, others who have only experienced it once would say they were scared, the drug is not so strong, it is still quite effective to the human brain. Drug abuse is a common topic today, some people are for drug abuse others are against. A lot of people would not understand why so many people in American today become so addicted to drugs so easily. Sometimes drug abusers, take drugs that affects the brains, and the drug causes the brain to make it harder to quit the drug even when a person has already quit smoking. Most Drugs contain chemicals that travels to the brain and messes with the nerve cells, and it also makes it more difficult for the brain to process the information that is given to them. Some drugs have a similar way to cause disruption to the brain, they all mess with the receptor and nerve cells, and they would...
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...Interstate Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs - A Priority Issue for Partnership for a Drug Free America Abstract One ongoing priority of the Partnership for a drug free America (PDFA) is supporting Prescription drug Monitoring Programs (PDMP). With adolescent prescription drug abuse on the rise PDFA started a 5- year campaign called the Medicine abuse project to prevent teen prescription drug abuse. A vital tool taking precedence in this project is ensuring that Interstate prescription drug monitoring programs are implemented, utilized, and funded in all 50 states. PDFA points to research from the CDC showing the rise of prescription drug abuse amongst teens ,and their recommendation for using prescription drug monitoring programs to gain control over this epidemic. In supporting PDMPs, The Partnership for a Drug Free America is rallying with the Congressional caucus on prescription drug abuse and their initiatives to support nationally interconnected PDMPs. Recently, PDFA has received a great deal of backlash, and their motives for supporting interstate PDMPs have come into question. Mainly, because of their financial support from Pharma Pharmaceuticals. However, PDFA address all funding questions responding that Pharma provides funding solely for educational grants. The use of Interstate PDMPs comes into controversy with states like Florida, suggesting that utilizing interstate PDMPs violates...
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...Substance Abuse among American Adolescents Control substance abuse is an excessive consumption or a disorder use of substances especially drugs or alcohol that is associated with significant problems. Substance abuse is a disease that commonly appears among adolescents. According to Kerby Anderson1, “93% percent of all teenagers have some experience with alcohol by the end of their senior year of high school. Almost two-thirds of all American young people try illicit drugs before they finish high school.” If substance abuse is left untreated, it will cause violence in streets, such as crimes, kidnaping. Also, it will cause domestic violence. For example, many babies are born with drug dependency. There are many basic factors that lead to the use of control substances among American adolescents, how these factors affect our community, and what are the methods used to minimize them. Adolescence is a sensitive period for young people. They are encountered by many basic factors. First of all, family factors, which have the strongest impact on adolescent development, play a part in the influence to try control substances. For example, parents who provide low levels of support, or are not as close to their children, and use bad parenting judgment have children who are more likely to be drug abusers. “The parents are the biggest factor in the choice to drink or drug” (Stephen Artrburn24). Other factors are the social pressure, such as friends and school these significant...
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... Causal Essay Substance abuse has been thought to be a big city problem. However alcohol abuse and illegal drugs such as marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine, have made their way into our small rural communities. Rural America has become a refuge for drug makers, dealers and abusers. Substance abuse such as drugs, alcohol, and prescription drugs are a growing problem in rural communities due to stress, peer pressure and chronic pain. Studies have reported that individuals exposed to stress are more likely to abuse alcohol and other drugs or undergo relapse (National Institute on Drug Abuse, n.d.). It is well established that the effects of stress can damage people’s mental and physical health. Not everyone deals with stress in the same way, where as some people have an inability to deal with it effectively. One of the ways that the individual may attempt to manage their stress is by using alcohol or drugs. This type of self-medication can provide temporary relief, but is ultimately self-defeating. It can mean that the individual will have more stress in their life than ever, but they will have even less of an ability to handle it. Using drugs, as a short-term solution to the stress going on in their life is dangerous and can lead to addiction. Stress can be caused by the loss of job, divorce, death of a loved one or many other numerous situations. Stress is a major factor and is one of the leading causes of drug abuse. Teenagers and young adult face peer...
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...There is a drug crisis in America, but it is not the only crisis America is facing. I would say that there is a health crisis in America more so than a drug crisis. Even though the number of drug related deaths is quite high, there are still more health related deaths. In 2013, Heart Disease caused more than 600,000 deaths alone (Center for Disease Control, 2013) That being said, I do not think that drugs alone are killing America and that is the most serious issue we face. I still agree that drug use and abuse is a problem in America, and that this issue does need to be dealt with, but it is not our only problem. If America is going to focus on this drug issue, then it must recognize all drugs. Society is constantly placing the blame solely...
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...| The Addiction of America | The Abuse of Prescription Drugs in the United States | Sean Barnes | Western Governors University | 12/19/2014 | The abuse of prescription drugs in the United States has reached epidemic proportions and continues to get worse. Most people, however, do not realize how big the problem really is. It continues to get worse every year and it demands our attention. In 2011, just three short years ago, an estimated 52 million people in the United States over the age of 12 had used prescription drugs for a non-medical reason (National survey on drug use, 2011). The most commonly abused prescription drugs are pain relievers. Why are people abusing these drugs and where do they get them? This paper will attempt to answer those questions as well as pose a possible solution on how it can be corrected. Analyzing the Problem To begin, we must first take a look at why so many American citizens are abusing prescription drugs. Most will probably tell us that they became addicted to pain relievers after some sort of horrible accident or surgery. They were prescribed these medications by their Primary Care Provider and told to take them in the correct manner, which are usually one or two tablets/pills every four to six hours apart, as needed for pain. What they were probably not told by their Primary Care Provider is that they should not take them sooner than directed, nor should they take them whenever they are not experiencing pain. The directions on...
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...Substance Abuse Prevention Programs: Operation, Funding, and Effectiveness. Candace Taylor Grand Canyon University Author Note All correspondence to this research should be forwarded to Candace Taylor. Substance abuse has become a serious issue in America. More and more of America’s youth are starting to use drugs than usual. To prevent this, there are many substance abuse prevention programs that are in place to try and prevent this before it even begins. Three programs were examined for this research paper. Those programs are DARE, Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, and SADD. In this paper, the mission, funding and effectiveness of each program will be discussed. DARE DARE, Drug Abuse Resistance Education, is a program created to bring awareness of drug abuse with youth in communities. The mission of this program is to teach kids how to make the right decisions and live a drug free, healthy life. “D.A.R.E. is the national symbol for the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program which, in partnership with police officers, parents and schools is in use throughout the United States.”(DARE.org). The DARE program is funded by federal government resources and private contributors. A few studies were conducted on the effectiveness of this program. Dr. Ismail Sahin conducted an effective DARE program. “This study has showed that while some research studies found a positive effect of the DARE program, some studies found no significant impact at all” (Sahin 2014). There were several...
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...America has been at war, fighting drug abuse for almost a century. Unfortunately, it is a war that America is losing and has had little success in. The U.S. spends billions of dollars every year trying to eradicate drugs from this country and correlating drug abusers with crime. While America’s leaders see the war on drugs as a domestic law endorsement, hospitals, prisons, and morgues continue to fill up with overdosing victims and people who get sentenced to jail because of a mandatory minimum drug offences. America’s criminal justice system needs to stop focusing on punishing and criminalizing drug abusers, and instead give drug abusers the help they need. Which in turn will lower the demand for illegal drugs. “In 2013, 1.5 million U.S. citizens...
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...was, Prescription for Change: Ending America’s Opioid Crisis. This film was a documentary about the Opioid Crisis in America. That being said, the theme of the movie was that, America is facing an opioid epidemic; therefore, America needs to focus on the rehabilitation of substance abusers. The film goes on to make a point that there are not enough treatment options and that the individuals who are seeking treatment, are having difficulties in doing so. The film goes on to discuss further, how America is facing a drug crisis, but it is not the illegal drugs that are the biggest issues, it is the prescription drugs. The film even provides statistics on how big of an issue prescription medications are when it comes to substance abuse....
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...over chapters 9, 10 and 11. Password is “fireengine”. 3. Study guides for Chapters 9, 10 and 11 as well as 12 and 13 must be completed. They will both be collected on Friday May 2nd. 4. If study guides are completed, students should read and answer the Review Questions for Chapter 12 on page 203 and Chapter 13 on page 218 of their textbook. These assignments will be collected. 5. If time allows, students may begin to review all study guides in preparation for upcoming final exam. In order to grasp the ramifications of illegal drug use by public service employees and the necessity of screening for the abuse of such substances by these individuals, it is necessary to have an understanding of how illegal drugs first became a problem in the United States. While substance abuse has challenged society for centuries, the abuse of illegal drugs in the United States dates back to relatively recent history. In America, drug addiction was a problem as far back in time as the original colonies when narcotic and opiate elixirs and treatments were being exported from England. Without any form of government regulation, let alone the medical knowledge necessary to understand the true nature of these substances, it is easy to understand how addiction became a widespread but misunderstood problem. The Revolutionary War brought an abrupt end to the importation of these substances and almost immediately American entrepreneurs saw an opportunity to establish some of the very...
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...Driving through country roads, you get a glimpse of people who seem to be living the American dream, but do you ever wonder what is beyond the white picket fences? What kind of struggles do they face? Later, you find out that, inside the house you once dreamed about, the mother is an alcoholic and the children are drug dealers. It destroys the romance you had envisioned. In recent years, drug use has spiked in America, specifically Appalachia. The effects are detrimental to their society. The increase in drug abuse in Appalachia results in the rise of home instability, incarceration rates, and death rates. Home instability plays a sizable role in the cycle of drug problems in Appalachia. J.D. Vance in Hillbilly Elegy attests to this statement...
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...Health Care Reform Project: Part I-Prescription Drugs Prescription drug abuse and prescription overprescribing, of all categories, is becoming rampant in the United States. It is also one of the most rapidly growing dilemmas in America influencing people of all ages. Prescription drug use in the past was limited to adults. Over the last decade, more and more children and adolescents are consumers of these drugs. Coping with children who behaved badly in the past has taken a new direction that includes prescribing medications. Medical professions now have the option to prescribe these medications as they see fit. Many physicians are more than willing to write a prescription based on the complaints of a patient rather than finding other treatment options or the root of the problem. Drugs manufactures have had to come up with new and innovative ways to market these drugs to healthcare providers and the public as well. As society changes so will the way drugs are marketed, prescribed and taken. Demand for prescription drugs will continue to increase as well as the overall cost. Consumers today demand more flexibility in acquiring prescription medications rather than using the traditional drug stores. Patients are swamped by pharmaceutical ads and physicians are repeatedly proliferated with drug prescribing information from pharmaceuticals representatives. Getzen and Allen (2007) states, “the average American fills 11 prescriptions per year. Pharmaceuticals were...
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