... 1. In your opinion, what is the most dangerous drug to our culture and why? All illegal drugs are dangerous to American culture in some way. Society’s view of the dangers of illegal drugs comes from a number of sources. A drug may be considered dangerous because it is physically addicting and harmful to your body. A drug may be considered dangerous because the possession and distribution of the drug generates an increase in crime. A drug may be considered dangerous because it is mentally addicting and the likelihood of an overdose is high. In my opinion, heroin is the most dangerous drug to our culture because it is one of the most physically and mentally addicting substances in our culture. Furthermore, addiction to heroin leads to heavy, compulsive use, which greatly increases the risk of overdose and death. According to our text, there is only a small number of heroin users in the United States. Most of these users are physically and psychologically addicted to the substance and use heroin on a regular basis. Our text states, “Heavy heroin users inflict a great deal of damage on the rest of society—and in turn, society inflicts a great deal of damage on them.” (p.267). Although there is only a small number of heroin users in our society, heroin use is problematic because heroin accounts for almost all drug-related overdoses, compared to drugs with more widespread use such as cocaine and marijuana. Not only is heroin dangerous because of the likelihood of addiction,...
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...James Baldwin Drugs, Music, and Culture have interacted together in various heights of conflict and harmony throughout modern day music, affecting the creators and patrons alike. James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” is a depiction of this triangle of cultural relations that has affected three generations of America Culture. Sonny, a pathless protagonist of the story finds music as his aim of escaping society’s African American brutal oppression in the 1950’s. Sonny’s brother makes the claim, “But there’s no need…is there? In killing yourself?” (Baldwin 59) referring to Sonny’s drug use in his musical escapes while playing nightclubs as a pianist in Greenwich Village. In the story "Sonny’s Blues" Sonny's brother makes the inaccurate assertion Sonny wants to die; in reality Sonny’s is simply trying to escape society's oppression. While living with Sonny’s brother’s family, talking in the afternoon with the brothers alone for the night; Sonny was talking about using heroin, “…what heroin feels like-when it’s in your veins…It makes you feel-in control. Sometimes you have to have that feeling.” (Baldwin 58) The commentary prior elaborated this statement when examining the singing quartet on their street and the struggles they went through to be able to sing like that, referring to the pain and passion in their voices. This helped illustrate the conflict of the time – American Culture built around discrimination and limiting the African American inner-city culture. Sonny was using...
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...In order to understand this complicated web of drug policy in America, there must be quite a bit of backstory provided. This can be traced as far back as 3,400 BC with the usage of opiates in China. Fast forward a couple thousand years to the 1820s in America, thus we can see that opiates came along with the migration of Chinese men. These men were coming for better opportunities, work, and freedom. By 1898, opium usage had become an integral part of society wherein people smoked opium in opium dens. White men were not allowed to the Chinese opium dens and vice versa. Then came along the development of heroin, to help curb morphine addiction, synthesized from the opium poppy, by Bayer. This plan backfired and had extensive unfavorable consequences....
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...In Defense of Recreational Drugs If illicit drugs are harmful to the mind, body and soul, than why do people continue to manufacture, distribute and use these substances? The prohibition of these illicit substances as outlined in the Controlled Substances Act of the United States goes against all logic. Propaganda across the United States promotes the myth that psychotropic drugs impair moral judgment and is a cause of destructive deviant behavior. There is evidence that refutes this claim, illustrated by findings in several of the government’s own studies. The truth is that the majority that dabbles with these intoxicants is misrepresented by the media and politicians as delinquents, but are respectable citizens with jobs to work, bills to pay, and classes to attend, and are indistinguishable from the general population. Their use is not accounted for as many are reluctant to admit to it, due to the illegality and prejudice against use of controlled substances in our society. Such illicit substances must have some intrinsic value because of their continued use. Just as prescription pharmaceuticals can prove to be valuable in a specific context, so can all classes of illegal drugs. The poison is in the dose not the chemical itself. The unconstitutional War on Drugs in the United States needs to cease, because it is based on heresy and fear mongering. This calls for reeducation of the American people about the true nature of drugs; for this legalization and regulation of all...
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...CIA’s 50 Years of Corrupt Drug Trafficking The CIA’s 50-year history of smuggling drugs into America is generating hatred for the United States throughout the world. Like Pontius Pilate, CIA washes their hands of the human tragedies and the corruption of government offices. They do this by remaining and by refusing to recognize the evidence, supporting corruption. For the past 50 years, the CIA has abused its power by deliberately drugging and corrupting America; and therefore should be prosecuted. According to the constitution, the people for the people originally created the government to be a group of elect “organizers” (not controllers) employed. One can say the CIA is a mutated part of the US government. The CIA was created when a Wall Street lawyer and banker wrote The National Security Act of 1947. Clark Clifford was the man who brought the CIA backed drug bank BCCI into the United States. CIA heroin trafficking moved in the 1960’s and 1970’s from the Turkey-Marseilles connection to the Asian connection. For decades until the 1950s, Asian government supported the opium trade, because money was flowing in as long as the opium was flowing out. By the early 1960s, the mountain areas of Southeast Asia produced most of the world's opium. In the early 1950’s in Southeast Asia, the CIA organized the Nationalist Chinese army to start a war against Communist China. This Chinese army became the opium distributors of the “Golden Triangle” (parts of Burma, Thailand...
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...smuggling drugs into America is generating hatred for the United States throughout the world. Like Pontius Pilate, CIA washes their hands of the human tragedies and the corruption of government offices. They do this by remaining and by refusing to recognize the evidence, supporting corruption. For the past 50 years, the CIA has abused its power by deliberately drugging and corrupting America; and therefore should be prosecuted. According to the constitution, the people for the people originally created the government to be a group of elect “organizers” (not controllers) employed. One can say the CIA is a mutated part of the US government. The CIA was created when a Wall Street lawyer and banker wrote The National Security Act of 1947. Clark Clifford was the man who brought the CIA backed drug bank BCCI into the United States. CIA heroin trafficking moved in the 1960’s and 1970’s from the Turkey-Marseilles connection to the Asian connection. For decades until the 1950s, Asian government supported the opium trade, because money was flowing in as long as the opium was flowing out. By the early 1960s, the mountain areas of Southeast Asia produced most of the world's opium. In the early 1950’s in Southeast Asia, the CIA organized the Nationalist Chinese army to start a war against Communist China. This Chinese army became the opium distributors of the “Golden Triangle” (parts of Burma, Thailand and Laos). The “Golden Triangle” has the most abundance of opium and heroin in the...
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...COOPERATION AGAINST THE WORLD DRUG PROBLEM I. INTRODUCTION Today it is generally recognized that drugs, along with organized crime that comes with it, jeopardize the development of many resolutions in our world. It is now clear to several organizations that drug control must become an essential element of our joint efforts to achieve peace, security and development. At the same time, we must reinforce our commitment to shared responsibility and the basic principles of health and human rights. The 2011 World Drug Report documents developments in global drug markets and tries to explain the factors that drive them. Its analysis of trends and emerging challenges informs national and international drug and crime priorities and policies, and provides a solid foundation of evidence for counternarcotics interventions. Drug markets and drug use patterns change rapidly, so measures to stop them must also be quick to adapt. Thus the more comprehensive the drug data we collect and the stronger our capacity to analyze the problem, the better prepared the international community will be to respond to new challenges. Drug use affects not only individual users, but also their families, friends, co-workers and communities. Children whose parents take drugs are themselves at greater risk of drug use and other social problems that harm communities. In some regions, illicit drug use is contributing to the rapid spread of infectious diseases like HIV and hepatitis. Drug trafficking, the critical...
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...Baltimore: A Community in Crisis Since the 19th century, the illicit drug, heroin, has been a part of American society. When heroin was first discovered it was thought to be a wonder drug because of the euphoric feeling a person is said to feel after using it. However, once the debilitating effects of this highly addictive drug was realized the anti-drug law, the Harrison Narcotics Act, was enacted that restricted its use to medicinal purposes only. In 1920, heroin was banned altogether through the Dangerous Drug Act (Habal, 2011). Heroin for the most part was thought to have gone underground until the Vietnam War. In 1971, two congressmen returned from visiting U. S. servicemen serving in Vietnam with an alarming revelation that “15 percent of U.S. servicemen in Vietnam… were actively addicted to heroin” (Spiegel, 2012, para. 3). The idea that American servicemen were addicted to such a horrible drug disgusted much of the American public. “It was thought to be the most addictive substance ever produced, a narcotic so powerful that once addiction claimed you, it was nearly impossible to escape” (Spiegel, 2012, para. 4). President Richard Nixon took swift action by creating, The Special Action Office of Drug Abuse Prevention which concentrated primarily on prevention and rehabilitation. In the late 70s and early 80s the use of heroin reached its peak when it seemed to take a backseat to the reappearance of cocaine and the subsequent crack epidemic that overwhelmed much...
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...dramatic entrance into North American popular culture” (Dowler, Fleming, & Muzzatti, 2006, p. 840). Notes that some of the fascination culminates from “the need of various groups to see others as active participants in criminal cultures, as different” (2006, p. 840) in addition to the “highly skewed presentation of crime stories [by the media] on select forms of violent crime and crime victims” (p. 840). News is intended to inform the public of events that affect citizens or are of human interest by providing facts. Before the technological era, news came in the print medium of newspapers, which was the only instrument for communities to communicate generally. Now there are mass instruments in use that include radio, television, magazines, internet, digital media, outdoor media, recordings and reproductions, cinema, cellular phones, video games, broadcasts, etc. Crime in the news can be perceived as an ornate due to the manner in which the many stories are presented as if to blur the line between providing information versus a Realty-TV form of entertainment. This report is analyzes two crime stories that focus on different crimes, the articles purpose, the portrayal of the criminal justice system, the authors reactions, and theoretical explanations of behavioral causation. Purpose. There are two crime news articles in review, the first story reports criminal “charges of possession with intent to distribute heroin, and distribution of heroin resulting in death” (Parker...
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...marijuana throughout different countries. The number of respondents who currently used or had used in the United States resulted a 42% use rate, Germany was at an 18% use rate, whereas Japan had a surprising use rate of 1.5%. Some places throughout the United States have legalized marijuana for medical use only, but the Japanese culture only used it for making robes for the Buddhist, monk, and sumo wrestler loincloths. Japanese once viewed marijuana as a very scary and dangerous drug but the use of it has increased drastically within recent years, resulting in several drug busts and arrests. Marijuana.com (1995-2011) announced, “Japan doesn't consider marijuana to be a "soft" drug. Penalties for possession and sale are the same as for heroin. An ounce of weed in Japan costs $2,000. That should give you some idea how dangerous it is to possess it there: price follows risk” (para. 1). The use of marijuana in Japan can ruin ones reputation because it represents a level of disrespect to the Japanese culture. College students who smoke marijuana faces expulsion from school immediately because of the no tolerance law. Some people in the American culture walks around reeking the smell of marijuana with no concerns of punishment. Narcotic agents are in high demand in Japan at approximately 10 new agents a year. Although the use of marijuana has increased in Japan, hard...
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..."Requiem for a Dream" illustrates this idea perfectly as this work chronicles this descending spiral experienced by its characters. For example, as the movie opens, a housewife is in the process of chaining her television to a radiator. This is because she is trying to prevent her son from using it to get the money he needs to support his drug habit. The housewife's efforts fail, as her son frees it and then wheels it down the street to a pawnshop (Ebert, 2000). All of the characters engage in desperate acts to support their addiction. Harry and his best friend Tyrone obtain a large amount of heroin, believing that the profit from selling it will make them rich. However, their behavior is disinhibited because they use so much of it themselves that they wind up using more of it than they sell (Bowers, 2010). Marion, Harry's girlfriend, prostitutes herself to support her heroin addiction and winds up not only losing Harry, but also her sense of self (Bowers, 2010). Marion plays a key role in enabling heroin addiction, not only for her, but also for Tyrone and Harry, as it is her prostitution that supplies the money needed to obtain the pound of heroin on which their dreams of wealth are based. Family members, friends or colleagues can frequently promote the progression of an addiction without meaning to do so. They do this by making excuses for the actions of addicts, bailing them out of jail or by "taking up the slack," when addicts fail to live up to their obligations and responsibilities...
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...Drug use and abuse is as old as mankind itself. Human beings have always had a desire to eat or drink substances that make them feel relaxed, stimulated, or euphoric. Humans have used drugs of one sort or another for thousands of years. Wine was used at least from the time of the early Egyptians; narcotics from 4000 B.C.; and medicinal use of marijuana has been dated to 2737 BC in China. As time went by, "home remedies" were discovered and used to alleviate aches, pains and other ailments. Most of these preparations were herbs, roots, mushrooms or fungi. They had to be eaten, drunk, rubbed on the skin, or inhaled to achieve the desired effect. One of the oldest records of such medicinal recommendations is found in the writings of the Chinese scholar-emperor Shen Nung, who lived in 2735 BC He compiled a book about herbs, a forerunner of the medieval pharmacopoeias that listed all the then-known medications. He was able to judge the value of some Chinese herbs. For example, he found that Ch'ang Shan was helpful in treating fevers. Such fevers were, and still are, caused by malaria parasites. South and Central American Indians made many prehistoric discoveries of drug-bearing plants. Mexican Aztecs even recorded their properties in hieroglyphics on rocks, but our knowledge of their studies comes mainly from manuscripts of Spanish monks and medical men attached to the forces of the conquistador Hernan Cortes (1485-1547). Pre-Columbian Mexicans used many substances...
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...CHAPTER 2. A HISTORY OF DRUG AND ALCOHOL ABUSE IN AMERICA Written by: Tammy L. Anderson To appear in: Harrison, L., Anderson, T., Martin, S., and Robbins, C. Drug and Alcohol Use in Social Context. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing -1- A HISTORY OF DRUGS AND ALCOHOL IN THE UNITED STATES Introduction The purpose of this chapter is to review the history of drug use and its social control in the United States so that students can gain an improved and thorough understanding of today’s problems and policies. Our approach to this matter is sociological, i.e., exploring how the interconnection between culture, social institutions, groups, and individuals function to create drug-related phenomena. A sociological approach integrates many kinds of social, cultural, political, and economic factors that manifest themselves in everyday life. While pharmacology helps us comprehend how specific drugs impact brain activity, sociology can inform us about the social roots of drugrelated behaviors which ultimately shape beliefs and behavior and motivate social policy. Therefore, a review of drug use in the U.S. and the social response to it must consider many diverse phenomena. This broader framework will move us beyond domestic borders and into the international community, for the history of drug abuse is an international, socio-political marvel. Another idea warrants mentioning before we begin our history lesson. It centers on the idea that drug use and abuse are socially...
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...Perspective on Drugs and Drug Use Erich Goode, Professor of Sociology at SUNY Stony Brook From: Drugs in American Society, Chapter 1 ©1972 Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. ISBN 0-394-31323-2 SOCIAL CONTEXT AND HUMAN MEANING What can a sociologist tell us about drug use that we do not already know? If there is anything particularly distinctive about the sociologist's view, it is his emphasis on social context. It might appear that this concept seeped into the public consciousness long ago, that it is a banality. But if this were so, the stupendous blunders committed every day by drug researchers and commentators would not occur. If the concept were really understood, a large part of the drug problem would also be understood. The social context of drug use powerfully influences—indeed, it might almost be said determines—at least four central aspects of the drug reality, aspects that traditionally have been presumed to grow directly out of the chemical and pharmacological properties of drugs themselves, independent of human intervention. These four aspects are drug definitions, drug effects, drug-related behavior, and the drug experience. The sociological perspective stands in direct opposition to what might be called the chemicalistic fallacy—the view that drug A causes behavior X, that what we see as behavior and effects associated with a given drug are solely (or even mainly) a function of the biochemical properties of that drug, of the drug plus the human animal, or even of the drug plus...
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...Drug Addiction Crime or Disease? Interim and Final Reports of the Joint Committee of the American Bar Association and the American Medical Association on Narcotic Drugs. INTERIM REPORT For the last half-century public authorities in the United States have been wrestling with the problem of controlling addiction to narcotic drugs. Since the twenties, legislation and enforcement policies have aimed at total repression, with criminal sanctions of notable severity attaching to every transaction connected with the non-medical use of drugs. Drug-law enforcement has become a major police activity of federal, state and local governments; the threat of long imprisonment, even of death penalties, hangs over not only the smuggler and the peddler, but the addict-victim of the illicit traffic. Addiction to narcotic substances has been recognized as a health problem for a long time and in many different countries. It has also in our times and in our national community, emerged as a criminal law problem of distressing magnitude and persistency. The fields of medicine and law are thus equally affected, and the Joint Committee which offers this report has undertaken its assignment with enthusiasm at the prospect of uniting its parent organizations in a common effort centered in an area where the concerns of each overlap and largely coincide. If the Joint Committee can contribute something towards mutual enlightenment and ultimate agreement between the medical and legal professions regarding...
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