...new smokable form of cocaine, called crack, had been introduced to the United States just about everyone was doing it. Some did it when they were pregnant, which had effects on the child and their learning abilities. The effect on the crack epidemic in the 80s helped the youth of today, to make better choices in life concerning this addictive drug. Crack, was highly-addictive and swept through plenty areas of cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Oakland, and Miami. In the end it caused devastating effects for black and Latino Americans. As crack cocaine was becoming popular and rising epidemic, hip hop was evolving alongside it. It was in the 1980s that crack cocaine and hip hop became the two leading fundamentals of urban street culture. It is not suggested that hip hop caused the crack epidemic, or vice versa. But, it can be argued that both fed off each other, particularly hip hop off the crack culture itself. Crack cocaine quickly gained popularity among users in the 1980s due to its cheap cost, and the quick, intense high it left. Compared to freebase cocaine, which involved a complicated ritual involving Ether, crack cocaine had become simplistic and easier to manage. The drug was “made from powder cocaine, it was safer to make than freebase cocaine”. As crack and dope became parts of our neighborhoods, they started to have an impression on our culture through music and television. Epidemics are always a great time to remind America that racism still exists. For example...
Words: 1109 - Pages: 5
...paper, I will argue that offering treatment to addicts is better than incarceration because it is cost efficient, recidivism rates will decrease, and it is a long-term solution. While also looking into race and how it affects sentencing. Treatment costs tend to be far less than incarceration and the recidivism rates decline if addicts are offered treatment earlier. These factors have been proven to increase the rates of incarceration and substance use. The recidivism rate is also higher among inmates with substance use issues. Treatment helps prepare addicts to return to society and a chance to choose something different. It seems that the system sets addicts up for failure when they turn around and send them back into the situation that...
Words: 1251 - Pages: 6
... Drug Abuse Among Teenagers Drug abuse among teenagers ia a very serious issue today. Not only does it physically and emotionally destroy our youth, but it also affects society as a whole. Sometimes educating teens or entering rehabilitation programs are not enough of a deterrent. What causes teenagers to go beyond normal experimentation of drugs and become addicts? Like any teen, peer pressure is a biggie. If one wants to fit in with their peers they tend to do as they do. Perhaps to fit into a certain group you must behave and use as they do. Another reason may be not fitting into the group of your choice. Teenagers tend to go through many changes, physically, hormonally, and emotionally. Then there is always the neighborhood or environment that they live in. Perhaps the neighborhood is active into drugs and crime. These affects are greater than the early stages in life. The teen knows more than the baby or toddler. Perhaps, they believe ”they know it all!” They want a certain independence from their parents and families. Growing pains are tough. Some teens even become depressed and drop out of school. Some may even return to drugs as an escape from the pressures of school, peers, and families. With many causes or reasons that teens may find to use, after a period of time they become “hooked” or addicted. They may start off with alcohol, cough medicines, pain patches, bath salts or marijuana and then move on to prescription drugs, crack, cocaine...
Words: 769 - Pages: 4
... Drug Abuse Among Teenagers Drug abuse among teenagers ia a very serious issue today. Not only does it physically and emotionally destroy our youth, but it also affects society as a whole. Sometimes educating teens or entering rehabilitation programs are not enough of a deterrent. What causes teenagers to go beyond normal experimentation of drugs and become addicts? Like any teen, peer pressure is a biggie. If one wants to fit in with their peers they tend to do as they do. Perhaps to fit into a certain group you must behave and use as they do. Another reason may be not fitting into the group of your choice. Teenagers tend to go through many changes, physically, hormonally, and emotionally. Then there is always the neighborhood or environment that they live in. Perhaps the neighborhood is active into drugs and crime. These affects are greater than the early stages in life. The teen knows more than the baby or toddler. Perhaps, they believe ”they know it all!” They want a certain independence from their parents and families. Growing pains are tough. Some teens even become depressed and drop out of school. Some may even return to drugs as an escape from the pressures of school, peers, and families. With many causes or reasons that teens may find to use, after a period of time they become “hooked” or addicted. They may start off with alcohol, cough medicines, pain patches, bath salts or marijuana and then move on to prescription drugs, crack, cocaine...
Words: 768 - Pages: 4
...Superficial Judgement and the Ravaging Effects of Substance Addiction Skirting on the edges of the dirty alleyways ravaged by drugs, a man stands in the menacing of the dark and horrid night. His cut lips, scabbed skin, and ominous eyes protruded across his dead and dreary face. Leaping to the eye, his cheap grimy clothing and lack of personal hygiene sticks out a mile. He robs the innocence among people and his lack of engagement in society allows him to binge on high risk behavior. His thin and stretched limbs cause him to move grotesquely, he is the embodiment of different values to mainstream society: ex-felon, unemployed, parents, children, friends, sisters and brothers; they are all victims of bad upbringings. Stereotypes can be...
Words: 1128 - Pages: 5
...* Article Review (NAME) 425/PSY (DATE) (INSTRUCTOR NAME) Article Review Illegal drug abuse is “disproportionately associated with poverty, increased family stress, and neighborhoods plagued by instability, decay, and crime” (Schroeder & Fals-Stewart, 2006, p. 10). However, drug abuse tends to affect people of all socioeconomic status, race, age, and gender. The economic effect of substance abuse is estimated at $414 billion in 2001, and $109.9 billion is drug use (Schneider Institute, 2001). Drug abuse affects the drug user, the family, the job, and the very life of the abuser. The negative effect of drug abuse on family members is serious enough that there are many support groups available to family members of drug addicts. Support groups help family members better understand the drug user and equips the family with the tools necessary to emotionally and financially deal with the drug user. Effects of Drug Abuse on Families Substance Abuse: The Nation’s Number One Health Problem Schneider Institute for Health Policy Children of substance abusers are more negatively affected than the parents of children who abuse drugs. Drug abusing parents face legal consequences, including imprisonment, divorce, and their children removed from the family household. Parents who abuse illegal drugs are 59% more likely than non-abusers to have psychiatric disorders such as anxiety, antisocial personality disorders, and depression (SAMHSA, 1999). This shows a clear...
Words: 1236 - Pages: 5
...Crack is a drug that is an epidemic in society. Cities of all nations and backgrounds can become a victim of the ever growing problem and devastation of using crack cocaine. Crack cocaine gives the brain such a stimulant that please the users, but it also be highly hazardous. The result of using the drug produces short and long term effects and many family and social results. It does not matter a person’s race, if they are rich or poor; even though those of poverty and African American are the one who have been affected the most. Having coca leaves go far back over three thousand years ago. The crystalized form of cocaine, which is better known as crack evolved during the 1970’s and during the mid-1980 the use became wide spread. Crack cocaine...
Words: 2643 - Pages: 11
...and social class; it effects everyone from the nicest neighborhoods in Beverly Hills to the poverty-stricken town of Brownsville, Texas. You can witness it on street corners and pain clinics, or in abandoned houses and sketchy alleyways. It discriminates against no one; from the young to the old and from the famous to the not-so-famous. Opiates are killing people at an alarming rate in this country and in order to figure out how to fix the problem, we must first figure out why it is happening. Through studies and scientific research, we can conclude there are several underlying reasons a person may fall victim to this silent killer; predisposition to addiction as well as individual and environmental factors. In order to understand why or how a person becomes addicted to opiates, we must first understand what opiates are and what they do inside the brain. Opiates are narcotic medications derived from opium, which is found in...
Words: 1392 - Pages: 6
...the war on drugs. How has community policing had such a positive affect? First we to ask ourselves how drugs can impact the community and the people who reside in it. The negative effects of drugs are not just to the individual, but to his or her community also. “Although many of these effects cannot be quantified, ONDCP recently reported that in 2002, the economic cost of drug abuse to the United States was $180.9 billion.” (NDIC, 2006) The most common effects of drug abuse include: ill health, sickness and eventually, death. Diseases such as hepatitis and AIDS are spread through drug use such as heroin users. Every year thousands upon thousands of infants are born with impairments and illnesses due to drug abusing mothers. Crime rates go up in neighborhoods infested with drug abusers. “However, this is only a part of the distressing picture of the relationship between narcotic addiction and criminality. For most narcotic addicts, predatory crime (larceny, shoplifting, sneak thievery, burglary, embezzlement, robbery, etc.), is a necessary way of life. “(PLOSCOWE) One important aspect about community policing is its ability to deter the drug trade. Community policing seeks an alternative to arresting individuals with drug charges. The emphasis is placed on the drug user and less on the drug dealer. “The criminal justice approach to regulating drug use in the United States overly burdens the legal and correctional systems, possibly promotes and does not decrease drug-related violent...
Words: 498 - Pages: 2
...Anthony Soares Professor Minnis English 1A November 9, 2013 The Decriminalization of Drugs It goes without saying that America faces a drug addiction that is beyond anything we could have ever anticipated. It is reported that an estimated 22.5 million Americans suffer from a dependency from a drug of some sort, whether it may be stimulants, depressants or hallucinogens (NIDA 2). However these victims of addiction are often demonized for their condition and are treated as criminals by the infallible U.S. Government. As a result there is a trend of 1 in every 100 adults will end up incarcerated for a drug related offense such as possession (Drug Policy Alliance 1). So instead of treating addiction itself, many politicians decide that it is necessary to place these undesirables into prison in an effort to reform their ways. This trend of mass incarceration gained momentum in the early 70’s during the Nixon Administration with his “War on Drugs”, but in reality over the past 4 decades we have only seen the increase of drug addiction, overdose and any hardly any progress as a result. So where do we go from here? Well many liberals would whole-heartedly suggest that we legalize all controlled substances for recreational use, but that is a pipe dream reserved for a utopian society in a novel. Therefore I suggest a similar yet more conservative approach to this problem: the decriminalization of drugs. Instead of legalizing, which involves taxation and regulation of controlled substances;...
Words: 3014 - Pages: 13
...in Psychology Professor Hoplight The infamous Cocaine Growing up in a poverty stricken neighborhood in Washington, DC where crime and drugs were the source of corruption of many family and lives, including mine. Remembering, the nights when my mother use to sneak out of the house and walk to the nearest crack house that was only a couple of houses down from me, became memories that changed my life forever. Witnessing other families that suffered from family members on drugs, never did I imagine that it would soon become my mother. These occasional nights turned into days, then suddenly missing weeks. It wasn’t until my sisters and I were separated from each other and our parents, that this unimaginable habit became a harsh reality. The separation of our family grew this habit into a monster that tore our once happy family apart forever. Crack cocaine is a drug that has circulated many urban communities and lives for decades, in this essay I will present major research about this horrific drug and its extreme effects, physically, socially, emotionally, and mentally. “Cocaine was first used in the 1880’s as an anesthetic in eye, nose, and throat surgery because of its ability to constrict the blood vessels and limit bleeding.”(Office of National Drug Control Policy 1) But considering the advances of technology and medicine we are now able to use more developed drugs. Cocaine is a very potent stimulant that can be smoked, injected, and snorted. When snorted, the cocaine...
Words: 1569 - Pages: 7
...greatly. It had all started with a pill addiction to xanax that slowly grew more severe but with a few interventions and a couple of trips to rehab, most of us thought that he was doing well and had kicked the habit. Little did we know that he had kicked the xanax habit only to graduate to something as intense as heroin. The frightening thing about this drug is that my friend was a small, upper class, Jewish boy from the suburbs of St. Louis and would not typically be the image you think of when a person might think of a heroin addict. He was the furthest thing from an underprivileged, poor, inner city adult. But addict hew was, and it is still somewhat of a mystery to those who were closest to him as to how he was able to access his drugs. For every person that believes they know the true meaning of the word “addiction,” there is another person right beside them to argue a different point of view. In this day and age, one would think that doctors or scientists or psychologists would have narrowed it down to a universal description but this is not the case. There are many different aspects to understanding what makes an addict who they are, and why they do the things that they do. Because every person has a different story and a different way to handle certain situations, it seems that addiction is often dependent on context. Regardless of the debates that ensue regarding the exact meaning of the word, there is a general consensus on the main themes that arise when...
Words: 1740 - Pages: 7
...Drug abuse is one of the most discouraged behaviors in our country. Use of illegal drugs Is harmful to the user and all those with whom the user comes in contact. There are over 40 million illegal drug users in the world today. Illegal drug abuse must be stopped as They hurt our society. Drug users are parasites, feeding off society's money, taxes and insurance. Every type of insurance goes up because of drug abuse, including auto, health and homeowners. Worst of all, the crime rate will sky rocket if we let this behavior continue. Illegal drugs and their abusers are a plague to society for many different reasons. Drugs have very harmful effects on the user and the people that the user interacts with. The user is affected in many ways. The most popular drug, alcohol, is generally thought of as socially acceptable and relatively harmless. But it can have devastating effects. Alcohol might seem very harmless but it can harm the user very easily. Alcohol is easy to obtain and consume. It is taken as a beverage and, since it is legal, it can be purchased at the corner store. The immediate effects on the user are relaxation and a slight anesthetic effect. Alcohol is a very addictive drug. There are more than 5 million alcoholics in Australia which is and indication of how widespread its harmful effects are. Alcoholics normally drink a lot on mornings and weeknights, at times which separate them for noraml "social" drinkers. Often, the alcohol will...
Words: 946 - Pages: 4
...Drug Addiction – A community problem Chad L. Salyer In this paper I will be discussing the growing drug problem in our communities and the approach that will be used to alleviate the problem. Drug abuse has been a continuing problem in our communities and is rising at an alarming rate. It has been spreading at such a rate that it is no longer isolated in poor, middle class or upper class areas. Prescription drug abuse and heroine has become the most common forms of drugs being used by addicts and is not only a serious health problem, but is also a problem that effects the entire community. For this study I will be focusing on the individual addict and then the environment in which they live. Though there are many prevention programs that exist, it seems that prevention and Law Enforcement are not able to slow or stop the problem. Drug abuse is rising at an alarming rate and is certainly not prejudice as to who becomes a drug addict. So how can we possibly combat a problem that seems immune to all the efforts that has been brought fourth? I believe the approach should begin with the individual and changing one’s habitual thinking. Education is key to not only prevention but to those already addicted to drugs. The main research question I am exploring is if the environment plays a significant role in the cause of drug addiction. It seems that not only prescription drugs, but also illegal drugs...
Words: 3254 - Pages: 14
...about substance abuse in this course and also during my readings. I always looked at substance abuse as someone who just uses drugs to get high. I never really thought about it being a brain disease. According to NIDA, “Addiction is similar to chronic diseases” while observing the brain and the heart addiction and heart diseases produce observational changes in the function of human organs. While all this information wasn’t too new to me I just really never gave it any thought. I learned how people become addicted to drugs due to the drugs altering their Dopamine which is a brain chemical which also affects the neurons in the brain. I understand what Neurons are and how they communicate...
Words: 1820 - Pages: 8
