Drugs and Society By Dan Langfelder ( FGCU)

13. October 2009 by student.

Drugs has become a big part of our culture due to our attitude and way of life. We are fast paced and when we want it we want it, this is where our instant gratification comes in.The Federal Government’s Household Survey on Drug Abuse, conducted annually, is the most commonly cited set of statistics on the prevalence of drug use. According to the latest surveys, cited by the DEA themselves, there are about 12.7 million people who have used some illegal drug in the last month and perhaps 30 to 40 million who have used some illegal drug within the last year. Of the 12.7 million who used illegal drugs in the last month, about 10 million are presumed to be casual drug users, and about 2.7 million are addicts. So as you can see this is a big deal and the numbers are on the rise!

              in 2002, the economic cost of drug abuse to the United States was $180.9 billion.  This is not the only issue. If we start with the user it leads to ill health, lack of motivation towards goals and other people in their life, increas in broken homes, increase in crime, loved ones are hurt, and bassically everyone is effected by the problem. Drugs make people less efficient and motivated to do good in society. Can you imagine if the rates doubled? I beleive if this happend America would fall apart.

            The problem is us, its our culture/society. We are a country that expects everything to be done quick and in the easiest way  possible. We have this way of living in instant gratification and we feel thats how things should be . If you are depressed you wont be sent to psychological services instead the doctor will prescribe antidepressents. Why? because it fixes the problem instantly  and we dont have to wait. The same is for sleep and anxiety. We have lost our way of coping as a society due to our life style which has lead to our nations increased drug rate/problem. Pain killers are a great example of what I am talking about. We are so focused to treating the symptoms instead of the problem. If you have pain, they give you pain killers to numb the pain but does not exactly fix the reason why it hurts. Pain killers are in the category of drugs called opiates, being the same kind of drug as illegal heroin. ADD is another example, amphetimines are given to people diagnosed with ADD who claim to not be able to concentrate. Instead of getting them help we clear up the symptoms and leave the real problem in the wind. In my head its like cleaning up your room by putting the mess in the closet. It may look clean but all the trash is really still there, being in the closet. This bassically means we are putting the problem aside and the problems are still in society so we are really not accomplishing anything. We just leave a mess for someone else to clean up but we feel its alright as long as we feel better. We are starting to put feeling good in front of whats right!

The most obvious effects of drug abuse are manifested in the individuals who abuse drugs. Drug users typically experience but are not limited to  ill health, sickness and, ultimately, death. Particularly devastating to an abuser’s health is the contraction of needle borne illnesses including hepatitis and HIV/AIDS through injection drug use. NSDUH data indicate that in 2004 over 3.5 million individuals aged 18 and older admitted to having injected an illicit drug during their lifetime. Of these individuals, 14 percent (498,000) were under the age of 25. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that 123,235 adults living with AIDS in the United States in 2003 contracted the disease from injection drug use, and the survival rate for those persons is less than that for persons who contract AIDS from any other mode of transmission. CDC further reports that more than 25,000 people died in 2003 from drug-induced effects.  This is not effecting just the people using the substance whatever it is even marijuana and alcohol, but society as a whole. For an example if one person in a family is an addict the whole family suffers. Parents do not pay attention to their kids as much, money is tighter, jobs are lost, and their motivation to bennefit society is lost.

              We are all connected globally . Its like a global dominoe effect.  We must learn to cope as a society and not put instant gratification over really how to solve the problem. Society tends to pick the quickest and easiest way possible. I cant imagine how many problemswould be fixed in America if we solved our issues and did not choose the quickest way but the most efficient wayeven though the better way is harder.

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