Many people depend on prescribed medications such as benzodiazepines to cope with serious anxiety disorders, while others rely on narcotic pain medications to enable them to live relatively normal lives rather than being disabled by suffering from the severe pain that is caused by, for example, cancer, chronic back pain, or other debilitating conditions. In addition, others use stimulants to treat such problems as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, narcolepsy, and other illnesses. Most people agree that these medications are essential in our modern-day society.
Yet there are also many people who abuse or are dependent on (addicted to) some of the same drugs that help so many others. In addition, some people abuse illicit substances, such as marijuana and heroin, as well as legal substances, such as alcohol and many prescribed medications. Sometimes abusers resort to criminal acts, including committing felonies, in order to obtain drugs. They cause great hardship to themselves and their families as well as to society at large.
Substance abuse has been a problem for thousands of years, although the particular drugs of abuse change periodically. In ancient times, people may have abused hallucinogens such as mescaline or similar drugs used as part of ceremonies in order to induce a dreamlike state. The ancient Incan royalty, nobility, and athletes, chewed coca leaves (from which cocaine is derived) for stimulation. In contrast, in the 21st century, the most popular legal drug used and abused by millions of Americans is alcohol, while the most popular illegal drug abused (and also used by millions) is marijuana.
Addiction and the abuse of drugs and/or alcohol are difficult and complex problems for which simple answers do not exist, and for which a multifaceted and forward-thinking approach often may be more effective.
For example, when a drug is accepted in society but is suddenly banned outright, as when the Eighteenth Amendment (commonly referred to as Prohibition) abruptly banned the use of alcohol, such action does not eliminate the desire for the substance. Instead, organized criminals, seizing an opportunity, manufactured and supplied many different types of alcohol to willing consumers for a considerable profit, until Prohibition was repealed and alcohol became once again a drug that was lawful for adults to consume.
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|  Essay, Research Paper: Research Paper on Class, Gender, Race, and Drug Addiction |
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| Term Paper on Class, Gender, Race, and Drug Addiction, Custom Essays and Research Papers Writing on Drugs and Drug Abuse |
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| Term Paper on Class, Gender, Race, and Drug Addiction » |
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