Drug Abuse

Drug Abuse

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Drug Abuse

Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 3
Literature Review....................................................................................................................... 3
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 7
References .................................................................................................................................. 9

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Introduction
Drug abuse has become a global issue and challenge causing detrimental impact on the
wealth, health and safety factors of the countries (Miller, Humphrey and Thienprayoon,
2018). Drug abuse has a correlation with activities such as crime, negative sexual activities
also involving risk of STI and HIV incidences, interpersonal violence, harmful effects on
health of consumers as well as negative effect on psychology of the users and their families.
The International survey on drug usage states that one out of five adults use an illicit drug
during the lifetime i.e. almost 19% of them. And youngsters in the age group of 15 to 34
years, the proportion is one out of four i.e. 25%. Most commonly consumed drugs that are
legal are tobacco and alcohol; which are most experimented amongst the youth population of
the world (Paolini, 2016). Cannabis is most widely used illegal substance amongst the
population of the world. It is very important to examine the prevalence of drugs, effects of
these drugs on health as well as society and the reasons thereof. This paper states these
variables through the study of literature available on the subject.

Literature Review
We have heard this statement many times- “the accident occurred due to alcohol
consumption”, “he died due to drug addiction”, “he became a criminal under the influence of
drugs”. All these statements point out the adverse effects of drug consumption amongst
people. How does this happen? What do drugs actually consist of? Why do people consume
drugs? Let us discuss these issues here. Hirst (1994) stated that drugs are those substances
which are responsible for causing toxic poisoning, physical dependence and psychological
dependence of a person’s body (Miller, Humphrey and Thienprayoon, 2018). Drug abuse not
only threatens individual health but also affects social status of the people. WHO has given
classification of the drugs i.e. alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, opiates, sedatives, stimulants such
as caffeine, tobacco, aerosols and hallucinogens. The characteristic of these drugs can be that
they result in addiction of drugs which is a disease controlling mental and physical health and
mood of the person which becomes completely dependent on the consumption of drug dose
regularly. If it is not available, the person suffers from extreme conditions, syndrome of self-
denial develops, pain in muscles and organs raises, depression etc.

The prevalence of drug usage in the population around the world has been increasing
drastically (Knopf, 2015). Almost 19% of adults have been reported to consume an illegal
substance during their life. And almost 25% of youth in the age group of 15 to 34 years do

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the same. It has been noted that Cannabis is the most commonly utilized illicit drug by the
people. According to Drummond (2017), one out of six adults has consumed cannabis in
lifetime. Information was collected by ESPAD, (2003) on the illegal substance use amongst
youth in the age of 16 years which showed a hike of 40%. The countries that rank highest
amongst this substance abuse are Switzerland, Czech Republic and Ireland. The average
usage for the 35 countries which were included in survey was 23%.

It can be said from these statistics and highlights that there is a great need of preventing the
drug usage because if a person starts using illicit drugs at this tender age, there is a higher
chance that he/she would develop very grave health issues and drug challenges as compared
to them who stay away from these substances at young age as mentioned by Lynskey, (2003).
Further Ellickson (2002) states one of the main consequences of drug abuse amongst young
adults i.e. very poor performance in academics, nonattendance of classes and initialization of
criminal activities.

Hakata (2016) has defined drug abuse to be any substance which if ingested results in a high
sensation. He defined many drugs which are commonly abused and result in addiction:
Amphetamines is one whose overdose results in death of the person (Broséus et al., 2016).
Bodybuilders and athletes abuse by anabolic steroids which can result in many psychological
disorders such as aggression or physical imbalances such as infertility or failure of any organ.
Other is caffeine which is used by coffee and tea lovers, but when used in more quantity it
can result in irregular heartbeats, sleeplessness, anxiety etc. Cocaine is a drug which
stimulates person’s nervous system. Cigarettes contain nicotine which can be addictive. A
drug which gives extreme power to the user; produces aggression and strength is
Phencyclidine.

Arabaci et al. (2016) have argued that the causes of drug abuse can be genetic. It was stated
that majority of population use drugs but a small proportion of them abuse drugs. Drug abuse
is caused due to genetics in the family (Maes et al., 2016). A child is at the risk of drug abuse
when the parents already have a practice of abusing drugs. But Stewart (2017) states that
majority of the drug abuse cases are caused due to co-occurring health conditions such as
mental problems. One condition may be complicated and made complex by other. The person
who may be trying to manage the problems associated with underlying illness would be a
possible cause of drug abuse (Kinrys, K Gold and Nierenberg, 2016). For instance, when a
person is suffering from depression, he may use a drug continuously to ‘get high’ and escape

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the conditions and depression calling it as self-medication. Here, depression would be

considered as a contributing component to drug abuse.

Further, the surrounding environment can be a major cause of drug abuse (Jasmin, 2016). As
there are many life instances, especially amongst young users which may be the risk factors
for drug abuse. One of the common factors that can contribute to drug abuse in young users is
parental abuse and their negligent behavior. For instance, when an adolescent is trying to get
attention from his/her neglecting parent with the use of drugs, using this method for long time
can result in drug abuse. Availability of drugs in the house or presence of a drug user in the
family can be a reason for drug abuse (Williams, 2017). Other risk factors which may
contribute to the reasons of drug abuse would be:

 Family environment which is not stable due to parental illness or drug user in the
family
 Conflicts and violent relationship with parents
 Influence of friends or relatives who use drugs
 Permissive behavior of parents towards drug use amongst adolescents
 Poor results in school or college
 Prevalence of drug use in peer group or communities
 Offer from friends to use drugs when in problem
 Availability of drugs with peer group
 Negligent behavior of family members

Hence, it can be said from this literature review of common causes of drug abuse, that
genetic, psychiatric and environment can be possible reasons for drug abuse, but generally
there is a combination of components or risk factors that really cause drug abuse. Like, if an
individual has a genetic tendency towards drug abuse, which might indicate that one of the
parents is drug abusive (Holmes, 2017). This would be resulting in a conflicting family life or
emotional and psychological trauma at home. All these factors taken together will become the
cause of drug abuse.

The impact of drug abuse has been found to be a wide spread, strong and profound. The
addict is affected by drug abuse physically as well as psychologically. These effects do not
just affect the addict but also is detrimental to the complete family of the addict and the
society at large (Drummond et al., 2015). Alcohol use and abuse generally cause violent

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behavior of people that is the cause of disability of approximately 70 million populations

worldwide. It has been argued by Raghavendra (2016) that drug addiction has more of
psychological impact then physical ones. The reason given for this statement being that the
consumer becomes addicted to the drugs regularly and to those changes which have been
taking place in his brain after becoming a drug addict. The person starts consuming drugs to
handle stress or some pain. Then, it becomes a habit i.e. drug addiction when the user faces
pain or stress anytime, they will take the drug. This is called ‘craving effect’ of that drug
which is one of the side effects on psychology of the user (Paolini, 2016). The craving effect
gives rise to an obsession to the addict for getting and consuming that particular drug while
opting out all other options available. Porcheret et al. (2015) mention that other effects of
psychological nature would include

 Extreme mood swings, anxiety, violent behavior

 Depression, paranoia
 Confusion and hallucination
 Reduced pleasure and joy in life
 Increase in the desire to involve in risky activities or behavior
 Complicated mental problems and tolerance
 Complex depressive disorders

There are varying degrees of physical effects on the users. The functioning of the brain
changes due to drug addiction and directly affects the pleasure feeling of the body. The drug
floods the function of brain with presence of chemicals and induces high feelings. The babies
are seen born with physical effects amongst drug abusers and also in the mortality rates.
There is a cognitive effect on children throughout their lives who are born to drug abusive
mothers (Possi, 2018). Some of other effects of physical nature of drug abuse can be:

 HIV contraction and related sexual disorders

 Problems related to heart rate and attacks
 Respiration disorders, lung cancers
 Breathing problems
 Vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, kidney damage, abdominal problems
 Brain distress, seizures,
 Death and strokes

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 Change in sleeping order, appetite and body temperature

The drug abuse results in the damage of personal as well as professional relationships
between the abuser and other people. Neuron (2016) has mentioned that their loved ones are
abandoned by them in order to completely take on the drugs without anybody’s interference
or commitment. They tend to lose their jobs very easily by committing mistakes. A high
security threat is posed to the society as drug abusers are highly involved in criminal
activities and violent behaviors. Many drug users adapt to stealing money in order to fulfill
their need of getting drugs on a regular basis. They become a problem to the society, due to
their impaired judgement and fights for nothing significant. It also adversely affects the
economy of the nation as lots of time and amount is invested on health and behavior of these
drug abusers. In short, the impact of drug abuse is huge on the economies of the world which
must be prevented through social and economic measures collectively by the governments,
society and families of users.

The basic objective of abuse treatment or recovery is restraint and reversion prevention along
with rehabilitation. When the phase of restraint and abstinence is in focus, the individual
would need assistance in reducing the effects of leaving drugs as they depend on those
chemicals highly. This is knows as detox process. This would be done in a separate setting
for continuous medical observation (Tyler and Schmitz, 2018). Further, counselors would be
needed to provide community support to the addicts.

This kind of addiction deducts the time existing for the person as it is invested in getting
drugs and illegal conducts. They destroy their families, personalities and emotions are also
distorted. Kids are born with very serious problems and fertility is damaged to a greater
extent. Government should play an important role in taking strong steps to prevent smuggling
and entry of these illegal drugs in the country in order to assist and prevent drug abuse to the
next level (Porcheret et al., 2015). There should be awareness amongst the people and
youngsters about the subject and its negative effects through debates of TV programs.
Campaigns should be started to control the drug trafficking rackets. All these steps taken
together might help the society in preventing drug abuse.

Conclusion
These days the problem of drug abuse is rampant throughout the globe. The situation has
become highly catastrophic along many countries because people are dying due to drug abuse
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and substance abuse on a regular basis. Drug abuse has been resulted due to the combination
of many risk factors such as poor family conditions, unemployment, stress, genetic
conditions, reoccurrence of certain psychological disorders, family issues etc. These reasons
have given rise to drug intoxication in order to discharge from the reality and get into the tale
of illusions. Significantly, drug abuse is a threat to the health of the user and society at large
with many negative consequences. The situation should be handled systematically before it
goes out of control (Porcheret et al., 2015). It would primarily take the strong will of addicts
in quitting the drug usage but society and families should take a step towards it and help them
realizing the negative impact of the same.

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References
Broséus, J., Rhumorbarbe, D., Mireault, C., Ouellette, V., Crispino, F. and Décary-Hétu, D.
(2016). Studying illicit drug trafficking on Darknet markets: Structure and organisation from
a Canadian perspective. Forensic Science International, 264, pp.7-14.

Drummond, A., Kelleher, C., Donnelly, N., McCausland, D. and Codd, M. (2015). PP41 The
prevalence of drug use, including intravenous drug use, among the irish prisoner population.
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 69(Suppl 1), pp.A70.1-A70.

Holmes, A. (2017). Drug addictions: new insight into causes, comorbidity and potential
treatments. Genes, Brain and Behavior, 16(1), pp.5-7.

Jasmin, V. (2016). Impulsivities and addictions: Similarities and differences between opiates
and stimulants. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 10(2).

Kinrys, G., K Gold, A. and Nierenberg, A. (2016). Proper Drug Disposal: Studying a
Solution to Household Prescription and Over-the- Counter Drug Abuse. Journal of Drug
Abuse, 02(02).

Knopf, A. (2015). Voices from the Rx drug abuse summit. Alcoholism & Drug Abuse
Weekly, 27(15), pp.3-5.

Maes, H., Neale, M., Ohlsson, H., Zahery, M., Lichtenstein, P., Sundquist, K., Sundquist, J.
and Kendler, K. (2016). A Bivariate Genetic Analysis of Drug Abuse Ascertained Through
Medical and Criminal Registries in Swedish Twins, Siblings and Half-Siblings. Behavior
Genetics, 46(6), pp.735-741.

Miller, E., Humphrey, L. and Thienprayoon, R. (2018). Drug Abuse and Diversion in
Pediatric Palliative Care—What You Should Know, What You Can Do, and What You Can
Learn from Our Multisite Experience (TH336). Journal of Pain and Symptom Management,
55(2), pp.576-577.

Paolini, A. (2016). Heroin Usage: Impact on Student Performance and Truancy amongst
High School Students. Journal of Drug Abuse, 02(01).

Porcheret, K., Holmes, E., Goodwin, G., Foster, R. and Wulff, K. (2015). Psychological
Effect of an Analogue Traumatic Event Reduced by Sleep Deprivation. Sleep, 38(7),
pp.1017-1025.

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Tyler, K. and Schmitz, R. (2018). Childhood Disadvantage, Social and Psychological Stress,
and Substance Use Among Homeless Youth: A Life Stress Framework. Youth & Society,
5(2), pp.0044118X1876703.

Williams, N. (2017). Substance and Behavioral Addictions: Concepts, Causes and Cures.
Occupational Medicine, 67(9), pp.725-725.

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