Drug Abuse and Addiction - Case Study Example

Although when one thinks of drug abuse and addiction they invariably think of illicit/street drugs, the fact of the matter is that something of a paradigm shift is taking place within the past few years concerning typical drug usage patterns. Instead of most drugs now being derived from underground laboratories and then passed along to distributors on the streets, the vast majority of illegal drug usage and addiction to these drugs can be traced back to the medical and pharmacological fields. In fact, what is happened is that doctors within the past several years have become more and more willing to give prescriptions for high-powered painkillers/opiates/depression medication, and a variety of other habit-forming medicines; oftentimes without a specific were verifiable need being evidenced within the patient. In such a way, those individuals who have a propensity or are already addicted to these substances merely engage in a process that is known as “doctor shopping” as a means of legally obtaining substances that they are then in turn either take themselves for sell to others. As a means of discussing in addressing this particular problem, the following analysis will seek to analyze the issue of addiction, discuss who was ultimately affected and how, analyze how the problem is change overtime, consider the factors which it contributed to the problem, and speak to the unique ways in which society has attempted to address this situation. Therefore, it is the hope of this analyst that such a unique and very level of understanding will help the reader to come to a more broad and complete appreciation for the level of deviation and similarity that exists between illegal street drug usage and addiction as well as pharmacologically prescribed and used/abused substances. In effect, although vastly different and understood within the societal context in a different manner, these two determinants are much more similar than one might initially believe. Firstly, with regards to what the problem actually is and how it is defined, the reader should consider what addiction actually is. With respect to whether drug addiction can be named as a disease of the mind, the argument basically falls into two different areas. First, there is the position that drug addiction is only a weakness of will that leads a person to seek out a way to lessen life’s difficulties. Second, there is the school of thought that describes drug abuse as a type of self-fulfilling prophecy with relation to the way people understand and categorize it. What one can see from this debate, prior to seeking to develop their own point of view with relation to the issue, is that one viewpoint attempts to explain drug use by way of a mental/spiritual deficiency in terms of lack of willpower. On the other hand, the other side of the debate seeks to explain drug addiction by way of verifiable/measurable proof to label it as an actual disease. This brief analysis will attempt to provide the reader with a better understanding of both of these arguments, how they relate to the issue of drug abuse/addiction, and which of the two may be better in helping to explain the societal problems that are born from drug use/abuse. Firstly, it is important to note that there are doubtless many cases in which the drug user has come to a sense of realization and has decided that they must put away drugs in order to preserve their own life and happiness (as well as the life and happiness of their family and loved ones). Unfortunately, this is not the norm. Rather, addiction is usually typified by a selfish need/satisfaction matrix. Rather than being aware of basic human emotions that are driven by a sense of shame and the need to use willpower over an issue in order to fix it, the user/abuser oftentimes is completely unaware of such logic as they are chemically bound to seeking the next high. As such, any across the board statements with relation to how the individual should simply realize that they are dependent and exert a sense of willpower over the vice as a means of bettering their own life is patently short-sighted. In this way, a more complete and differentiated approach to dealing with and understanding drug abuse is necessary to work to assuage the problem. The second approach with which this brief analysis will consider revolves around understanding drug abuse from the perspective of a medically and biologically understood issue. As such, the second article with which this brief analysis will consider is concentric around the medical and biological realities which oftentimes exist within the user. Regardless of personal opinion on the issue, the fact of the matter is that key neuroadaptive settings are intrinsically altered within the human brain once they are introduced to certain substances. Many of these neuroadaptors are irreparable and do not merely re-adjust to the standard biological settings that they engendered when the individual was not on drugs. For instance, ecstasy is a very common drug that is listed as psychologically addictive as opposed to physically addictive. One of the main reasons that ecstasy users take the drug is to enhance feelings of extreme joy, pleasure, and intimacy. The drug works by encouraging the serotonin delivery system within the body to kick into a type of overdrive. Once the drug begins to wear off, these serotonin secretion mechanisms and receptors have become used to the elevated levels and cannot keep up with this level of secretion. Perhaps more interesting than the mechanism for definition of addiction itself is with respect to who is actually affected by the problem which has herein been defined. Whereas a particular strata of socioeconomics has long been impacted by drug abuse and addiction, the abuse and addiction of prescribed drugs effects an entirely different demographic. Without considering the scale measuring how this differs from the previous exhibitions of drug usage within the United States, the analyst can quickly note that the lion’s share of prescription drug abuse that is evidenced within the United States affects middle-class women. This of course offers a distinct and clear differentiation from how drug abuse within society had traditionally been defined. Although there have been many sociological theories with regards to why women are specifically attracted to abuse of prescription drugs, no single theory in and of itself is sufficient to describe such an emerging relationship that has been evidenced. However, that being said, one of the more salient theories with regards to why such a high level of prescription drug abuse is currently being evidenced within the United States is due to the fact that it is intrinsically linked with a degree of depression, hopelessness, and feeling of imprisonment that is oftentimes linked to life within middle-class (Twombly et al, 2011). Although this can of course be extrapolated to impact specifically upon women within middle-class, the reader can and should understand that it applies equally to both genders. In such a way, it only makes logical sense that the degree of prescription drug abuse that is evidenced within society has tracked equally along with the increase in the misery index, economic downturn, and general malaise that has affected the United States and its economy for the past several years. However, the issue has changed yet again within the recent past and the individuals who are abusing prescription drugs are no longer only the individuals to whom they were originally prescribed. It is the fact that a rapid increase in powerful prescription drugs is now evidenced in many medicine cabinets within the United States, this presents a unique level of threat and danger to the younger generation. Whereas harder drugs such as cocaine, meth, heroin, ecstasy, and a range of others are technically out of reach of such stakeholders, ready access to morphine derivatives, powerful antidepressants, mood stabilizers, and a litany of others are just a bottle cap away. Due to such a reality, the use within the nation are particularly at risk for becoming hooked on prescription drugs or being led down the path to drug addiction through such a gateway. This has of course immediately translated into making schools and a variety of other situations to be potentially permeated by a ready access to powerful drugs that would not have otherwise been available. With regards to what is ultimately the greatest contributor to this reality, it is the belief of this author that it is the culture within the United States. What is meant by this is that the current culture is one in which almost every stakeholder within society has come to the belief and rationale that no matter what problem exists within life, it can ultimately be made better with a pill stop many individuals and analysts of this particular culture have referred to this as a “medicated culture” (Zosel et al, 2013). Within such a sense, the stigma of needing to take medicine in order to fuel normal or to have a good time has been removed and replaced by one which champions and condones such a course of action. Although it is not the intent of this author to state that there are no cases in which individuals require high-powered pharmacological means to address key issues, the fact of the matter is that the issue has grown to astronomical proportions; proportions which are not indicative of the actual medical concerns of the community at large. As a means of addressing this reality, society has a whole has attempted to regulate the prescription process to such a degree that it can hope to have an impact upon the overall availability and addiction that these drugs necessarily portend. However, rather than enforcing a degree of constraints upon the means by which these drugs can be dispensed from the pharmacy side, this approach has left the most vulnerable individuals within society still unaddressed (Phillips, 2013). In short, this is a very difficult problem for society to seek to tackle due to the fact that doctors and medical community specifically is still entrusted with the ability to prescribe freely based upon their own understanding of the particular needs of the patient. In such a way, government and the Drug Enforcement Agency has been hesitant to impede and infringe on such a right. Ultimately, with respect to what society has done to stem the flow of prescription drugs into the hands of individuals within society, the response has been negligible. Due to the fact that prescription drug abuse does not engender the same level of stigma that illegal narcotics of every other variety engender, stakeholders within law enforcement, the medical community, and society have been hesitant to address the issue to the extent that it deserves. Ultimately, the issue of prescription drug abuse, although connected to drug abuse in general, represents its own unique branch; affecting a unique group of stakeholders that are otherwise underrepresented in the demographics the traditionally makeup drug abuse within society. Due to this clear and distinct deviation, it is oftentimes been the case that analysts and scholars shoes to under represent or outright ignore the situation when discussing drug abuse. However, even though these two determinants differentiate from one another in a powerful and complex way, they should both be understood within the same context. Drug addiction is drug addiction; regardless of whether or not the demographics affected deviate from the traditional understanding or whether the means of delivery of specific drug is originally illegal or derived legally. Quibbling about the status that these respective drugs entail does not help anyone within society to come to a better or more conclusive determination with regards to whether or not one form is more or less harmful than another. The truth of the matter is that it is highly unlikely that any change within the current situation will be noted until such a time that the government and societal stakeholders in general refuse to differentiate between drug usage in the form of street drugs or drug use and abuse in the form of pharmacological means. References Phillips, J. (2013). Prescription drug abuse: Problem, policies, and implications. Nursing Outlook, 61(2), 78-84. doi:10.1016/j.outlook.2012.06.009 Twombly, E. C., Holtz, K. D., & Agnew, C. B. (2011). Resonant Messages to Prevent Prescription Drug Misuse by Teens. Journal Of Alcohol & Drug Education, 55(1), 38-52. Zosel, A., Bartelson, B., Bailey, E., Lowenstein, S., & Dart, R. (2013). Characterization of adolescent prescription drug abuse and misuse using the Researched Abuse Diversion and Addiction-Related Surveillance (RADARS®) System. Journal Of The American Academy Of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 52(2), 196-204. doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2012.11.014 Read More