Past and current trends of the use and abuse of substances in the United States - Essay Example

Cocaine is another of the principal drugs which Latin America is the main producer particularly the nation of Columbia. This paper discusses the past and current trends in drug consumption in the American society. During the 20th century the American society went through various wars that brought instability to this community. Warfare is variable the influences drug consumption by increase its usage especially among the soldiers involved in the ordeal. After the Vietnam War thousands of soldiers came back to the states extremely addictive to heroin, cocaine and methaphinimines.

During this time in the 1960’s a group of young people commonly referred to as hippies were highly involved in drug consumption and trade which increased the usage of drugs especially marijuana in the US. A hippie is a person who opposes and rejects many of the conventional products and society, especially one who advocates extreme liberalism in sociopolitical attitudes and society (Answers, 2008). In the 1980’s the drug trade of cocaine and overall consumption of this drug increase drastically among the middle and high class in the United States.

The price of a kilo of cocaine was much higher than it is now and the drug lords invented a new product to capitalize on the addictive nature of the substance and have a cheap product that could be used to target the lower middle class and Americans living in poverty. This new devil was called crack cocaine. Crack is derivative of cocaine which is more hazardous, cheaper to produce and much more addictive than cocaine in itself. The bigger victims of the crack epidemic were the poor Afro-American and Latino communities living in poverty low income communities commonly referred to as hoods.

Marijuana a natural drug that is actually a flower is the most popular drug in America. Over 94 million American or approximately 30% of the American population has used marijuana at some point in