Drug Addiction as a Social Disease - Research Paper Example

?Comparing Dutch drug illegalization and policy with the U.S and Cultural view of Drug Use Introduction Drug addiction is a curse on society. While there are various policies and programs to discourage the use of drugs, the youth remains vulnerable as they find it as an easy way out from the tension of their social and cultural life. Drug use is more common among teenagers and the youth. Although drugs can act as alleviator of both physical pain and mental stress, still drug use has a broader cultural basis. This paper deals with the drug laws of Netherlands and the cultural view of the drug use. Drug Policy of Netherlands – Historical view In the 19th century, Netherlands was not free from drug addicts. Unlike the United States and other nations of Western Europe, there were no addicted soldiers in Netherlands and also there was no spread of addiction among the public which was the reason why there was no medical research regarding addiction. Dutch policy on drugs took action based on two factors, which were development in the field of medicine and huge profits earned by the Dutch colonial drug operators. In the Dutch colonies, the use of opium and cocaine contributed largely as state revenue. Netherlands became the largest producer of cocaine in the world by the early 20th century and the government could earn huge profits from opium leases. In 1909, the United States held a conference in Shanghai with a goal to restrict the sale and use of opium, but Netherlands resisted it. Only in 1919, when Opium Act was enacted, government of Netherlands restricted the drugs to be sold and used only as medicine. Before the Second World War, it was thought that the drug policies in Netherlands were not genuine because the government had huge economic gains as sale of drugs proved to a very lucrative business. After Second World War, marijuana could be easily detected and in 1953, changes were made in Opium Act by way of adding cannabis as illegal substance. Legal steps began to be taken against those who used marijuana but excessive measures taken against the student riots in 1966 made enforcement of law very sensitive in the eyes of the public. This resulted in lighter dealings with social issues like usage of drugs. In the early 1970s, sale of heroin became very competitive and then the government of Netherlands established Baan Commission, which decided the course of drug policy of the country. The main idea of Baan Commission was to minimize any risks arising out of drug use instead of completely banning the use of drugs (Dolin, 2001). Drug Policy of the United States – Historical view From 1861 to the late 19th century, use of various drugs like morphine, cocaine, opium was not considered illegal. Opium and cocaine were even used in medicines. In 1898, heroin was first isolated and it coincided with the ongoing appeals of the races against drugs in America. Initially, only cocaine and opium were targeted. Cocaine was more common among the blacks and opium among the Chinese. Alcohol temperance groups and religious groups also joined hands in protesting against the use of drugs. In 1906, the US Congress in spite of strong protests from the medicine industry passed Pure Food and Drug Act. Under this Act it was necessary to list the drugs used in medicines. Opium Smoking Act was passed in 1909, which prohibited drug importation for any other purpose other than medicinal purposes. The Harrison Narcotic Act was passed in 1914 to control the use of cocaine and heroin in medicines by limiting their distribution to physicians. Although the court challenged this Act, the US Supreme Court defended it as revenue act. This Act allowed the doctors to use narcotics only as course of their professional practice (Dolin, 2001). In the second half of the 19th century, the Dutch physicians began to feel the sale of opiates and cocaine were flooding the market and as such their profession was affected. As medicine became a profession, the physicians and pharmacists tried to hold monopoly in the area of drug supply. In US drugs like opium, morphine, and cocaine were common ingredients in patent medicines. Opium was freely available in the market even without a doctor’s prescription. In Netherlands drugs were not widely spread among the public whereas American society was under strong influence of drugs. There were racist appeals in US to protect the society from drug addiction. Unlike USA, the government of Netherlands earned huge revenue from sale of drugs among which opium was the highest revenue earner. While in Netherlands drug policies were made keeping in view the interest of the Government, in USA drug policies were made with the sole view of protecting the society from drugs (Dolin, 2001). Legal and Illegal Drugs Drugs are generally considered as bad for the health. Overuse of drugs can lead to disease, violence, criminal activities, lack of energy and can cause death. Not all drugs have the same effect and while some can be highly dangerous there are still others, which can be used in medicines in prescribed doses. Medicines are one kind of drugs, which are considered legal, and the doctors as means for healing the patients prescribe them. Other legal drugs are alcohol and cigarettes when consumed moderately (Redman and Gavin, 2010). The definition of illegal drugs is not confined only to certain types of drugs. Abusing the use of legal drugs is also considered as illegal. Medicine used in any way other than the doctors’ directives is illegal. Excessive consumption of alcohol and cigarette smoking can have severe effect on the health and as such are considered illegal. Other than this, drugs like cocaine, heroin, LSD, marijuana, etc. are illegal drugs. Although marijuana is generally regarded as illegal, in some places the doctors are allowed to use it as medicine for certain kinds of diseases. Drugs are considered illegal when they have the potential to damage the brain, heart and other vital organs of the human body. Cocaine is illegal as it can lead to heart attack even among the teenagers. Young people whose bodies are still in the growing stage can be affected badly by the use of illegal drugs. Consuming illegal drugs or abusing legal drugs can lead to poor performance among young people in schools and in other activities like sports. Illegal drugs can rob the capacity to think clearly or affect the ability to make clear decisions. (Redman and Gavin, 2010) Cultural Diamond Culture can be defined as the behavior pattern of people, which may not have any connection with beliefs and traditions. High culture is taste in fine arts and humanities. Culture is an expression depicted in superior and beautiful manner by human effort. Culture leads to betterment of the society. Civilization can become modern and beautiful with culture. Culture makes man sensitive towards the beauty in arts, literature and philosophy. It makes a man open minded and unprejudiced. Culture can bring harmony in society through education, art, literature and philosophy. Culture can negate the destructive effects of modernization of society (Griswold, 2008, p.5). Cultural objects are symbols, ideas, artifacts, etc. that culture gives a meaning to. The inherent meanings of symbols or artifacts are means by which human beings communicate and the knowledge is passed on. It can not be a cultural object if it is a piece of art that no one knows of or a saying that only one person says, it must be a shared object within culture, meaning it is public. An unpublished novel by a writer cannot be considered as actual cultural object although it had the potential. Cultural objects must be shared and experienced by people and the people who receive them can give them meaning. Any object, which is considered only as means of fulfilling our needs, cannot be named as cultural object. For example if a quilt is considered as an object to buy in a shop or is considered as means of warming our bodies, then it is not a cultural object. If the same quilt is viewed in a poetic fashion like how some women together wove pieces of scraps to give form to a beautiful and useful object, then that quilt becomes a cultural object. A cultural object can differ from culture to culture and also can differ in meaning. (Griswold, 2008, pp.12, 15) Human beings create cultural objects and as such there are creators or producers. Creators invent a new form of art, write a new novel and create a symbol to signify the essence of a society and invent a new line of fashion or conceptualize anything new in any form of art, philosophy, education, etc. Creators are also those who find beauty in mere objects and can write stories on them. (Griswold, 2008, p.15) Receivers are those who experience the effects of cultural objects in their lives. All cultural objects need to be shared and experienced and for that receivers play a huge role. There must be people to receive the cultural objects, understand the meaning of them, remember them and communicate them (Griswold, 2008, p.15). Creators and receivers exist in a social world. Social world is formed by an existing pattern of economy, politics and culture at a given period of time. The connection that exists between social objects and the social world is what forms cultural sociology (Griswold, 2008, p.15). Cultural Diamond model in USA and Netherlands In New York, there are homicidal tendencies between the drug dealers wherein the small time dealers are getting killed by the other dealers. Through these killings the drug dealers are unknowingly creating a society free of drug dealers. Such cases often remain unsolved because the common people feel glad that such murders are in fact clearing the society from the claws of drug dealers. We can analyse the event from the four point cultural diamond view. This is illustrated in Fig.1. Here the common people are unwilling receivers of the benefits of the killings. They favor this situation because the killings reduce the number of drug dealers. Here the drug dealers unknowingly become producers of a drug free society. The detectives of New York in order to bring order in the society take up these cases as an intellectual challenge, which is the cultural object here. Through these cases the detective subculture gets to interact with the drug dealers. While the smaller dealers die because of the killings the bigger dealers get caught in the hands of these detectives because of their obsession to solve these cases (Griswold, 2008, p.61). Fig.1 Opium Act was passed by the government of Netherlands to regulate the use of drugs within the nation. Through this Act possession of drugs became an offensive Act. Efforts were made to eradicate use of drugs in school. Public awareness was created by mass media. The common people of Netherlands felt the positive effects of the Act. Drug use became the cultural object for this Act and the goal was to minimize drug use by separating the market for soft drugs like marijuana and hard drugs like cocaine and heroin. Through the Act the government spread the message to the society that drug use is more a healthcare issue than a criminal one. From cultural diamond view this is illustrated in Fig 2 as below. (McDonald, 2002). Fig. 2 The government of US in 1906 approved pure Food and Drug Act in order to reduce drug consumption. This cultural object imposed the restriction of drug use in food and medicines. The Act directed the sale of certain drugs only on the basis of prescription. Those drugs, which have the potential to create habit, must be sold with label mentioning the same. The common people were at large receivers of benefit from this Act and this Act managed to reduce drug consumption drastically. From cultural diamond view this is illustrated in Fig 3 as below. (The Pure Food and Drug Act, n.d.). Fig.3 Conclusion Drug abuse is a social malady and robs the youth of its productivity and longevity of life. From the cultural view the younger generation takes drug more from peer pressure and from the feeling that drug use is considered cool. They need to feel as one with the other teenagers. Young people who suffer from low confidence and low self esteem are prone to take drugs. People also take drug to fight with loneliness or to feel relief from stress due to financial pressure, problems in love life or in workplace (Drug Addiction Causes, n.d.). That drug use is illegal also acts as a social challenge for the youth. The cultural essence of a society faces strong negative affect from drug use as it curbs the ability of free thinking among drug users. Governments should take stringent measures to prevent illicit production, distribution and consumption of drugs. Past victims of drugs should come forward to share their experience with the potential drug users. References 1. Dolin, B. (2001)“National Drug Policy: The Netherlands”, parl.gc.ca, retrieved on 9th August, 2011 from: http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/SEN/Committee/371/ille/library/dolin1-e.htm#A.%20%20Historica 2. Dolin, B. (2001) “National Drug Policy: United States of America”, parl.gc.ca, retrieved on 9th August, 2011 from: http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/SEN/Committee/371/ille/library/dolin2-e.htm#_ftn3 3. Griswold, W. (2008) Cultures and Societies in a Changing World, USA: Pine Forge Press 4. McDonald, K. (2002) “Opium Act”, providence.edu, 9th August, 2011 from http://www.providence.edu/polisci/students/dutch/opiumact.htm 5. Redman, R. L. and M. L. Gavin. (2010) “What You Need to Know About Drugs”, kidshealth.org, retrieved on 9th August, 2011 from http://kidshealth.org/kid/grow/drugs_alcohol/know_drugs.html 6. “The Pure Food and Drug Act”, (n.d.) druglibrary.org, retrieved on 9th August, 2011 from http://www.druglibrary.org/olsen/dpf/whitebread03.html 7. “Drug Addiction Causes”, (n.d.) drug-addiction-support.org, retrieved on 9th August, 2011 from http://www.drug-addiction-support.org/drug-addiction-causes.html Read More