Social Problem Identification Report - Term Paper Example

In the USA, the commonly abused drugs are cocaine, alcohol, marijuana, tobacco, heroin, amphetamine and methamphetamine. In addition, today majority of American youth are trapped in the endless addiction, and the loss of the economic viable young people is on the rise. In fact, according to the White House department of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) about 17.4 youths have had experience with drug abuse that either resulted in direct hospitalization or rehabilitation (Segal 2014). Whatever the reasons for this menace, the impact has been enormous.

Some of the leading social issues includes rising in the rate of school dropouts, breakage of marriage and rise in crimes. Sadly, there has been reluctant attitude on the part of the stakeholders to openly discuss these negative effects and seek an amicable solution. Segal (2014) agrees that by 2010, the number of drug abusers in USA was 22.6 million which amounted to 8.9 % of the total population. The numbers of marijuana users rose from 5.8 million to 14.4 million in the period between 2007 and 2010.

Alcohol is most abused drug and according to a research done in 2013, 1 million people between the ages of 10-20 years confirmed that they were taking alcohol. The deaths associated with drug abuse have risen by 540% over the thirty years. The amount spent on drug abuse in the country amounted to 122 billion dollars in the year 2012 (Segal 2014). The above statistics confirms that the rate of drug abuse in the current society is alarming, and its effects will cause a big damage if a remedy is not found.

In addition, there are a number of social implications when the number of addicts increases. While the effects of the drug may appear long-term and perhaps too theoretical, the ultimate effect is the loss of lives and increase in incapacitation. Today, majority of drug users lack basic access to rehabilitation centers, and