The Dangers of Drugs on Society - Essay Example

Table of Contents The Dangers of Drugs on Society………………………………………………………………....3 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………..3 The Dangers of Drugs on Health………………………………………………………………….4 Dangers of Drug on Crime………………………………………………………………………...4 The Dangers of Drug Use on Family……………………………………………………………...5 The Dangers of Drug Use on the Productivity of Employees and Businesses……………………7 Dangers of Drug Use on the Economy……………………………………………………………8 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………...8 Works Cited……………………………………………………………………………………...10 The Dangers of Drugs on Society Introduction Drug use may have serious impact on the society especially when abused by those that consume them within the society. Drugs that have negative effect may include those that slow down the functioning of the body and the brain such as alcohol, those that stimulate the body causing anxiety and the hallucinogenic ones that may cause disturbing and erratic behavior. Drugs usually have serious and significant negative effects not just to the individuals who use and abuse them, but also to immediate family, friends and relatives as well as the government. These effects affect the social, economic, emotional as well as the political well-being of any society amongst other facets of the society that are affected. The most open evidence of the impact of the abuse of drugs to an individual is usually ill health or sickness which in most cases leads to death of the person who was abusing the drug. Closely connected to the use of drugs is the exposure of the person using the drugs to contract diseases that may be caused to the sharing of instruments used to administer the drugs such as needles, which may transmit HIV/AIDS or Hepatitis. These far reaching effects of drug use and abuse in by individuals in the society may lead to serious effects which may be either short-term or long-term in nature. The United States being the largest economy in the world continuously grapples with the problem of the usage and abuse of drug abuse which has been found to e detrimental to its society and economy. The continued use and abuse of drugs has got serious consequences in the society as well as on policy considerations and there should be concerted efforts by each society to have initiatives that make access or use of illicit drugs impossible. There is also need for early screening and intervention activities to prevent the abuse of drugs which may destroy a whole society. The Dangers of Drugs on Health In the United States alone, the importation and use drugs has had serious health and economic impact to the society with costs ranging to a higher figure of US $ 193 billion in the year 2007 alone (Obama iii). This is the total cost used in the treatment of those that abuse the drugs, the spill-over costs to crime and lost time that may have been used in work and social welfare programs. Further, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that in the year 2009 alone, about forty thousand people perished due to effects related to the usage and abuse of drugs (Kochanek et al 11). Out of these, twenty-five thousand died due to sicknesses or illnesses related to the use of drugs. The same report states that 123, 235 adult persons who were living with AIDS had contracted the condition through the use of infected needles and syringes that had the virus and their survival rates was slightly reduced as compared to those who contracted AIDS through other ways. The NSDUH also state that in the year 2004, about three and a half million people aged more than eighteen years had injected themselves with a prohibited drug during their lifetime and of these 14 % or a figure of about half a million people were under the age of twenty-five years. Dangers of Drug Use and Crime There is a big relationship between the use and abuse of drugs which can e directly through the possession, manufacture and the distribution of drugs or indirectly through the effects on the behavior of the user. These effects may e through violence or involvement of illegal activity that is related to drugs such as drug trafficking and inducement to involve in the procurement of drugs (Spiess and Deborah 1). The use and abuse of drugs has a direct bearing on the crime as experienced within the society as they are correlated according o research by the United States National Institute of Justice. This is due to the fact that drug addicts are more susceptible to commit crime with the aim of financing their drug usage habits and lifestyle. For instance, the use of drugs such as cannabis increases the risk of a person being involved in motor vehicle accident or traffic offences. This is due to the fact that in most instances, those that are arrested and incarcerated are usually found to have abused a drug which in most instances is usually alcohol or marijuana according to tests (Rhodes, Ryan and Patrick 22). The use of drugs may lead to crimes which may either be defined as drug-defined, drug-related or drug-using lifestyle amongst the individuals involved in the criminal acts (National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Inc). The drug-defined include those that regulate the possession of the drugs of which their use constitute a violation of the law while the drug-related include violations of laws while under the influence of the drugs. The drug-using lifestyle offences include those that constitute a lifestyle of continuous use of drugs whereby a person may not have a job or income but uses drugs to sustain a certain lifestyle. All these constitute the abuse of drugs and therefore affect the society in which such individuals live in as they are prone to break the law as their way of life. The Dangers of Drug Use on Family The use of drugs in the United States has also affected families in the sense that children of parents who abuse drugs suffer from neglect or abuse due to their parent’s preoccupation with the usage of drugs. Studies throughout the nation show that parents who abuse drugs prioritize their needs and desires to procure and use the drugs as compared to that of their families and children in terms of health and welfare (Wallace 481). Children whose families and parents abuse drugs also suffer from physical and emotional abuse and in some instances do not have food, clothing and shelter or have access to medical care and immunization amongst other needs. The risk to such abused children also gets higher when the parents and guardians are involved in the manufacture, procurement or trade in the illicit drugs. This is because the children come into contact with the illicit and toxic drugs and may ingest or inhale them making them suffer from short-term and long-term health consequences which may lead to psychological and developmental problems. Drug abuse may also affect the level of communication within the family in that the family may have negative communication connotations which may include complaints, criticisms or expressions of displeasure amongst others (Hanson 589). This may lead to a reinforcement of the continued use and abuse of the drug and in some instances may lead to parental inconsistency and denial. The parents may also develop miscarried expression of anger against their children or unrealistic expression which may lead to continued fracturing of the family bond and eventual collapse of the society. From the above argument, it can be noted that the use of drugs by a family which forms the basic unit of any given society has serious consequences on how the society will be run and how its members live and conduct their affairs. The Dangers of Drug Use on the Productivity of Employees and Businesses The usage and abuse of drugs often lead to lost productivity that can be caused by the incapacitation at the work place when work hours are lost, the employee lacks the motivation to work or the employee is absent from work. The economic impact of the use and abuse of drugs mostly affects the society mostly those involved in businesses, enterprises and other income generating activities. This happens when employees who abuse drugs are unable to do the work as assigned to them or are unable to attain or hold the employment to end of its terms. For those who work, they also put their lives and lives of others at risks as they are impaired and do not perform the work in the desired manner. For example, machine operators or drivers who work while intoxicated with drugs will certainly put the lives of others that they serve including theirs to great danger. According to Quest Diagnostics, about 5.7 % of accidents involving employees at the place of work were caused due to the usage of illicit drugs (“Pre-Employment Drug Test Positives…”). Businesses whose employees abuse drugs also suffer economically due to losses incurred through careless computation of sales and income, loss of equipment and supplies and general carelessness. Enterprises and businesses also suffer due to the loss of productivity of such employees, sustained absenteeism and unnecessary but wasteful use of medical and insurance benefits to treat the drug addicts which affect the business financially (U.S. Department of Justice, National Drug Intelligence Center 36). All these eventually affect the books of accounts of these business enterprises as they fail to fully utilize the productivity of their employees. This affects the societies that rely on these enterprises for income and provision of social amenities and have far reaching consequences even on the individual welfare. Dangers of Drug Use on the Economy The government whether the federal government, state government and the local government also suffers the economic consequences due to the abuse of drugs which is ultimately borne by the taxpayer. For instance, the use of the chemical methamphetamine to manufacture drugs affects the safety of citizens as well as the environment which make the affected persons require extensive medical treatment which is costly (Thorpe, Curtis and Peter, Peter 437). These put pressure on the government in terms of the finances required to cover the medical costs as well as those required to clean up the environment. The DEA states that the costs required cleaning up a laboratory that produces methamphetamine is about US $ 1900 which has a profound economic impact if it were to clean up even about 10, 000 laboratories and their respective dumpsites. These costs also include the manpower and resources employed in training, investigation as well as the enforcement of environmental laws after the clean up. Further, the extra costs that are incurred for social welfare of children whose parents have neglected or abandoned due to drug abuse puts more financial strain on the exchequer of federal and state governments. Conclusion The use of drugs within the society usually has serious impact within the society and this depends on the reason the drug is taken, the drug and the setting in which it is abused. The continued use of drugs has led to the massive breakdown of the thread that holds the society together and this has led to constant conflict between members of the society. These include conflicts in families where a member abuses drugs and is constantly fighting with the others thus affecting interpersonal relationships. The use of drugs has affected businesses, enterprises and industries as employees who are constantly abusing drugs are unproductive and at times cause the business losses through carelessness and misuse of cash and supplies. The government at the federal, state and local level also suffers economically due to the extra costs incurred in meeting the medical and environmental costs associated with the use of drugs in the society. Most important is that the continued abuse of drugs within the society affects an individual at a personal level as he will eventually suffer ill health with a possibility of death. This calls for all those concerned such as the government at all levels, institutions, employers and pressure groups amongst others to come up with ways of controlling the use and abuse of drugs in order that we have a healthy and productive society. The government should therefore back initiatives aimed at steering people from the use of drugs and increasing employment opportunities to those affected as well as rehabilitating those that have been greatly affected by the use of drugs. Such efforts may include law enforcement efforts aimed at reduction of the production and the distribution of illicit drugs which will make it difficult for consumers to access them and assure the public of their safety. Works Cited Hanson, Glen R. Drugs and Society. Sudbury: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2014. Print. Kochanek, Kenneth D, Arialdi M. Miniño, Sherry L. Murphy, Jiaquan Xu, and Hsiang-Ching Kung. Deaths: Final Data for 2009. Hyattsville, MD: Dept. of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, 2011. Print. Obama, Barack. 2012 National Drug Control Strategy: Message from the President of the United States Transmitting the Administrations 2012 National Drug Control Strategy, Pursuant to 21 U.s.c. 1504. Washington: U.S. G.P.O, 2012. Internet resource. “Pre-Employment Drug Test Positives Increase More Than 5%, According to New Data from Quest Diagnostics Drug Testing Index”. Quest Diagnostics. March 7, 2013. Web. April 2, 2013 http://www.questdiagnostics.com/dms/Documents/DTI-Reports/2013-03-06_DTI/DTI.pdf National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Inc. Alcohol, Drugs and Crime. 2013. New York, US. Web. April 2, 2013 http://www.ncadd.org/index.php/for-youth/drugs-and-crime/230-alcohol-drugs-and-crime Rhodes, William, Ryan Kling, and Patrick Johnston. "Using Booking Data to Model Drug User Arrest Rates: a Preliminary to Estimating the Prevalence of Chronic Drug Use."Journal of Quantitative Criminology. 23.1 (2007). Print. Spiess, Michele, and Deborah Fallow. Drug-related Crime. Washington, D.C: Office of National Drug Control Policy, 2000. Print. Thorpe, Kenneth, E, Curtis, Florence, S and Peter, Joski. "Which Medical Conditions Account for the Rise in Health Care Spending?" Health Affairs (project Hope). (2004). Print. U.S. Department of Justice, National Drug Intelligence Center. The Economic Impact of Illicit Drug Use on American Society. April 2011. Johnstown, Pa:. Print. Wallace, Helen M. Health and Welfare for Families in the 21st Century. Sudbury, Mass: Jones & Bartlett, 1999. Print. Read More