A Comprehensive Position on Psychoactive Substances - Essay Example

"A Comprehensive Position on Psychoactive Substances" is a well-written example of a paper on addiction.
Alcohol is the most important substance to address in the United States because it is the most abused substance. Alcohol is also contentious with the law in that it is the root cause for many evil or vices experienced in society. Most alcohol abusers are wife batterers, criminals, murderers, careless drivers, drug lords, and sexual predators because they are mostly found highly intoxicated (Road Traffic and Psychoactive Substances, 134). An example is that in the United States the number of an accident caused due to driving under the influence of alcohol was 10,941 crashes with 217 fatal crashes in 2012 and people aged 21-25 killed on road accidents 40% were drunk (Drunk Driving Accident Statistics: Alcohol-Related Car Crash Deaths).  An increase in alcohol-related deaths came from 428-404 in the same year.

Strategies

The US government has developed strategies to try to control the alcohol intake of its citizens. They have put alcohol analyzers that test the alcohol levels of drivers to curb careless drunk drivers who cause unnecessary accidents (Road Traffic and Psychoactive Substance, 135). This strategy has been effective since there has been a reduction in the number of drunk drivers. Furthermore, driving licenses are withheld if found guilty on three occasions.

Another strategy by the government to curb drunkenness is the ban of alcohol sales to underage people, under the age of 18. This has somehow worked but still, a large percentage of underage still find ways of purchasing alcohol either using fake IDs or sending irresponsible adults. The government has banned underage children from attending bars and often raids those places to find culprits and suspend club licenses for that reason.

A new strategy that might work with the control of alcohol is that the government can ensure that CCTV cameras are installed in every bar, club, or other places where they sell alcohol and outside cameras too to follow upon the buyers. The reason why people in the United States might support this strategy is that CCTV cameras can be used as evidence against these law offenders and the cameras can also aid in catching criminals in case of thefts or murders. So it is like catching two birds with one stone. However, some people might oppose this strategy because they feel that CCTV cameras invade people's privacy since what they do outside should be at least private.