Drug Abuse as a Social Problem and Its Impacts - Essay Example

Drug Abuse as a social problem and Its Impacts Introduction From a structural functionalist perspective, Drug abuse can be characterized as a social pathogen which hampers the normal functioning of the society and strangles the harmonious interactions between the organically performing subordinate groups of a society. Since the structure-functionalists believe that society is essentially a sum-total of harmoniously functioning social constituents such as norms, customs and traditions etc embedded in other organically functioning interrelated subsystems such as individuals, interest groups and communities, any structural-functional theory will view drug abuse as a social pathogen which disrupt the harmonious function between other interrelated subsystems, such as family, society, country, economy, healthcare, etc of the society. The problem of drug abuse and addiction further direly affects not only the individuals but also the whole society. From sociological perspective, drug addiction affects the society on two levels: individual levels and collective level. On the individual level, an addicted person suffers from various health and social problems. But on the collective levels, it tends to affect the whole society putting its various organization and institutions, such as economy, political systems, under excruciating pressures. Indeed the purpose of this paper is to explore and analyze the effects of drug-abuse and addiction on the society from an analytical and socio-anthropological perspective. Drug Abuse from Structural-functionalist Perspective According to Durkheim, a society is primarily a systematic entity consisting of various subsystems that are engaged in fulfilling both the individual and social needs. Secondly, the social system can be explored in terms of superimposed stages that are determined by the relations and interactions between them. These interrelations between the society and its members essentially infer that the social subsystems are grown on the substrate of the social system, in other words, the material existence. In fact, society as a systematic “response to needs” puts “emphasis on looking for efficient or final causes and that analysis in terms of ‘stages’ seeks a causality that could be described as causality of expression” (Filoux, 1993, p.3). According to the social pathology model, drug abuse can be deemed as a sickness that stifles the normal workability of any parts of the society, such as family institution, religious institution, economic, educational, and political institutions, etc. Indeed the structure-functionalist theory also views the drug-addiction affected part of the society as a malfunctioning social subsystem. It often emerges as a response to the malfunction of other social institutions. For example, if family institution, economic institution, etc do not function properly, the deficiencies in the workability of these institutions will result in the increase of the rate of drug-addiction and the crimes related to it. In the opposite fashion, social problems like drug abuse often contribute to the dysfunctions of these social institutions. The structure-functionalist view, the solution to the social problem of drug abuse lies in the members’ reception of “proper socialization and moral education, which may be accomplished in the family, schools, churches, workplace, and/or through the media” (Mooney, Knox, & Schacht, 2000, pp. 10-16). From a structural-functional perspective, it is both the direct and indirect consequence of the disordered social structure, of which a family is an indispensable and crucial role playing part. In modern urban society, family which holds the constructive values and morals is a declining institution with diminished influence on its members. But a psychological explanation is rather complementary to this socio-criminologist explanation of drug abuse. From this perspective, drug abuse is the direct consequence of emotional disturbance whether is caused by the conflict between parents or any outside factors such as depression, frustrations, curiosity, availability of drug, etc, as Stephen Gold notes, “the CAP theory of drug abuse emphasizes the interaction of cognitive-affective-pharmacogenic effects of drug taking. The belief that one is powerless to affect the environment and cope with stress plays a central role in the theory.” (Fisher et al 56) Again Khantzian says in this regard, “Drug dependence is tied intimately to an individual’s attempt to cope with his or her internal emotional and external social and physical environment.” (Fisher et al 56) Temporary mental relief from bitter reality is one of the causes, which is commonly acknowledged by the addicts. But a healthy emotional relationship between parents and children can serve as a fortified safeguard in defense against other factors. Psychological studies often describe addiction as an adolescent’s flawed withdrawal attempt from reality into the dark and temporary relief of drugs, when he or she is deprived from the emotional support from his or her nearest and dearest one. A longitudinal British Survey reports that more than 70 percent of the drug-users adopt this habit in their adolescent starting with smoking. Again in a literature review published by the UK Home Office, Fisher et al suggests: The most extensive and consistent evidence relates to young people’s interaction with their families. The key predictors of drug use are parental discipline, family cohesion and parental monitoring. Some aspects of family structure such as large family size and low parental age are linked to adolescent drug use. (Fisher et al 34) What Sociologists says about Drug-abuse From a sociological perspective, the problem of drug addiction can be viewed as a loop that evolves from other social problems and finally ends in the deterioration of these social problems themselves. Sociology papers show that the root cause of drug-addiction lies in several issues such as the declining family tie and its diminished influence on the family members, degradations of morality and religious value, unemployment problems, mental depression, etc. Though drug addiction is generated by these issues, they themselves are further deteriorated by it. The declination of the family system is often attributed to the industrial revolution. During this era, as a consequence of the industrial revolution in the 1960s and the liberalization of the individual during reform movement, the family system as well as the religious values began to decline. As a result the divorce rate in the western societies increased. In various crime report and investigation papers, the juvenile delinquency like drug abuse is often directly connected with the increase in the divorce rate. Divorce, though it is an inevitable legal institution, has some dire impacts on the increase of drug abuse as well as other social crimes, as Doherty and Needle say, Children who use drugs and abuse alcohol are more likely to come from family backgrounds characterized by parental conflict and parental rejection. Because divorce increases these factors, it increases the likelihood that children will abuse alcohol and begin using drugs. (28) Children of conflicting parent are increasingly the victims of negligence and abuse. A research, led by Professor Robert Sampson, shows that the divorce rate is proportionately related to the rate of crime in any given area. He also finds that the lower divorce rate has higher formal and informal social controls on the crime rate. Also Wisconsin statistics demonstrates that the rates of imprisonment for its juvenile crimes are 12 times higher for the children of the divorced parents than for children of intact family. Both a British and a US longitudinal study report that children who live in their stepparents’ household are roughly three times more prone to commit a crime that those who live in intact families. Moreover, a literature on divorce that was conducted by the Australian Government reveals that divorce highly increases the possibility that a child will grow a sense of hostility and rejection. The Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs notes that such hostility and rejection also increase the chance of the home-broken children to join delinquent gangs. It is noteworthy that these results on crimes are not confined to boys. Rather, there is a strong connection between family structure, misbehavior, hostility, school-skipping, larceny, and alcohol abuse among adolescent girls. Effects of Drug Trade on Economy in the Countries A report prepared by the National Institute on Drug Abuse shows that the abuse of drug like any illegal drugs, except the smoking and alcohol, exerts a toll of averagely $161 billion dollars on the economy of the United States in the years 1999, 2000 and 2001 (NIDA). If alcoholism and smoking are counted within the statistics, the cost will rise up to approximately $487 billion dollar. Out of this $161 billion dollars, about $110 billion costs in lost productivity, whereas $12.9 billion is spent in healthcare issue. In the UK, the total economic cost of illicit drug abuse fluctuated between £2.9bn and £5.3bn in the past decades. If the social costs are added to this economic cost, the total amount will range between £10.1bn and £17.4bn per year (Godfrey et al. 7). In a study Collins and Lapsley (2008) report that Australian socio-economy has to bear the cost of $30 billion per year. But a global comparative statistics of the effects of drug on the economy of the countries is still a matter of investigation (87). The UK Drug Policy Commission approximates that there are about 23.1 million natives of the total British population who are addicted to at least one drug in the year 2010 (Reuter and Stevens, 2007). According to the British Crime Survey 2005, about 45% of the population (aged between 35 and 44) were addicted to at least one drug, whereas 50 percent of the population who were in between the age ranges 30 to 34 were addicted, as it is found (Home Office, 2006; Roe, 2005). In the USA, approximately one-fifth of the total populations, who are between the ages from 16 to 59, are drug addicted. But if the age range is extended from 12 to 69, the user rate increases up to one-fourteenth. About 24% of the US male population and 16% of the female admitted that they took any types of drug at least for once in their lives (usnodrug). Again in the USA majority of the crimes are related to drug in some way or other, as a NIDA report says, “At least half of the individuals arrested for major crimes including homicide, theft, and assault were under the influence of illicit drugs around the time of their arrest” (NIDA). According to the United Nations’ World Drug Report 2004, about one-third of the total world population (187 million people) has used at least one drug in their lifetime. The World Health Organization reports that about 200,000 people died due to the abuse of drug abuse in the year 2000 that is equal to “0.4 per cent of all deaths worldwide” (UNIS). Effects of Drug on Individual and Social Life Illegal drug trade and drug abuse directly affects the individuals who use drug. But its effects encroach into the heart of a society. Mr. Costa says, “Drug abuse has a negative impact on individuals, and on the functioning of societies as a whole” (UNIS). From a sociological viewpoint, drug abuse affects the society on two levels: first, on individual levels and, second, on collective level. On the individual stage, an addicted individual experiences a variety of health and social problems. But collectively, addiction affects the entire society putting its different institutions and organization, -for example, economy, health sector, education sector, political systems- under agonizing pressures. Indeed the purpose of this paper is to explore and analyze the effects of drug-abuse and addiction on the society from an analytical and socio-anthropological perspective. There are wide range of side effects on the heath and mind of illicit drug users. Most of the road accidents take place due to drug abuse. The stimulation of a cocaine effect, for instance, is “followed by a "crash”: a period of anxiety, fatigue, depression, and a strong desire to use more cocaine to alleviate the feelings of the crash” (usnodrug). If a drug user wants to give up the bad habit of taking drug, there can be reflected some kind of “symptoms” like “vomiting, muscle cramps, convulsions, and delirium” (usnodrug). On the other hand long term drug taking can create drug dependency and resistance. The drug abusers push the liquid drug into their body using same needle at a time which is the reason of breaking out of serious diseases like AIDS, hepatitis, other “sexually transmitted diseases” whereas a major part of the drug abusers are often engaged to the professions like criminal activity and prostitution. The most noticeable effects of drug addiction “which are manifested in the individuals who abuse drugs--include ill health, sickness and, ultimately, death” (usnodrug). In the United States, the death toll is over 10,000 that directly involved to the drug abusing. Effects on the Family The drug abuser’s family faces the bitterest experience in the society. The addicted person often involved with the heinous act like begging money or stealing things which often creates a prestige issue for the other family members. For these reasons, the family members support unintentionally and authorize money by which the addicted fellow can continue heinous activity. These types of activity often create family crisis like marital problem, hatred, confusion etc. and lead to divorce. Pregnant drug users “bear a much higher rate of low birth-weight babies than the average” (usnodrug). On the other hand, addiction in pregnancy cause harm to the baby still to come. That means low birth weight and increasing death rate of the new born baby. The pregnant mother who uses intravenous drug can be transmitted AIDS and gradually her infant. There are lots of negative effects on the society of drug abuse. The drug abusers often feel drowsiness that decreases office activity wastes time. Lots of road accidents take place due to addiction problem which cause a huge death toll. The budget of the federal government is $17.9 in the year of 1999 for trial, detention center, global law enforcement, treatment, and prohibition. National researches have reported that father-mothers who misuse drugs frequently put their want to get and misuse drugs ahead of the physical condition and benefit of their kids. NSDUH data gathered during 2002 and 2003 point to that 4.3 percent of pregnant women aged 15 to 44 report having used illicit drugs in the past month. Moreover, that same data show that 8.5 percent of new mothers report having used illicit drugs in the past month (usnodrug). There are lots of negative effects on the society of drug abuse. The drug abusers often feel drowsiness that decreases office activity wastes time. Lots of road accidents take place due to addiction problem. Drug addiction is directly related to the psychological disorders -caused by the conflict between parents- such as depression, frustrations, curiosity, availability of drug, etc, as Stephen Gold (1980) notes, “the CAP theory of drug abuse emphasizes the interaction of cognitive-affective-pharmacogenic effects of drug taking. The belief that one is powerless to affect the environment and cope with stress plays a central role in the theory” (p.11) Again Khantzian (1980) says in this regard, “Drug dependence is tied intimately to an individual’s attempt to cope with his or her internal emotional and external social and physical environment” (p.29). Momentary psychological relief from harsh reality is one of the causes, which is generally recognized by the addicts. Psychological studies often describe addiction as an adolescent’s flawed withdrawal attempt from reality into the dark and temporary relief of drugs, when he or she is deprived from the emotional support from his or her nearest and dearest one. Conclusion From the beginning of the present century, drug abuse seems like a calamity all over the world. No country of this world is free from this unexpected catastrophe. As the illegal drug business is vastly money-making and flexible, it attracts most of the people to cling on with the unlawful trade. There are two most important reasons behind this unlawful trade and these are: firstly, the undeniable development of globalization that made the world so closer and the “technological revolution” of the previous century that extended relations among the countries over the world and the consequent is the easier communication and transportation than ever before. The second cause is “related to the fundamental principles of how human society functions” (usnodrug). The forces that play a crucial function taking drug are rising stress, “negative psychological pressure on individuals”, unemployment problem etc. To evaluate the temper and reaches of a society, “when stability, reasonable employment, education and leisure opportunities are lacking” (usnodrug), exploitation of drug can be an exceptional scale. The endorsement toward flexible drugs differs from “country to country”. To decrease the use of “hard drugs” many countries have legitimated the use of “soft drugs”. But the real scenario differs from the view of the experts. Works Cited Collins, David and Lapsley, Helen. “The costs of tobacco, alcohol and illicit drug abuse to Australian society in 2004/05”, Commonwealth of Australia, 2008. 20. November, 2010. available at Doherty, J. W. & Needle, R. H. (1991) ‘Psychological Adjustment and Substance Use Among Adolescents Before and After a Parental Divorce’, Child Development, 62, pp. 328-337. Fisher, M. et al, (2007) ‘Predictive factors for illicit drug use among young people: a literature review’, Home Office, [online] available at http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs07/rdsolr0507.pdf (Accessed: 5 September 2010) Godfrey et al. “The economic and social costs of Class A drug use in England and Wales, 2000”, Home Office. 2002. 20 November, 2010. Available at Home Office, 2006. Positive futures’ impact report: End of season review. London Mooney, L. A., Knox, D., & Schacht, C. (2000). Understanding social problems (2nd ed.). Cincinnati, OH: Wadsworth.  National Institute on Drug Abuse. “Magnitude”, 20 November, 2010. available at President's Commission on Organized Crime. “Drug Abuse, Drug Trafficking, & Organized Crime”, 1986. 20 November, 2010. available at United Nation Drug Control Programs. The Social Impact of Drug Abuse. Copenhagen. 1995. United Nation Information Service. “United Nations’ World Drug Report 2004 Presents An In-Depth Look into Global Drug Trends”, 20 November, 2010. Available at USNODRUG. “Drug Addiction Statistics”, 20 November, 2010. available at Read More