Drugs and Society
The society’s attempt to prohibit the use of drugs has led to effecting of laws meant to curb them. Since the old times, the government has obtained departments to prohibit the use of drugs. Through the issuance of prescriptions, the authority has taken the responsibility of regulating the processing, distribution and use of drugs regardless of whether they are legal (Fish, 2006). In addition, some drugs have been completely banned and use of the same is considered a crime. The regulation of drug use is not a simple task as it involves a wide range of activities as the drugs which have been banned continue to get their way into the market in an illegal manner.
This has been happening through the commonly known black markets. A laissez-faire approach in dealing with drugs is very lenient as individuals are not pinned down as such. The approach holds on the idea of respecting person’s right and allowing one to pursue happiness regardless of whether violating the laws. The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) is a system of surveillance that supervises visits in the hospital associated to drugs as well as deaths which are closely associated with drugs scrutinized by medical experts and coroners. In 2004, DAWN was designed again to accommodate more than just the misuse of drugs.
It aids societies in identifying problems coming up, how patient care can be catered for and issues on how to manage resources (Fish, 2006). DAWN was formed in 1972 by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Some of the benefits of this reporting system involve noting the drug being abused and closely linked to the harm in the community. Another benefit that comes with DAWN is determining patterns which are coming up in cities and providing data to allow assessing risks to health and potential of abusing drugs. Finally, DAWN has a benefit of providing data that can be used to regulate use of drugs. The disadvantage of this reporting system is that, it sometimes provides information that is not satisfactory to estimate the cost of health cost related with drugs.
The availability of needle exchange program (NEP) has become very common with the drug users. The idea of individual using the same needle in order to economize or because of social reasons has led to the increase of HIV. The injection drug users (IDUs) later spread the same to those who do not use injections through sex. Syringes which have been used as well as needles are a health hazard. The spread of needle exchange program (NEP), in the United States has resulted to the growth of public health concerns.
The simple reason behind the objection of NEP is because it leads to increased number of contaminated needles in a society and it eventually leads to increase in HIV and spread of epidemics which are spread through blood. An individual is said to be addicted to heroin through sudden change of behavior and becoming discreet besides becoming withdrawn. The hygiene of the individual does not become a priority any longer and the speech is a bit sluggish (Platt, 1995). When the habit becomes hard to abandon, the individual is forced to look for money to sustain the habit. This leads to the person taking part in gambling and can eventually result to crime just to get money for drugs. This is why addiction to heroin is closely associated with crime.
On the other hand, experts have associated alcohol with violence. When an individual consumes alcohol, the brain is altered and aggression is triggered. This is because alcohol weakens the ability of brain to control impulsive actions. In some situations, the person can make wrong judgments and therefore overreacting (American Society of Addiction Medicine, Research Society on Alcoholism, U.S. 1997)
