Police Substance Abuse

Improved Essays
Throughout the past couple decades of policing, the use of alcohol and substance abuse has risen within the departments. Studies concerning the connection between alcohol and PTSD have shown that officers tend to turn to drugs and alcohol if they have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The use of drugs have led to addiction and even police corruption. This problem has become an epidemic for the police in today’s society. Citizens may argue that police are no different than an average citizen on substance abuse or that drugs actually benefit the officers. Athlete enthusiasts, officers who use drugs for performance and people who support the police till the end still deny the fact that this is a key issue in police society. Police have been …show more content…
People, mainly officers, argue that using certain drugs help them cope and do better with the job. The majority of officers who argue for this point use performance enhancing drugs or steroids. Performance enhancing drugs have become increasingly popular in today’s society because of sports. Among the performance enhancing drugs are anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) and human growth hormones (HSH) (Humphrey, 2008). In the media, there are segments upon segments that explain how using these drugs help athletes get ahead and is an unfair advantage. In addition, when one talks about policing, people argue that these drugs benefit the officer, because they are not in competition and just do it to improve their ability within the field. Officers turn to these drugs to get a tactical edge, have a more intimidating appearance and have an overall better job performance (Humphrey, 2008). Using these types of drugs is seen as an advantage to some citizens and officers in …show more content…
Researchers have discovered that most of the officers, who use the performance enhancing drugs, actually abuse the substance and take them excessively (Parkinson & Evans, 2006). When one just talks about performance enhancing drugs, it does not sound that awful, but they do not take into consideration the harm it will do after and what using the drugs can lead to. Some of the symptoms linked to abuse of AAS or HSH are impaired judgement, reckless behavior, paranoia, psychosis and mood swings (Humphrey, 2008). One can easily see where this does not mix well with police work. Even though the drug may have positive side effects at first, it can only lead to negative effects after. Giving the officers a false sense of security is probably the worse part about the drugs. Officers who use the drugs will feel like they are superior and can never be hurt, but this is inaccurate and makes the officer an easier target for citizens who hate the

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