Abstract
Drug addiction is often characterized as being a complex brain disease that causes compulsive, uncontrollable, drug craving, seeking and use without any regards to the consequences they may bring upon themselves, or society. If the brain is exposed to these large amounts of dopamine on the reward system, it will inevitably develop a tolerance to the current dopamine levels, which it is receiving, lessening the pleasure the user will experience
Addiction: Society’s Epidemic
Drugs are everywhere and everybody knows somebody who has used or uses drugs, whether the user is a friend, family member or a celebrity. Due to drugs being everywhere, that means so are the effects of drugs. The fastest growing problem in America today is the …show more content…
The effects of drug abuse which are manifested in the individuals who abuse drugs include poor health, sickness, loss or lack of employment, homelessness and, ultimately, death (NDIC, 2006). Addiction to opiates and heroin has caused an epidemic and is causing an increase in accidental overdoses (Reed, Butelman, Yufrov, Randesi & Krek, 2014) Opiate related is currently the leading cause for accidental death (Coffin & Sullivan, 2013). Opiates had become over prescribed; due to the over prescribing it is leading to diversion. Since women are just as likely to become addicted to opiates, it is causing an increase to opiate addicted newborns (Hayes & Brown, …show more content…
Most individuals who abuse substances are stereotypically deviants and don’t involve themselves in society with the rest the world. They express different values to society such as: they walk the line of right and wrong, unemployed, victims of bad childhoods, high school drop outs and for women, they are prostitutes; they take drugs in dark, dirty underpasses, rob people, go on binges and participate in high risk behaviors (Alaszenwski, 2011). This is the picture that most of society has about addicts. They don’t see that those individuals are someone’s, mother, daughter, son, husband, wife, father or
Drug addiction is often characterized as being a complex brain disease that causes compulsive, uncontrollable, drug craving, seeking and use without any regards to the consequences they may bring upon themselves, or society. If the brain is exposed to these large amounts of dopamine on the reward system, it will inevitably develop a tolerance to the current dopamine levels, which it is receiving, lessening the pleasure the user will experience
Addiction: Society’s Epidemic
Drugs are everywhere and everybody knows somebody who has used or uses drugs, whether the user is a friend, family member or a celebrity. Due to drugs being everywhere, that means so are the effects of drugs. The fastest growing problem in America today is the …show more content…
The effects of drug abuse which are manifested in the individuals who abuse drugs include poor health, sickness, loss or lack of employment, homelessness and, ultimately, death (NDIC, 2006). Addiction to opiates and heroin has caused an epidemic and is causing an increase in accidental overdoses (Reed, Butelman, Yufrov, Randesi & Krek, 2014) Opiate related is currently the leading cause for accidental death (Coffin & Sullivan, 2013). Opiates had become over prescribed; due to the over prescribing it is leading to diversion. Since women are just as likely to become addicted to opiates, it is causing an increase to opiate addicted newborns (Hayes & Brown, …show more content…
Most individuals who abuse substances are stereotypically deviants and don’t involve themselves in society with the rest the world. They express different values to society such as: they walk the line of right and wrong, unemployed, victims of bad childhoods, high school drop outs and for women, they are prostitutes; they take drugs in dark, dirty underpasses, rob people, go on binges and participate in high risk behaviors (Alaszenwski, 2011). This is the picture that most of society has about addicts. They don’t see that those individuals are someone’s, mother, daughter, son, husband, wife, father or