“Substance Abuse and Addiction- the Need to Know”
According to Mervyn Susser in his piece, “Substance Abuse and Addiction- the Need to Know,” from the American Journal of Public Health, issued in 1998, substance abuse is and probably always will be one of the biggest problems throughout our country unless the citizens of this country come together, as a whole, put a stop to it. The United States has numerous social ills such as crime, poverty, teen pregnancy, domestic and child abuse, and the spread of STD’s. These issues defy our country in many ways, but drug abuse is the highest and easiest kind of societal pressure. The author speaks to the entire population when referring …show more content…
Baby boomers grew up in an age when drug experimentation was widespread, cool, fun, and fashionable and know that these babies are all grown up and entering parenthood, it is sending mixed messages to their children about the dangers of drug abuse. Kids think, “Mom and Dad do it, why not I give it a shot?” Research shows that adolescents who try drugs at early ages use drugs more frequently, escalate to higher levels a little more quickly, are less likely to stop using the narcotics even when they grow out of all of their other childhood habits. Also, these kids are more likely to move on from a not as harmful drug like marijuana to drugs that could kill them in seconds flat like cocaine and …show more content…
NIH spent about a seventh of that amount, just $787 million, on research on substance abuse and addiction, the largest single cause of those three crippling and killing conditions. Our nation should invest at least a billion dollars a year on research on addiction, and there should be a significant increase in biomedical and social research on adolescence. It is also important that research examine the nature and causes of substance abuse among men and women. A review of the research in this area by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse suggests that the problem differs among men and women in important ways. A better understanding of such differences could substantially improve prevention and treatment efforts. The substance abuse and addiction problems of women are only beginning to receive the full attention they deserve. Substance abuse and addiction are both very important matters to discuss when debating about social ills in the United States. Both of these problems will probably always be an ongoing issue throughout the country until the US knocks it off. The United States has so many problems like crime, teen pregnancy, and the spread of STD’s. These issues hold our country back in many ways and drug abuse is not escaping the list of culprits.