Essay On Conflict Theory

Since the beginning of time humans have been using psychoactive substances. The reasons behind substance drug use vary from person to person and change century to century. There are five historical categories in which substance drug use fall into: basic need to cope with their environment, brain chemistry, involvement of the ruling class or government, technological advances in refining synthesizing and manufacturing drugs, and lastly the development of faster more efficient methods of developing drugs into the body. The purpose of this paper is to intend to explain how substance drug abuse affects society as a whole from a conflict theorist perspective. Conflict theory theorist look at society as a whole instead of individual personalities. In this theory conflict happens when resources, status, or power are unequal. Karl Marx focused on social classes such as the wealthy and the working class. The wealthy are known as the owners of production (bourgeoise) and the working class are those who work for the owners (proletariat). For example, in today in society we have seen the working-class fight for a higher minimum wage. Working a $7.25 job certainly …show more content…
Drugs affect the ‘old’ part of the brain that controls instincts, and basic functions such as breathing or heart rate. The ‘new’ brain is what control process and cognitive thinking like reasoning or problem-solving skill. In many cases drug abuses may know they have a drug problem but, still use drugs. The reason behind this is because the ‘old’ part of the brain keeps wanting more of the drug expecting the same effects. From a conflict theorist perspective, one would argue that the elite classes are educated enough to know the outcome from the use of drugs. The working class or poor may not know the full extent to the use of drugs and their lack of education because of lack of resources is limited to