While there are many reasons why a young person might misuse drugs, the article focuses on “how the interplay of individual factors and social contact impact initiation of nonmedical prescription drug use” (Mui et al., 2013, p.2). More specifically, the authors of the article argues that the likelihood of a person misusing drugs depends on who introduces them to the drug in question as well as the environment they found themselves placed in (Mui et al., 2013). In this sense, the authors do not view drug abuse as an illness but as purposeful behavior for those found guilty of this act decided to try the drug because their friends or family members told them to so they gave into peer pressure when they could just have easily said no. Thus it is not surprising that these authors would most likely respond to this issue with punishment for they are the ones who are consciously making the choice to do drugs even when they know it is wrong and has harmful, addicting effects.
The article itself begins with an explanation of how their study was conducted before delving into various theological views that have been developed over the years to provide a basis as to why the authors believe drug misuse is a result of social pressure instead of an illness originating in the brain. In essence, this piece is a combination of both empirical evidence coming from different sources to support the authors’ opinion that young people are more likely to try nonmedical drugs when pressured by their friends or family members. Not only that but this article argues how peer pressure is a product of society and how it attempts to instill this idea of how a young person should be. Put more simply, the authors feel that it is society which makes young people think using drugs like meth and cocaine is a rite of passage everyone goes through in high school and college thus giving this gross misuse a sense of normalcy. It should be no surprise then that this article’s main enemy is society itself as it struggles to bring together evidence to prove how drug misuse negatively affects its users.
Overall the authors supported their thesis by conducting a study which took several years to complete as they proved how different situations impacted the likelihood of the subject taking the drug. While they were able to effectively prove their theory, however, the article itself lacks effective organization and focus as the authors unsuccessfully try to keep their readers engaged by spouting complicated theories and a seemingly endless amount of statistics. Furthermore, they overuse questions which are not always answered thus confusing the reader even more when they should have given a claim then the evidence following a discussion without the use of needless questions making the paper itself sounding less like a monologue and more like an interesting study which involves both people who are currently misusing drugs along with those who are thinking about trying them. In conclusion this article does prove that drug misuse is a result of peer and societal pressure but it could have been done in a more effective way.
References
Mui, H. Z., Sales, P., & Murphy, S. (2013). Everybody's Doing It: Initiation to Prescription Drug Misuse [PDF]. San Francisco: Institute for Scientific Analysis.
