“Hey, didn’t you just take a class on drugs? How can we fix the problem of drugs in society?”
Drug addiction is a serious issue in the modern society and requires not only individual approach but also a treatment on the social level. Treatment of drug addiction is not a fast process and implies a thorough approach. There is no cure-all from addiction, however, in the emerging medical approaches, vaccination and immunotherapies are getting a wide prevalence. Successful treatment can be divided into several steps: detoxification, behavioral counseling, medication, evaluation and treatment for co-occurring mental health issues such as depression and anxiety, and long-term follow-up to prevent relapse (National Institute on Drug Abuse).
Scientists and phycologists agreed that punishment and drug bans are not efficient in combating drug addiction. So the question is how our society can fix the problem of drugs? There are two main solutions to this problem: the first thing to do is to offer treatment and physiological help to people who want to get rid of addiction and seek help and support. The second thing is to leave alone those, who do not want treatment because it is useless to force people to become drug-free if they do not aspire to it (Newman). On the one hand, our society should have free of charge treatment on demand without a fear of being arrested for those, who take drugs but want to quit. On the other hand, criminal responsibility should lie on those people, who redistribute drugs and in this way harm others.
Work cited
National Institute on Drug Abuse. DrugFacts: Treatment Approaches for Drug Addiction. Jan 2016.
Newman T. How Should Our Society Deal With People Who Use Drugs? Drug Policy. Sep. 23, 2014. Retrieved from http://www.drugpolicy.org/blog/how-should-our-society-deal-people- who-use-drugs
