Drug addiction is chronic and is usually a relapsing brain disease causing compulsive drug use and seeking. Irrespective of the harmful consequences resulting from the drug addiction, it influences the users and those around them. Drug addiction remains a critical brain disease as the misuse of drugs leads cause changes in the brain’s structure and function. Even though it is profound that most people make a voluntary initial decision into taking drugs, with time, such brain changes are in place due to repeated drug abuse. They also affect the level of self-control of a person and the ability making sound decisions. They also create intense impulses of taking the drugs. Due to these brain changes, it is rather hard for a person in addiction to cease the abuse of drugs (DIANE Publishing Company. 1996). On the other hand, there are a number of treatments, which help individuals counteract powerful disruptive effects of addiction through regaining control. Evidence illustrates that combination of addiction treatment medications with behavioral therapy is a good way of ensuring success for patients. The treatment approaches tailored to a patient's drug abuse trends and patterns as well as any concurrent social, psychiatric, and medical problems are able to sustained recovery.
There are many established reasons and contributors to drug addiction. The psychological links with addiction or substance abuse include mood disorders such as anxiety, depression, or bipolar disorder, thought irregularities like schizophrenia. This also includes personality disorders such antisocial personality disorder. On the contrary, social risk factors with respect to drug abuse and addiction are inclusive of male gender, mostly between 17 and 40 years, lower socioeconomic status, Native heritage, and unmarried marital status. With this in mind, people tend to face higher risks for dependency or chemical abuse (Sussman & Ames, 2008). Even as the men are at increased risks of developing chemical dependency trends such as alcoholism, women tend to be rather vulnerable of addiction to alcohol of lower amounts during consumption. The main causes for drug abuse and dependence are as many as social contributors are.
However, peer pressure, a person's genes, depression, the drug action, anxiety, environmental stress, and emotional distress are all possible factors. For this reason, peer pressure has a potential of leading into drug abuse and hence, addiction. At least half of the persons in addiction experience depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, attention deficit disorder as well as other mental health problems. Children exposed to grow up in environment with intense illicit drug have a likelihood of seeing their immediate parents engaging in drug use (Verster, Brady, Galanter & Conrod, 2012). This puts them at higher risks for contracting addiction in later life for genetic and environmental reasons. The frequency of occurrence for substance-abuse disorders within many families is possibly higher as compared to the addictive environments of a give family. For this reason, most of the substance-abuse professionals are in recognition of the genetic aspect for drug addiction risks. However, ranges of biological, social, and psychological factors, popular as risk factors, have a trend of increasing the likelihood of a person developing a chemical dependency or chemical-abuse disorder.
One of the most effective ways of counteracting drug addiction is through shift resources to focus on practicable programs. For this reason, the national drug control strategies are primarily law enforcement issues. All police activities have been limited to recording arrests, making drug seizures and recording incarceration for drug offenders. However, drug problems keep worsening. The expensive interdiction and eradication campaigns abroad bring few results at very high costs. Close to two-thirds of the drug, control budget of governments is on law enforcement, interdiction, and incarceration programs (Brownsberger & Heymann, 2009). However, treatment, education, research, and prevention share the remainder. The governments have to accept that law enforcement paradigms never work and hence shift towards treating drug abuse under the health problem category together with its economic and social implications. The public health approaches solutions focusing on abusers and addicts (and not all users) including social services will reduce the root causes of drug addiction and the economic strategies for purposes of developing alternative markets and controlling drug markets (Galizio & Connors, 2010). The overall drug budgets should address the shift of resources into prevention, education, and treatment of drug addiction.
The other way of preventing drug addiction is through making strategic investments on the youth through availing accurate information to each of them. One of the most effective ways of preventing youthful drug addiction is through investing in the youth while keeping them interested and well involved across their lives. For this, governments across the world need to increase the levels of funding for after mentor programs, school programs, skills building, and job training programs as well as the summer job programs (Padwa & Cunningham, 2010). The legal provisions that deny college aid to aspiring students with previous convictions of drug offenses need repealing as barriers to employment and education are counterproductive for the prevention of drug abuse. For this reason, education will be accurate, fact-based and passed on by trained health and educators professionals, and not the police. The resources shifted away from the current ineffective programs will focus on research to establish effective drug education programs and approaches to keep youth active.
The other effective way is through restoring justice to the global justice system. For drug enforcement, there is a racially unfair consideration for which almost all stage of justice systems face compromise. Profiling of communities by the police and individuals showcases favors to some law offenders over others and prosecutorial discretion. False testimonies by the police while justifying searches and convicting suspects is widespread too (Wilson & Kolander, 2011). It is important to appreciate that racial unfairness and documenting it makes it formally illegal and is a good way of restoring justice. Sentencing discretion by judges will allow repealing of mandatory minimum sentencing across state and federal levels through making discretionary sentencing guidelines. For instance, the disparity between powder cocaine and crack sentencing is bringing in racially unfair impacts. It is important to put an end to the disparity in powder and crack sentencing through reduction of crack sentences to match up the cocaine powder.
References
Brownsberger, W. N., Heymann, P. B., (2009) Drug Addiction and Drug Policy: The Struggle to Control Dependence. New York: Harvard University Press
DIANE Publishing Company. (1996) Technologies for Understanding and Preventing Substance Abuse and Addiction. New York: DIANE Publishing
Galizio, M. S., Connors, G. M., (2010) Drug Use and Abuse. New York: Cengage Learning
Padwa, H., Cunningham, J., (2010) Addiction: A Reference Encyclopedia. New York: ABC-CLIO
Sussman, S., Ames, S. L. (2008) Drug Abuse: Concepts, Prevention, and Cessation. New York: Cambridge University Press
Verster, J. C., Brady, K., Galanter, M., Conrod, P., (2012) Drug Abuse and Addiction in Medical Illness: Causes, Consequences and Treatment. New York: Springer
Wilson, R., Kolander, C., (2011) Drug Abuse Prevention. New York: Jones & Bartlett Learning
