The government regulating of drugs use is one of those elements which are somewhat affected by such an approach. The government regulates both illegal and legal drugs in order to both maximize profits for American companies and minimize profits for foreign capitol. There are strict regulations on pharmaceuticals within the country. Also, many people posit money leaving American hands as a major underlying cause of the government's regulations of what is know known as illegal substances. If such narcotics such as marijuana and opium were to be legalized within the United States, it would not be the government who was making the biggest chunk of profit of sales. Because the majority of these drugs are grown overseas, that money would also therefore go overseas. In order to keep a monopoly on legal drugs, the government may have had a hidden agenda while drafting legislation which deemed other drugs illegal.
2b. The DAWN system, or the Drug Abuse Warning Network, is especially useful for researchers to collect unbiased and hard data regarding drug use and abuse. It represents a centralized network which provides data directly from Emergency wards in hospitals around the country. This allows researchers a great tool for statistical as well as regional data from the unbiased perspective of hospital facts. By collecting data on the number and details of drug related visits and deaths within hospital walls, researchers can get a clear picture of the true numbers and populations abusing drugs.
However, this system also has its set of limitations along with its benefits. Although it provides centralized and unbiased data, it also leaves out the personal aspect of what motivated specific individuals to turn to abuse drugs to such an extent where they would need treatment. It is strictly scientific and statistical, leaving out a large portion of the problem.
2c. Needle exchange programs, or NEPs, have created a wave of praise and criticism within the past few years of their implementation. Their ethics have been questioned by many social activists, and federal funding for such programs have even been banned within the United States. However, these programs provide beneficial services to those who place themselves in danger of being exposed to HIV and Hepatitis C through sharing dirty needles with fellow drug users. In this respect, these programs are entirely ethical...
Drug abuse is a problem that is obviously not going away any time soon, and these programs attempt a new way to help ease the complex situation from the inside out. These programs provide new clean needles to users and also dispose of used needles in a safe manner to avoid further complications, further attesting to their ethical premises.
2d. Unfortunately, drugs of all kinds have always had ties to
criminal behavior within drug users. This behavior stems from a variety of issues related to drug abuse, and the
nature of criminal behavior seems to differ between various substances. For example,
crime within heroin addicts normally derives out of the need to get more drugs. Addicts will commit various crimes, including robbery and/or
prostitution, in order to secure their next fix. Also violent
crimes arise out of
competition from drug dealers based on expanding turfs or maximizing drug profits. In
contrast, crimes related to
alcohol seem to be more domestic rather than
random. Violent crimes stemming from alcohol usage normally associate violence between spouses,
parents,
children, sibling, friends, and so on. Alcohol is normally associated with assaults more so than crimes concerning the gain of money, as well.
References
Ksir, Charles, Hart, Carl L., Ray, Oakley. Drugs,
Society, and
Human Behavior.
McGraw-Hill. Boston. 2008.
Ksir, Charles. Drug Use in
Modern Society. McGraw-Hill.com. Retrieved April 6, 2008. http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/dl/free/0072972262/230135/ksir11e_ch01.pdf
