Drugs and Society Our Society

Drugs and Society

Our society consistently holds a delicate and complicated relationship between it's members and the drugs which they use. Many are quick to allocate drug problems with those who use illicit drugs; however, our society is completely immersed in legal drug use. Therefore, a hypocritical double standard represents the nature of drug use and abuse in the United States. Since the first of the major four pharmaceutical revolutions appeared in the pages of history, our society has held a very complex love hate relationship with the drugs which both help and destroy us.

Most people were very reluctant to put their trust in pharmacology until the introduction of vaccines by revolutionaries such as Louis Pasteur. These new drugs won over popular opinion when major diseases were all but eradicated off the face of the earth. Diseases such as small pox and polio were diminished, and so came the first major wave of reliance on drugs by the public. The next revolution only solidified the need for drugs within the average citizen. Antibiotics offered people safety from various viruses and infections. Psychotropic drugs provided magical release from psychological issues, leaving Americans even more reliant on various drugs for their general well-being. Then oral contraceptives gave people ultimate control over what they chose their body to do or not to do. All of these drugs are favored highly, but yet any illicit drugs are seen as a plague, leaving some to question the true differences between the two.

1b. The popularity of psychotropic drugs and oral contraceptives within the 1950s and 1960s opened up a wide range of drugs to the average public who had never had been exposed to such mind altering substances. Because these drugs were prescribed by their doctors and psychiatrists, they were considered completely acceptable and necessary. Many individuals became dependent on drugs for the first time on a daily basis. People took drugs everyday for years, rather than strictly when they were sick or diseased. This allowed for the wide spread acceptance of licit drugs as a part of normal every day life.

However, this budding dependence set the stage for later drug usage as seen the social revolutions of the 1960s. The cultural misfits within the movement in the 1960s put a much different face on the use of illicit drugs. The sons and daughters of the middle class were following in their parent's footsteps with their much more common and daily drug use. However, these were not psychotropic drugs which helped calm anxiety or ease depression, these were drugs used strictly for recreational purposes. Recreational drugs use was previously set aside for lower classes and minorities in the eyes of the majority of upper class Americans. These years shocked many Americans with the use of such drug by middle class Americans for fun rather than for medical or psychological issues. This forever changed the face of the drug user and the addict. Although the stigma still haunts many poorer classes, it is no longer restricted to lower classes. Drug use is almost expected within the limits of the middle class.

1c. There are several ways which researchers can obtain information regarding trends in drug usage. Once can pursue a strictly scientific survey, where a researcher might question reported drug users about their use and information regarding the lifestyle of a drug user. This proves beneficial in the sense that it is straight out of the horses mouth; however, this also proves a downfall in that many may lie or mislead researchers about their experiences out of self-protection. Another method is to collect data from official law enforcement agencies regarding statistics of arrests and drug usage within a particular location. However, this some what ignores the personal reasons each individual may choose to abuse drugs.

2a. There are several underlying reasons for this country's drug legislation that do not directly involve pure physical danger. In our laissez-faire free market economy, money unfortunately is a major underlying force in many decisions which then affect our everyday lives. 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.