Substance Abuse in Modern Society, Substance Abuse

Substance Abuse

In modern society, substance abuse refers to a maladaptive pattern of using a substance that is unnecessary for health. It is not limited to mood-altering or psycho-active drugs (marijuana, alcohol, etc.), but is defined as any substance that is habitual, interferes with one's life, and causes a large range of dependencies within human culture. It is a public health cost and issue, and comes under a number of categories (Lowinson, 2005). In the Healthy People 2020 initiative, one of the goals is to "reduce substance abuse to protect the health, safety and quality of life for all, especially children." For this review, we will use Tobacco Addiction as a model.

Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of disease, death, or disability in the United States. More deaths are caused yearly from tobacco use than any other substance abuse, motor vehicle injury, HIV, or murder combined (Anti-Smoking, 2008). Tobacco products are a controversial, but powerful, product in the contemporary world. Up to 1/3 of the global adult population uses some form of tobacco on a regular basis, yet it believed to cause over 5 million deaths per year. In developing countries, largely due to stricter laws and bans on advertising, smoking has leveled off -- however, in developing countries the number of active smokers has risen each year over the past two decades (Tobacco's Impact, 2007).

The tobacco industry is highly competitive, with huge amounts of revenue determined by the smallest changes in market share. The tobacco industry is dominated by a few large firms; price competition may also be restrained, either by outright collusion, or more commonly through "parallelism" of pricing decisions (See: Mackay, 2006; "Tobacco -- The Industry Perspective, 2009). The intense advertising efforts of the tobacco industry lead to strong brand awareness and subsequently to a highly differentiated product that can demand a higher price than would be the case if the products were indistinguishable. Additionally the tobacco industry's revenues are highly consistent and stable, generally unaffected from booms or busts in the economy. Furthermore, the high fixed cost structure of starting a cigarette company (factories, marketing, and machines) enables them to compete on price if necessary to ward of competition (see: Health Consequences, 2007).

So powerful was the cigarette business, that even automobile manufacturers had to change their engineering to allow for cigarette lighters and ashtrays in cars and trucks. Advertising was booming, and by 1950, over 300 billion cigaretts were sold in the United States alone each year. In the May 27, 1950 issue of the Journal of the American Medical association, Dr. Morton levin published a controversial conclusion: smokers were statistically twice as likely to develop lung cancer as non-smokers (Levin, Goldstein, and Gerhardt, 1950). So began the battle between the large tobacco companies and modern medical science. The tobacco companies poured billions of dollars into advertisements and product placement opportunities; so much so that smoking was simply considered part of American Life. Despite the medical evidence, though, only in the last few decades has smoking been viewed in a more negative template. Even with high taxes on tobacco products, bans in smoking within public places and events, and a general governmental campaign against smoking and advertising regulation, 800,000 people take up the habit annually, most adolescents. America now has an almost 30% use of cigarettes in High School, and smoking remains one of the most serious Public Health Issues in modern society. Experts at the Centers For Disease Control now estimate that about 21% of all Americans are addicted to smoking, costing millions of dollars in health issues, lost wages and work, and other problems through indirect exposure, etc. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2008). Thus, we can see the following:

Tobacco use is behaviorally and substantively addictive

Socially, tobacco use may be engendered by youth or minoritie cultures; although the overall advertising message has diminished over time.

Biologically, cigaretts are proven to be addictive in nature and change the body's chemistry.

There are a number of preventative measure that can help a person quit or limit smoking:

Increase anti-smoking educational campaign in the schools through advertisements, literature, and school sponsored events, classroom intervention and the use of role-models to discourage smoking.

Provide funding for additional addiction counseling, particularly at the adolescent level; if smokers stop smoking early, they are less likely to become addictive.

Consider increasing taxes on tobacco products -- research shows that young people with limited funds are less likely to smoke if the cost is prohibitive (How to Quit Smoking, 2010).