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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...
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…
Consequence and Benefits to Society of the Use, Abuse, Misuse, and Overuse of Amphetamines Used by the armed forces during World War II and U.S. Air Force pilots today to help them remain alert on long missions as well as in various legitimate medical applications such as treating attention deficit disorder in children, amphetamines have been shown to be a definite benefit to modern society. Conversely, when this drug is
Cross-cultural evidence shows that drinking abuse will be low in any group in which drinking "customs, values and sanctions are clear, agreed upon by all, consistent with other customs of the group and characterized by prescriptions for moderate drinking and proscriptions against immoderate drinking" (1995). Prohibition in America has obviously proven unsuccessful as it has in other locations as well, the approach that is taken today is a prohibitionist
They develop a tolerance to alcohol and simply need more to satisfy their craving (MayoClinic, 2009a). This is a key difference between alcoholism and other drug addictions. The causes of alcoholism and drug addictions are complex and involve the interaction of several factors. The first is genetics. Certain genetics factors can cause a person to be more vulnerable than others to develop alcoholism and the other addictions mentioned. A person's
Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counseling Personal Vision and Learning Mission Statement Ethical Framework Professional Strengths and Limitations Identification and fulfillment of Professional Potential Professional Diversity Integration of Theory and Practice Ongoing Professional Developments Alcohol (and other drugs) abuse is not just a problem of an individual but that of the whole society. This implies that the whole society has a role to play in the rehabilitation of the people who resort to drug abuse when they find it hard
Economic deprivation arises from various activities and aspects of the family in attempts to minimize the threats affecting the at-risk youth. Some of the factors affecting the economic deprivation in relation to at-risk youth within the family include rehabilitation fee, treatment fee, and addiction cost thus affecting the overall economic level of the family (McWhirter,2013). This is a problem with the scarce family resources thus the need to adopt
It is however important to note that the effectiveness of such a prevention plan is largely dependent on how well it is implemented. In my view, the successful implementation of the plan could see the country freed from the menace of prescription drug abuse. Apart from OxyContin, which is essentially a narcotic painkiller, the other prescription drugs which are commonly abused according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse