Drug Abuse
The findings of National Center at Columbia University on Addiction and Substance Abuse are that the entire American children population resides with an adult or parent who uses illegal drugs or is involved in heavy consumption of alcohol. When one of the family members is involved in drug abuse, their families always tend to be ruined and might even have harsh consequences on members of the household, particularly children.

Family issues on drug abuse

Divorce

Addiction and Substance abuse National Center indicates that drug abuse facilitates the possibilities of divorce. Even if it does not reach the extent of divorce, it affects the quality of marriage. This is well evidenced in men who usually have lower quality relationships with their spouses as compared to non-alcoholic men. Moreover, alcoholic males are known for having low sexual function as compared to non-alcoholic males (Natalie Grace, 2012).

Psychologically effected Children

There are many factors that can influence….

Drug Abuse
Individuals who use drugs have difficulties defeating their addiction and often are pulled back into a reoccurring cycle. The euphoria a person experiences through the use of certain drugs causes the individual to continue their use in order to maintain their excited state. Eventually through continued use a person can develop a tolerance, which can cause increase use to substitute the effect.

Illegal Drugs

The most common illegal drugs on the market include marihuana, heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine. They are considered illegal due to the fact that they are acquired through illegal practices by drug dealers and sold at highly expensive rates. Due to the high cost to obtain these drugs, many addicts go to grave lengths to get their daily dose. Individuals will engage in sexual activity and even steal from family members in order to purchase these highly addicted drugs. People high on meth or heroins loose their sense….

Drug Abuse
Drug and substance abuse is one of the most serious dilemmas in the world today. One aspect of the issue is the growing number of teenage drug users and the increasing incidents of prescription drug abuse. According to the statistics of the National Institute on Drug Abuse prescription drugs misuse is far greater than the abuse of narcotics. Among teenagers alone, accepted cases of drug use increased from 27 to 30% in a year between 2001 and 2002. The actual number is also reported to have increased by one percent (The Evening Standard 2004) but prescription drug abuse is rated higher then narcotics abuse. As in 2010 prescription drugs intake stood at 2.4 million one third of which were users between 12 and 17 years of age (National Institute on Drug Abuse, n.d.).

The magnitude of the issue has lead to a plentitude of research and experimentation being done in….

Drug Abuse Affects Families
• Analyze the issues related to the affects of drug abuse on families

Families are affected by the addictions of the young people in the family in more than one way. Adolescence is the time when most people become addicts. The young person is more prone to take to intoxicant abuse. Adolescents begin experiments with drugs and alcohol. This usually is in the age group of 15 to 19 years. There are the largest group of new drinkers and over 50% of young people use marijuana. (Gordon, 2003)

It is available and peer pressure makes it acceptable and it is easy to buy drugs at school. The youth have more income to purchase drugs and the young person is often lured into it by the peers and older role models. This is true for both the genders. Laws have been thus passed to supress the use of drugs and….

Drug abuse is a menace in the modern world. The action of over using drugs or inappropriate application of substance wipes both old and young generations within the society. Drug abuse involves excessive use of substances such as alcohol, cigarette, heroine, and cocaine among other drugs. Excessive consumption of these drugs leads to addiction. This refers to the state in which an individual is in constant need of the substance. The person addicted on drugs cannot perform without the enhancing drugs. The individual in context do not live off the drugs because of the increasing need for satisfaction of the substance thirst. Some might argue that these substances help in eliminating stress. They also contribute towards treatment of certain diseases and disorders. Example of such diseases might be down to cancer. In the real sense, excessive consumption of drugs is dangerous in relation to the life of the person in….

This despite how much money is being wasted on "the war on drugs." Making "war" militarily on a medical/social problem makes no sense. In addition to the psychological problems of individuals, social conditions contribute greatly to the problem. People who are alienated from society become addicted to drugs, as Sen. obert Kennedy pointed out back in 1965. Solving the drug problem means "solving poverty and broken homes, racial discrimination and inadequate education, slums and unemployment" (cited in Goldberg, 2005 p. 11), not to mention child abuse. Instead, we treat prostitutes as though they were scum. A New York study has shown that the police, the courts, and their clients (johns) routinely mistreat them in a manner that violates civil liberties and human rights. This is "mirrored at the judicial level, where sex workers bear the brunt of the criminal justice system while johns usually get off relatively lightly" (Facts….

Drug abuse of both legal and illegal substances has a devastatingly negative impact on American society as a whole.
Definition of Drug Abuse

Legal Drugs

Illegal Drugs

Prevalence of Drug Use

Impact of Drug Use

Financial Costs

Impact in the orkplace

Costs of Incarceration

Health-Related Issues

Homelessness

Lost Potential

Family Life

Pregnancy and Health of Children

Death

Alcohol and Traffic-Related Injuries

Initiatives to Combat Drug Use

Legalization and Decriminalization

Prevention

Drug abuse of both legal and illegal substances has a devastatingly negative impact on American society as a whole. Drug use and abuse are prevalent in American society, and the financial costs of drug and alcohol abuse are profound. Perhaps even more important, however, are the social costs that come from drug abuse. Drug abuse is linked with increased crime, particularly increases in violent crime, and subsequent increases in the cost of law enforcement, legal issues, and incarceration. The health-related costs of drug abuse include HIV and hepatitis from intravenous drug use, and increased risks of HIV and sexually….

109).
To date, multidimensional family therapy has been tested in a number of controlled outcome studies within a variety of treatment and prevention settings and has been shown to be a cost effective approach when compared to standard treatment options (Dennis, Babor, Diamond, Donaldson, Godley, Titus & Tims et al., 2000).

eferences

Burrow-Sanchez, J.J. (2006). Understanding adolescent substance abuse: Prevalence, risk factors, and clinical implications. Journal of Counseling and Development, 84(3), 283- 284.

Coombs, .H. (2005). Family therapy review: Preparing for comprehensive and licensing examinations. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Dennis, M.L., Babor, T.F., Diamond, G., Donaldson, J., Godley, S.H., Titus, J. C, Tims, F., et al. (2000). The Cannabis Youth Treatment (CYT) Experiment: Preliminary findings. A report to H. Westley Clark, Director, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Department of Health and Human Services in Coombs at p. 387.

Essau, C.A. (2003). Conduct and oppositional defiant disorders: Epidemiology,….

Drug Abuse and Families
esults from the 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the latest survey available from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, estimated that 21.8 million Americans, ages twelve and up, were current (past month) drug users. The figure represented an increase of .7% over the previous year. Families of substance abusers can find themselves in crisis, experiencing a range of emotions from helplessness to frustration, fear, and anger. "Loved ones struggle with extraordinary questions about loyalty, love, support, and limits" (Denning, 2010, p. 164). There is considerable evidence in the current literature that families are often devastated by drug use and employ various means to cope. The purpose of this paper is to review three articles that discuss the challenges families face when one or more members have an addiction to drugs.

As pointed out by Saatcioglu, Erim and Cakmak, abuse is a family disease….

Drug Abuse and Gang Membership: isk Factors
Generally, a vast majority of juveniles do not do drugs or participate in gang activity. For those who indeed end up engaging in such activities, only a small number eventually repeat the offenses. However, there exists a number of risk factors that, if present could increase the likelihood of a juvenile offender joining a gang or engaging in drug abuse.

When it comes to gang membership and drug abuse, a risk factor can be said to be an experience, activity or event that increases the likelihood of engagement in either drug abuse or gang membership. According to Butts and oman (2004), "other sources suggest that drug use among juvenile offenders may be two or three times higher than among youth in general." This could also be the case for gang membership amongst juvenile offenders. In regard to drug use and gang membership, social influence can….

Drug Abuse: Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or Ecstasy)
Drugs abound and they consist of legal and illegal drugs. There are legal drugs that become illegal as a result of abuse and sale without prescription. Other drugs though are manufactured strictly for illegal purposes and one of which is Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or Ecstasy). Developed in the early 1900s as an aid to psychiatric counseling though never used widely, Ecstasy came in vogues again in the club scene in the late 20th century and became even more popular in the early 2000s. Users prefer Ecstasy for the rapture and euphoria it provides; however, there are adverse side effects thereof as in any illicit drugs used. The paper deals with these side effects as well as the prevalence of the used of MDMA not only in the United States but Europe as well.

Drug Abuse: Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or Ecstasy)

Drugs and medicines have been developed in order to….

(Fletcher; Inciardi; Tims, 1993)
This may be the reason that there is today a new concept in the treatment of drug abuse, and this is the creation of 'Mobile Health Services'. In Maryland, for example, this mobile clinic has successfully treated about 30,000 to 40,000 drug abusers, about 25,000 abusers of cocaine, and more than 70,000 users of alcohol. If this idea of serving the community by the deployment of mobile clinics were to catch up, like for example, if these clinics were to be parked for a few hours each day in previously designated spots like churches or in certain city owned facilities, then more patients would be treated, and there would be a considerable reduction in the numbers of drug users. (Fletcher; Inciardi; Tims, 1993)

Yet another treatment method is the '12 Step Program' for combating drug abuse, and this program is seen as being 'phenomenally effective' in dealing….

In addition, the data suggest that younger arrestees were less inclined to use heroin (Baumler et al. 2002)."
This research also found that variables such as geographics, ethnicity, and age provide some explanation for heroin-use patterns (Baumler et al. 2002). All of these variables contribute to drug usage. Counselors and Law enforcement agents must address these variables if they desire to get to the root of the problem of heroin abuse. The report also suggests that counselors should concentrate on understanding these variables so that heroin addicts can be treated appropriately.

Discussion and Conclusion

The purpose of this discussion was to focus on the drug usage as a multicultural issue. We found that the drug usage is prevalent at all levels of our society. The research also suggests that drug abuse cost billions of dollars each year. We found that much of this expense is derived from drug related crime.

The discussion also….

hile previous studies have indicated that parental use of prescription drugs facilitates addiction through availability, it would also be valuable to see if parental use of such drugs normalizes seeking pharmaceutical solution to problems on a psychological level. This could be determined through an attitudinal questionnaire following the fill-in-the-blank yes/no demographic questionnaire in the survey. The attitudinal questionnaire can prompt agreement to disagreement with statements on a 1-5 scale such as: "Because they are prescribed by doctors to some people, prescription medications are not as dangerous as illegal drugs." "I feel less guilty about taking prescription drugs, even though they are not prescribed to me, because they are not illegal for everyone." Or "I feel that because my parents take these drugs, they cannot be entirely bad for me."

One interesting issue that is by the fact that girls more than boys abuse all kinds of prescription drugs, both sedatives as….

Over the years, marijuana abuse has continued to be regarded as being damaging to the well-being of our society and, in most countries, it is illegal to possess marijuana. In spite of being generally rejected by the public, marijuana also has numerous supporters. Its supporters usually claim that the plant is not dangerous for its consumers and that it actually shouldn't be called a drug. For several decades, the drug has been considered to be harmless and not to have any long-term consequences.

However, recent studies have proved otherwise, that the drug is very damaging to its consumer. After having consumed the drug for longer periods of time, its users have been reported to experience memory problems.

Those that militate for the legalization of marijuana believe that the drug has been made illegal because of the massive propaganda from the early 20th century. (Scienceblog)

Apparently, one of the most disastrous effects that marijuana….