When One Hears of Substance Abuse??? ?

Question by ChemStudent: When one hears of substance abuse??? ?
When one hears of substance abuse one immediately thinks of illicit or illegal drugs. However, mind altering substances are legally prevalent in our society with their use having a multitude of consequences. Use this forum to thoughtfully discuss the problems associated with them.

I’m taking a substance abuse class and the teacher gave us this question to collaborate about! Let me know what you think.
PLEASE HELP!

Best answer:

Answer by Czar Walters, Child Saver!
Well, I think the questions may be a little biased, but that’s not surprising when it comes to our school systems.

I would point out that with all substances, even the “hard” drugs like heroin, cocaine, and alcohol, there is always a difference between use and abuse. For example, cocaine is used in surgery and for other medical reasons. Methamphetamine, the currently demonized substance, is also used in a a medical setting to treat ADD/ADHD. Most people think these two drugs are only available on the street, but that’s not so.

Compare that to cannabis, which is more tightly controlled (regulated in Schedule I of the CSA, where coke and meth are in Schedule II) is the most widely used and sometimes abused illegal drug, but has killed no one in the thousands of years it has been used by humans.

Alcohol and tobacco, the socially acceptable (yet highly toxic and dangerous) drugs, kill more people per year in the US than ALL the illegal drugs combined. Prescription drugs, especially opioid painkillers, are a leading cause of addiction in the US. DEA studies have shown that many heroin addicts would prefer to use pharmaceuticals like OxyContin, Dilaudid, and Demerol because they are more potent and certainly more pure.

So, what are the consequences of these drugs? Addiction and misery, when used improperly. When used responsibly, pain-control for the suffering. However, our legal system does not recognize the difference between use and abuse. If you get caught smoking a joint and it’s your first time doing so, you will likely be sent to a one or two-year treatment program (or jail,) even though one-time use does not indicate an addiction problem. Things like these overwhelm our courts and prisons, and cost taxpayers a lot of money that could be spent better elsewhere.

I would mention the “War on Drugs,” and all the problems it actually creates, rather than solves. For example, America has only 5% of the world’s people, but it imprisons 20% of the world’s people. In other words, the US imprisons mroe people than ANY other country on earth, even Russia or China. Add to that, all the killings that have taken place on the US/Mexico border this year. More people have died there (last year, 2008) due to the Drug War than all of our military casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan over the entire time we’ve been in that war.

This chart should help you describe the “harm” of each drug, but it is a little off, IMHO, due to geovernment pressure to demonize drugs: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/Rational_scale_to_assess_the_harm_of_drugs_(mean_physical_harm_and_mean_dependence).svg/350px-Rational_scale_to_assess_the_harm_of_drugs_(mean_physical_harm_and_mean_dependence).svg.png&imgrefurl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_(drug)&usg=__0oqxI4nCrYl0sLsf6d-az_c5QL4=&h=350&w=350&sz=37&hl=en&start=2&um=1&tbnid=-ZFaTCenp3ciDM:&tbnh=120&tbnw=120&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddrug%2Bharm%2Bchart%2Blancet%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

These websites may help you find more things to discuss:
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/?q=node/243

http://www.erowid.org/

http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php

http://www.norml.com/index.cfm?Group_ID=7305

What do you think? Answer below!

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