Impact of Illicit Drugs on Cultures: A Comparative Study of USA and Russia

This essay discusses the impact of illicit drugs on the cultures of USA and Russia, focusing on the rise of crime rates, domestic violence, and the effects on the youth. It explores the import and use of drugs like marijuana and heroin, and the negative consequences on individuals, families, and communities. The essay also highlights the societal conflicts and moral degradation caused by drug abuse.

Running head: ANTHROPOLOGY
Anthropology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
The topic of the following essay is to discuss about the impact of the illicit drugs on the
cultures of the several countries. It must be mentioned in this context that the intake of the illicit
drugs has become a very complicated problem indeed. Most of the countries all over the world
are experiencing the rise of the crime rates and the issues like the domestic violence in the
societies. The impact of the illicit drug taking in different countries and cultures will be
evaluated in this essay. The impact is directly felt on the youth of the several countries. The
immediate cultures of these countries are directly affected. The most significant of the illicit
drugs on the youth is the fact they are going into severe depression (Degenhardt and Hall 2012).
These facts will be discussed in this essay with the reference to two countries. The racial and
religious issues are also included in this context as well.
The importance of illicit drugs on USA and Russia
The usage of the drugs has been very important on the youth of the current society. This
has negatively impacted on their health and well being in diverse ways as well. The young
section of the society has been the primary targets for the drug traffickers all across the world.
The two countries that have suffered the most in the case of illicit drugs are USA and Russia
(Frone 2013). The violence has been caused in these countries in the rampant ways indeed. This
is why the administration of these countries and the World Health Organization (WHO) is very
much concerned for the children and the young people. The instances of taking of the illicit
drugs have been increasing in the culture of USA and the culture has thoroughly deteriorated.
The banned drugs like Marijuana have been imported from the South American countries and the
import of these drugs has been much rampant (Degenhardt and Hall 2012).

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Several diseases have been caused by the illicit use of such drugs indeed. The addicts of
the drugs become so much enthralled in the use of the drugs that they cause severe harms in their
organs. The problems have been caused in their health due to the overdose of such drugs like
marijuana and others (Frone 2013). The use of drugs like marijuana dates back to the 1990s
when it was used by many minority groups like the farm laborers of Mexico, black people of the
Southern states of United States of America and Filipino immigrants. The matter of the export of
such drugs can be used in a way as several Mexican people had to escape to the USA due to the
Mexican revolution (Chakravarthy, Shah and Lotfipour 2013). The wealthy merchants of the
region gave them some lucrative offers but ultimately they finished with working at lw wages.
According to some of the critics, this had been the major cause for the downfall of the American
society in a huge manner (Bachman et al. 2013).
The racist politicians of the USA had targeted the dealers of marijuana as it became very
easy for them. The politicians began to attack these Mexican farmers as ‘un-Americans’ and this
made a huge upheaval against the groups who were involved in this. In contrast to many critics,
some have opined that these social conflicts were just an outcome of creating some political
disputes (Bachman et al. 2013). The only target was to gain some major political advantages by
the ruling parties. However, this had created a negative image on the society as well. The steps
had been taken against some minority groups and minority subcultures. This is why the
indication is that the implicit use of drugs has been a wide problem in the USA for a long time.
The negative impact of using the drugs had been reflected in the several newspapers, magazines
and many journals as well. It has indeed become a multi-faceted problem indeed (Mowen and
Visher 2015). Some authors have even argued that the use of the drugs in deteriorated the
cultures of the society as well. The societal conflicts between the government and the minority

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groups have reflected in the moral down fall of the people. Several public issues had been
reflected in relation to the intake of drugs by the people of USA (Ersche er al. 2012).
The illicit use of drugs has also been much impactful in Russia as well. The illicit use of
drug trafficking and its effects on the society has also been a huge concern for the Russian
government as well. The authors have highlighted the fact that the several opiates are available in
the Russian markets at relatively low costs and it has affected the health of the people. However,
it has also been said that these types of illegal opiates are imported into Russia from several
Central Asian states like Afghanistan and others (Mowen and Visher 2015). The borders that are
used for the import and export of these drugs are mainly the Russia-Kazakh border and the main
reason for this is the poverty in Afghanistan and the Central Asian states (Walters 2014). This
has affected the overall opportunities for the import of these illicit drugs. The Afghanistan drug
traffickers have found out that the opportunities for gaining more money is only possible in
Russia since the economy of Russia is higher than the other European countries and the market is
quite lucrative indeed (Kaplan 2013).
The experts have always expressed their concern over this matter and they have asked the
administration to focus more on this and find out some important way outs to remedy this
situation. The trafficking of drugs like heroin has seemed to be one of the biggest threats from
this country and this has been done by some of the famous organized crime groups indeed. The
terrorist networks active in Central Asia have been very much active in exporting these drugs to
Russia (Kaplan 2013). This is why the instances of criminal activities and domestic violence
have been increasing lately in these countries. Such incidents should be stopped or the moral
degradation of the society will go on. The export of heroin has indeed become a common factor
in Russia and the young people have become addicted to this. The criminal activities in countries

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like Ukraine and others can be seen as an indirect impact of these things indeed (Hart, Ksir and
Ray 2013).
Impact of the illicit drugs in the society
The entire society and most importantly the young people have been harmed very badly
indeed. Some of the national governments have been very much aware in stopping this evil
practice to save the youth. This impact is not only felt on the individuals but also on the families
and friends and the businesses run by those individuals. The individuals who use the drugs are
affected at their individual level, business and communities at large. The illicit drugs that have
been mentioned here are heroin and marijuana (Hart, Ksir and Ray 2013). Both these drugs have
been extremely unhealthy for the users and this has increased the domestic violence according to
the critics (Bachman et al. 2014).
The use of these illicit drugs has increased the brutality and rates of crime in the peaceful
societies. The matter of gun violence should be stated in this course since the incidents of gun
violence have been increasing in USA lately. It has also been observed and covered by the
sociology experts that several people have become mentally unstable because of using the illicit
drugs. In the recent times, the drug abuse arrests have increased very much in some of the states
if United States of America including Los Angeles. The impacts of using marijuana at an
increased rate have outcomes in the violent crimes (Bachman et al. 2014).
The doctors and psychologists have said that there are some other outcomes of using the
illicit drugs as well (Volkow et al. 2014). These negative impacts are the mental health disorders,
road traffic accidents, psychosis, overdose of the drugs, bacterial and viral infections borne by
the human blood like HIV and Hepatitis, suicides and death. Some critics have also said that the

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deaths caused by the overdose of drugs are mostly unintentional in nature. The swelling in brain
is also caused in the human body by the overuse of drugs (Miller 2013). This is why the social
conflicts are regular outcomes of the use of drugs in the countries like USA and Russia. The
terrorist activities are also being caused by the global terrorist groups from certain parts of the
world.
Conclusion
As per the above discussion, the essay can be concluded by saying that the drug abuse
has been one of the most intriguing problems in the current society. The countries like USA and
Russia are very badly affected because of the drugs all over the world. The increase of the
criminal activities, instances of domestic violence and the homelessness is also increasing due to
these things within the society. The global terrorist groups have been very much active in the
Russian borders to export the illicit drugs like heroin. Apart from that the import of marijuana in
USA has also deteriorated the culture of the countries as well.

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References
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