Drug Abuse

Running Head: DRUG ABUSE
Drug Abuse
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Drug abuse
Introduction
Numerous people do not understand how or why other individuals end up as addicts to
substance abuse. Sometimes they may falsely think that people who consume alcohol and other
substance do not have moral willpower or principles and that such people can stop using drugs
by opting to do so. However, in reality, substance abuse or substance addiction is an intricate
disease, and stopping it normally requires more than strong will or good intentions (Milloy,
2019). There are moments in the life of an addict that he or she reaches out for a drink or a drug
for the very first time. Even though one can agree or disagree with the concept that addiction is a
disease, the first moment of the use of a drink or a drug is a choice each individual makes. For
each person, there are reasons behind such choices. It should be noted that such choices do not
just happen. There are several explanations which have been given as to why people use drugs.
This paper will critically discuss the various explanations given out as to why people use drugs,
the concept of drug addiction, theories of drug or substance abuse. Lastly, the paper will discuss
Marijuana, its addiction prevalence and the interventions being applied to minimize its addiction
in the society.
What is drug addiction?
The world Health Organization (WHO) defines drug use as the hazardous or harmful use
of psychoactive substance. The use of psychoactive substances may lead to dependence
syndrome. Thus, substance abuse in this paper is concerned with the hazardous or harmful
utilization of psychoactive substance entailing illegal drugs, alcohol, as well as certain
prescription drugs like opioid and benzodiazepines analgesics (Al-Wataify & Al-Dahmoshi,

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2019). Addiction is described as a chronic disease which is described by consuming drugs as
well as its utilization which is obsessive, or hard to manage in spite of their harmful and adverse
consequences. It should be noted that the original choice to take drugs is usually voluntary for
many individuals, yet continued consumption of the drugs may result to changes in the brain
which affects an addicted self-control as well as affects his or her ability to resist strong urge to
take the substance.
For instance, the brain rewards pleasurable feelings and experiences like intimacy,
laughter, and food, with surges of a chemicals of feel-good like dopamine. However, using drugs
like cigarette triggers the release of extra dopamine than cuddling or chocolate does while the
rush of euphoria forcers them to repeat the feelings and experience. Thus, the more an individual
uses the drugs the more it makes their brain to anticipate the same drug exacerbated by pleasant
feelings. This is the reason why it is very difficult to stop the use of drugs once somebody has
started using it. The brain becomes conditioned for addiction. Ultimately, an individual’s
tolerance can build heavily that the behavior of addiction no longer offers any pleasurable
experience and using drugs becomes a means of avoiding withdrawal. Thus, such people require
drugs to keep having a normal feeling (Chatterjee et al. 2017).
It should be noted that not every individual who experiments with drugs automatically
becomes an addict. Empirical research states that there is no single feature which can predict
whether an individual will become an addict even though there are general environmental,
biological and social factors which increases the risk of being an addict. The biological concept
that explains the increase in the risk of becoming a drug addict states that genes when in
combination with the environmental factors account for approximately half of an individual’s
vulnerability to addiction. Socioeconomic status, friends, and families have a vital effect on an

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individual’s likelihood of being a drug addict. Sexual as well as physical abuse, parental
guidance, stress, and peer pressure have the potential to greatly impact the occurrence of drug
use. Even though an individual can become addicted at an early age, the earlier the use of drugs
begins, the more likely that it will graduate to a serious addiction.
Prevalence of alcohol and substance abuse
Substance abuse is normally misconceived in practices and research as an issue impacting
only the younger generations in the society. Nevertheless, alcohol and substance abuse are not
restricted to a particular age group. For instance, in the U.S., the number of people aged 50 years
and above who need treatment on substance abuse is estimated to reach 4.6 million by 2020.
Baby boomers have contributed to such greater rates of substance abuse than their previous
cohorts. Baby boomers have tested numerous of the deeply grounded social beliefs and values.
According to the social oncologists the cohort of bay boomers is usually more comfortable with
drug use and alcohol and they have a history of alcohol and substance use since when they were
young. According to the national survey done on alcohol and other drug use and health, about 20
million American adults, that is, those who are aged 12 years and polder, battled alcohol and
substance use complications in 2017. The harmful use of alcohol and substance use leads to 3.4
million deaths annually. Averagely, every person in the globe aged 15 years and older drinks 6. 3
litters of alcohol each year (Bennett, 2014). It should be noted that less than half of the world
population, that is, 39% drinks alcohol, meaning that those who drink consume averagely 18
liters of pure alcohol each year.
About 32 million people are suffering from drug use disorders while almost 11.2 million
people inject drugs in their bodies, of which 1.4 million people with HIV/AIDS, 5.6 million