Substance Use: Overview, Definition, Types

Policy Brief
Assignment
Substance Abuse in the United States
SystemJP
[Pick the date]

Substance Abuse
Executive Summary
This policy brief assignment is based on discussion about a problem related to health safety
and measures. This health policy brief assignment wills discuss the problem statement over a
particular issue, alternatives for the policy and recommendation for the issue to design and
frame perfect policy brief assignment. Issue identified important for this policy brief
assignment is “The substance abuse in the United States.” Findings of National in2017
Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), approximately 19.7 million adults in America
above the age of 12 face substance abuse once in life and substance abuse cost American
society more than $740 billion yearly in vanished workshop efficiency, crime-related costs
and , healthcare expenditures increment. Addiction of the alcohol abuse is major but
challenges of the drug abuse are becoming more serious especially for the adolescents.
Detailed discussion of the issue with effective suggestions to get rid of the issues is presented
in this assignment (Thomas, 2020).
Problem statement
Substance abuse is the act when a person take medicines in form of drug or addiction that are
not legal it also includes uses of alcohol, prescribed medicine, and other legal drug in the
wrong way or in too much quantity that it affect the mental state of mind. Substance abuse be
different from addiction (Florence, Luo, Xu, & Zhou, 2016). People with substance
abuse complications are capable to leave their habit or able to change their unhealthy
behavior but it is very challenging as well. The United States have issues of drug abuse
common in the youth as compared to others. Whether it is legal or illegal both drugs have
elements that change the structure of body and mind working it perform the chemical
released in body that can give a pleasurable “high,” to the person by easing their stress, or by
helping them to avoid problems of life for a short period (Rosenblatt, Andrilla, Catlin, &

Substance Abuse
Larson, 2015). Commonly used drugs are alcohol, cocaine, heroin, and nay kind of medicine
that is prescribed by the doctors for the relief in the body to reduce the stress and cure the
diseases (Gold, 2019).
If any person consumes the prescribed medicine by the doctors as and addictive substance it
can be very dangerous for the health. Drug abuse is occurred when any person
 Taking medication given for somebody else
 Taking extra dosages or using it in other than the way it’s thought to be use
 Taking the medicine for a non-medical purpose
Kinds of medicine drugs often ill-treated contains:
 Opioid throbbing relievers
 Medicine used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and
 Apprehension medicine
The most commonly ill-treated OTC drugs included dextromethorphan comes in form of
cough and cold drug which in high doses can make a person intoxicated and feel drunk.
Whether one is taking alcohol, illegal medicine, prescribed drug in overdoses or in any other
form it falls in the category of drug abuse and is very harmful for the user in many ways. This
report will identify the challenges and solution to provide safety to such people taking the
risk of drug abuse in the relation of safety for their life (Haight, Ko, Tong, Bohm, &
Callaghan, 2018).
Policy alternatives
Policy for the prevention of substance abuse in the U. S. is the critical stage, this prevention is
a dream of many policymakers, local and state administrators, medical professionals, and law