Substance abuse is today’s predominantly insidious health and social dilemmas. Substance abuse connotes to the detrimental or death-defying utilization of psychoactive substances, in addition to alcohol and illicit drugs and the use of these substances use can lead to dependence syndrome (Straussner, page 388). Dependence syndrome is a cluster of behavioural, cognitive, and physiological phenomena that come into being after repeated use of substance.
Normally, it includes a strong craving to obtain the drug, teething troubles in keeping an eye on its use, perseverance in using the substance despite damaging end results, superior concern given to drug use than to other activities and obligations, amplified tolerance, and physical withdrawal state from time to time. Substance abuse can evidently be defined as a pattern of harmful use of several substances for mood-altering principles and broad array of substance abuse in today’s society is getting more serious as it seems.
Guiding principles which persuades the levels and patterns of substance use and associated impairment can considerably trim down the public health problems interrelated to substance use (Hogan, page 42). Interventions at the health care system level can toil towards the re-establishment of health in affected individuals. Reality Bites Every year, there are about 100,000 deaths in the United States in relation to alcohol consumption and there are at least 12,000 deaths associated with illicit drug abuse and related acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) (Lowinson, Ruiz, Millman and Langrod, page 1329).
The total economic cost of alcohol and drug abuse was $276 billion during 1995 and this corresponds to more than $1,000 for every man, woman, and child in the United States which covers the related problems caused by substance abuse. There are substances that are not considered as drugs at all, such as inhalants and solvents and they can be abused for their mood-altering effects and there are also drugs that can be abused that have no mood-altering or intoxication properties, such as anabolic steroids (Stimmel, page 51).
When most people converse about substance abuse, they are referring to humans drawn to illegal drugs and for this reason, most professionals in the field of drug abuse prevention squabble that any use of illegal drugs is by definition abuse thus, any use of illegal substances is dangerous and abusive. They are potentially addictive or can cause severe negative health effects so these drugs got to be declared as illegal.
On the other hand, some may argue that spontaneous, recreational use of some drugs is not harmful and is merely use, not abuse and most people who are very vocal of the proponents of recreational drug use are those who smoke marijuana claiming that marijuana is not addictive and has many beneficial intrinsic worth. Marijuana users can become psychologically dependent and therefore they can be addicted according to contemporary research of National Institute on Drug, it shown that even marijuana may have supplementary detrimental effects on physical, mental, and psychomotor (Saucer, page 46).
There are numerous substances like alcohol, prescription and over-the-counter medications, inhalants and solvents, and even coffee and cigarettes that can be abused by an individual aside from illegal drugs. All of these can be harmful if use in excess and almost any substance can be abused. The line between use and abuse is not clear, only ones self can determine the threshold of use and abuse.
When it comes to illegal substances, society has determined that the use of these substances were harmful. To defend society from the costs involved with healthcare resources, lost productivity, spread of diseases, crime and homelessness, every nation placed legal prohibitions and set law enforcement regarding the usage of these substances.
Estimated rates of chronic drug use shows significant numbers and there were 4. 4 million chronic drug users as estimated during 1995 in the United States, 3.6 million of them fall under chronic cocaine users and 810,000 were chronic heroin users (Lundy and Janes, page 467). Addicted persons frequently engage in self-destructive and criminal behaviour thus drug dependence is a habitual and relapsing disorder. To end the dependence on addictive drugs and reduce the consequences of addictive drug use on society, proper and well guided treatment according to research can help to treat an individual.