Drugs

1. Drugs

2. Dealing with the Drug Problem…. • Proposals for dealing with the drug problem fall into four main categories. • Prevention Programs…. • Treatment Programs…. • Legal Repression…. • Social Tolerance…. • Laws defining which drugs are legal and which are illegal reflect negative stereotypes held by the general public and efforts for control by interest groups (such as religious groups, the pharmaceutical industry, and organized crime) and law enforcement professionals….

3. Dealing with the Drug Problem…. • The U.S. war on drugs costs approximately 1 billion per week. It entails stopping drugs from coming into the country and punishing those who use and sell drugs. In large part this war has not succeeded. • The drug war appears to be racist because of four patterns in the criminal justice system…. • Drug laws promote crime in al least three ways….

4. Alternative Solutions…. • (1) continue to wage the war on drugs by enacting and enforcing criminal laws; (2) legalize drugs and regulate them through licensing and taxation; (3) take a public health approach with an emphasis on decriminalization. • Regulation of trade or use through licensing and taxation: legalizing drugs but regulating their use would have several possible benefits for society: • Noninterference: libertarians argue that the government should not regulate or interfere with what people put into their bodies.

5. The Purpose of Prevention and Treatment Programs…. • Primary prevention—to prevent drug problems before they begin. • Secondary prevention—to limit the extent of drug abuse, prevent the spread of drug abuse to other substances, and teach strategies for the responsible use of licit drugs such as alcohol. • Tertiary prevention—to limit relapses (medical model or the therapeutic community)….

6. Other Factors to Reduce the Drug Problem…. • Alcoholism and drug abuse are intertwined with other social problems such as dramatic changes in the economic and technological bases of the society, the growing gap between the rich and poor, and inequalities based on race/ethnicity and gender.

7. Conclusion…. • The meaning of the drug problem for the quality of life is seen in the consequences for physical health, psychological health, interpersonal relationships, and economic costs…. • What constitutes drug abuse is a matter of definition….

8. Conclusion…. • Americans have a strong pro-drug orientation, although they consider some drugs to be disreputable, and those who use them to be part of a social problem. People generally consider the particular drugs that they use to be outside the realm of a social problem. • A major problem in drug abuse is addiction—becoming dependent on a drug so that in its absence one feels the stress of withdrawal.