Sociological Factors Contributory To The Increase Of Drug Use

Drug Trends Your Name Subject and Section Professor’s Name June 22, 2019 Introduction Despite all the efforts of both national and international organizations (including state actors) towards stopping illegal drug use, it seems that finally ending such crisis is far from over. In a recent report released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), 29.5 million people around the world use illegal drugs, for all sorts of purposes (Peacock et al., 2018). While one of the main contentions about the abuse of such substances is the physiological effects that it has on a person’s body, what is more, terrifying is the fact that increasing crime rates has been linked with the increase for the demand for such substances. In the United States alone, crimes related to selling, procurement, and usage of these substances increases the country’s expenses by $600 billion, which is “equivalent to 17.1% of the US Federal Budget” (Drug Abuse Statistics, 2018). This high crime rate and costs are the main reason why countries opt to exert more and more effort to stopping drug use. However, despite infrastructural and medical exerted by different organizations, it is essential to note that drug use is highly related to social conditions, and not only to psychological and physical factors as people commonly think. In line with this, this paper would discuss these sociological factors contributory to the increase of drug use. Nonetheless, the author strongly believes that considering external factors and strategizing treatments in consideration of this would yield better results in stopping drug abuse. Drug Usage In a recent report released by SAMHSA, it was noted that a significant portion of the Emergency Room Visits has been due to the usage of either illicit drugs or pharmaceuticals (Drug Abuse Statistics, 2018). While this number is large enough, what is more surprising is the fact that such numbers continue to increase in recent decades regardless of the billions of dollars spent to mitigate its usage. Accordingly, while there are many ways on how to understand this, one way to view this phenomenon is through Merton’s Theory of Addiction. In this theory, American Sociologist Robert Merton believes that drug use (and trends) is profoundly affected by the demands of our society. Specifically, it states that society places too much strain on the individual to achieve ‘socially accepted goals,’ which changes and increases through time. However, since the system itself denies such individuals of the means to reach these ...