A Sociological Approach to Controlling Opioid Abuse. Research Paper

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A Sociological Approach to Controlling Opioid Abuse
Opioid overdose ends at least 115 lives of Americans daily (NIDA par. 1). This death toll shows that the battle against opioids has taken a new turn, demanding an urgent change of strategy. This discussion paper revisits why people become deviant in a bid to illuminate how the causes can inform an intervention strategy. Winning the war against opioids addiction requires prioritizing treating and rehabilitating opioid addicts instead of incarceration.
Opioid abuse, just like any other form of deviance, is controllable, but it is imperative to understand why the target population engages in the practice. There are three ways of explaining the prevalence of this behavior: some people are inherently deviant, others deviate by choice, and certain factors encourage individuals to engage in deviance (“Introduction to the Sociology of Deviance and Social Control” slide 86). The cause of increased opioid abuse among different groups can play a fundamental role in customization of intervention strategies to control this scourge. For example, those addicted to the substance after a physician prescribed it as a pain reliever may not benefit from the same control program through which an individual who sells the drug in the black market undergoes.
Interventions for controlling deviant behavior are broadly classifiable into two categories: formal and informal systems of control (“Introduction to the Sociology” slide 94). Formal systems subsume the institutions whose primary and secondary functions revolve around controlling the populace. They include the Criminal Justice System (CJS) and mental health and education system. Conversely, informal systems refer to all other institutions that serve the same purpose as the former category, except they are not formal. They include families and communities and peer groups. Opioid abuse and the consequential death toll are impossible to control effectively by relying heavily on CJS as the society presently does. Accordingly, a research-informed amalgam of all aspects of formal and informal systems is worth consideration.
The severity of opioid crisis demands equally strong intervention – a countermeasure that does not overly focus on classical intervention. By ...