Background Approximately 15,000 people die each year by overdosing on opioids, a rate that has more than tripled since 1990 (Wermeling, 2012). The annual incidence of opioid over dose associated mortality on a nationwide scale has been difficult to assess due to incomplete reporting systems (Leavitt, S.2010) as well as more than half of over doses go unreported for fears of repercussions (kuehn,2014). In Massachusetts these over doses have killed more than car crashes each year since 2005 (Wermeling, 2012). The government had tried numerous strategies to reduce the death toll, including imposing stricter regulations on prescribing medications, prosecuting owners of “pill mills” who dispense the drugs without proper medical evaluation, and tracking data bases to monitor and discourage “doctor shopping” among addicts (Szalvitz,2013). Addiction often begins with a legitimate opioid
Though most illicit drug use by teens declined over the past decade, teen prescription drug misuse steadily increased (Johnston, O'Malley, Bachman, & Schulenburg, 2008). In 2003, roughly 2.3 million teens in the U.S. reported lifetime nonmedical use of a prescription drug (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration [SAMHSA], 2004). By 2008, that number had jumped to 4.7 million teens, or one roughly in five teens in the U.S. (Partnership Tracking Study [PATS], 2009). In contrast, from 2002 to 2008, reported lifetime marijuana use among teens aged 12 to 17 decreased from 20.6 % to 16.5 % (SAMHSA, 2009). In addition, of the estimated 1.7 million emergency room visits in the U.S. in 2006 related to drug misuse, more than 700,000
Researchers involved with the experiment examined the songs for mention of drugs, behavior and contexts surrounding the mention of drugs, as well as attitudes and consequences stemming from the use of drugs. Research found that of the 38 most popular rap songs from 1979-1984 only 4 songs contained drug references, that is 11 percent. The percentage of rap songs with drug references jumped drastically in the early 90’s to 45 percent, this percentage increased to 69 percent of the top 125 songs between 1994 and 1997. The study also found that the way rap artist would allude to drugs changed with the years, early songs with drug references like “White lines” by Grandmaster Flash talked about the destructiveness of crack, cocaine in its freebase form. Although, this warning about the destructiveness of a drug like cocaine faded away in the early 90’s and rap artist began to portray the use of marijuana in their rhymes.
The debate on drug courts therapy is a main problem with politics with race, poverty, and drug cities (p.417). According to (Miller, 2009, p. 417) “Between 1986 and 1991, the number of white drug offenders in state prisons increased by 110 percent, but the number of black drug offenders rose by 465 percent”. Drug courts were ultimately used for overloaded court cases resulting in congested prisons (p.417). Programs were developed because of drug arrests and offenses that introduced drug courts (p.417). The role of the drug courts is to deter drug offenders and abusers from incarceration and into treatment programs (p.417).
Hence the Jews were not able to protect themselves from the Nazi’s, and therefore nearly six-million Jews were murdered. On the other hand if the Jews had firearms they could have protected themselves and lowered the number of deaths in the holocaust, maybe even prevented it. If you assume banning firearms will prevent crime you are wrong, it will only increase crime-rates. How do I know this? Well according to the Huffington Post, six years after firearms were banned in the United Kingdom gun-crime there had more than doubled; and by 2009 gun-crime had jumped by a colossal 89%.
In the modern United States military,the use of drugs became recognized as a problem in the late 1960's and early 70's. About 20% of Vietnam veterans reported having narcotics on a weekly basis and 20% were considered to be addicted based on symptoms of dependence. American soldiers continued to use drugs and the type of drugs changed over the years. During that time period, American soldiers was discharged from the military because of their habitual drug use. Drugs in the military is a risk to the United States national security because it reduce the readiness of our soldier's.
Inmates Involved in Drug Abuse are on the Rise Drug abuse and addiction have, for all intents and purposes, changed the landscape of the prison populations in the United States. We consume two-thirds of the world’s illegal drugs and embody twenty-five percent of the world’s prison population. In the decade between 1996 and 2006, the population in the U.S. increased by 12.5 percent. While the percentage of incarcerated adults rose by 32.8 percent during that period, the percentage of inmates involved in drugs increased even more quickly, by 43.2 percent (CASAColumbia, 2010). One factor contributing to the continuous growth of substance abusers in the prison population is drug misuse and addiction.
If movies are going to portray drug use, they should also show the bad side to substance abuse. If they were to do so, the romance with drug use on the big screen might very well become diminished. It has recently been determined "people were depicted doing drugs, drinking or smoking in 98 percent of the top movie rentals and 27 percent of the most popular songs in 1996 and 1997. Fewer than half these movie scenes and song lyrics mentioned any downside to these activities" (Riechmann 19A). The Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Department of Health and Human Services commissioned the study of 200 films and 1,000 songs (Riechmann 19A).
Nearly half of America’s 5.4 million full-time college students abuse narcotics or undergo alcohol binges at least once a month. This is according to a new study that portrays substance and alcohol abuse as an increasingly urgent problem on campuses across the nation. ALCOHOL REMAINS BY FAR THE FAVORED SUBSTANCE TO CONSUME ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES HOWEVER, THE ABUSE OF PRESCRIPTION DRUGS AND MARIJUANA HAS INCREASED DRAMATICALLY SINCE THE MID-1990s. This is according to the study released by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, which called on educators to move more aggressively to counter intensifying drug and alcohol use among students. Today’s report, the centers second on the subject, involved a survey of 2,000 students and 400 administrators as well as 6 national studies.
States held an estimated 250,900 drug offenders in 2003. That means it costs states approximately $16,948,295 per day to imprison drug offenders, or $6.1 Billion per year. (American) The French organization OGD points out the deeper economic impact from the eventual release of American drug felons: according to some estimates some 3.5 million prisoners will be released between now and 2010, and an additional 500,000 each year thereafter. “Such a large-scale release of unskilled people - most of them cannot even read and write - will have a negative impact on wages, which are already low in deprived urban areas, due to a massive influx of men desperate to get a job; especially, since the reform of the welfare system in 1996 severely reduced felons’ access to welfare money.