Drugs in America

 According to NCDAS, 46.6 percent of kids try illicit drugs by the time they are in 12th grade, and in one year, 4,777 kids aged 15-24 have died due to overdose. According to The Journal of Indian Society of Periodontology, drug addiction occurs when a person becomes physically or psychologically dependent on the drug. It is a disease that affects millions around the world, and the numbers are only going up. People who suffer from drug addiction face significantly more discrimination than those with other mental illnesses due to a lack of understanding and federal laws.

The image from BBC shows a person who is suffering from an addiction.

In an article posted by Springer Link, they say, "results of this study showed that people were more willing to accept discriminatory practices, were more doubtful about the effectiveness of treatments, and were more likely to oppose public policies directed at helping people with drug addiction than those with mental illness." Most people aren't knowledgeable enough on the subject and show hatred towards people suffering from a disease that isn't their fault. Every recovering addict has a story of how they've struggled. Here is a brief story about what one recovering addict has gone through to get his sobriety.

"There was a kid who grew up with divorced parents. He was raised by his mother, who was a drug addict. Since he grew up around drugs, that was all that he knew, and he also turned to drugs when his life got hard. As he got older, he realized the error in his choices and decided he wanted to try to get clean from the drugs. He tried everything he could think of on his own to get, but he was unable to get away from the drugs. After he graduated high school, he decided to go into the armed forces. He hoped that the training and discipline would help him get over his drug addiction, but it was not enough. He volunteered to serve a tour in Afghanistan, in hopes that he wouldn't be able to get access to any drugs. But even this failed. He returned home and still had his drug addiction. He finally opened up to his dad's side of the family about his addiction and went to rehab to get treatment. After all of this, he still is more susceptible to drugs and relapse than someone who has not done any drugs before."

It is not the kid's fault for growing up with a person who was a drug user. Also, it shouldn't be a surprise that he started using drugs when that was all that he knew. Society will try to shame this kid because he is labeled as a recovering addict. People will see him as less than normal. They fail to see the strength that this kid has shown and the battles that he has gone through in his attempts to get his sobriety and maintain it after getting some help. Typically drug addicts are not the ones to blame for their addiction but instead wandered into a trap set by others. Due to this trap, they are punished by society.

Many people may argue that drug addiction is caused by weakness within the individual and is not a disease. Research shows this belief is incorrect. The reason addiction is a disease is that it changes people's brains so that the drugs are all that they want. According to Learn Genetics, "Drugs of abuse affect the brain much more dramatically than natural rewards, such as food and social interactions. To bring stimulation down to a more manageable level, the brain must try to adapt. One way the brain compensates is to reduce the number of dopamine receptors at the synapse." This adaptation makes everything else in life less enjoyable. The dopamine receptors are what make you feel good when you do things you enjoy. The drugs reduce the number of receptors in your brain and make everything else less enjoyable. This makes people more likely to use drugs again. It is the fault of the people in power for not informing others of the reasons drug addiction occurs. The should be a better flow of knowledge within the U.S., so more people could be informed and not treated others poorly due to their lack of knowledge.

It is also the fault of the government for making unclear laws when it comes to recovering addicts in the workplace. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, "An employer can refuse to hire a person with a past history of illegal drug use, even if the person no longer uses drugs." Also, the law says that people that are currently taking drugs are not protected from discrimination. They are only protected by the law when it is no longer current. The issue with this is that there is not a set definition of what is considered current. The government failed to set up clear laws. This allows the system to be manipulated, argued, and corrupted. The law needs to be clearly defined so that it can't be taken advantage of and abused. These laws were established under the Obama Administration and need to be fixed.

If we can help to improve people's understanding of drug addiction and improve the flow of information, then it is more likely that the issues within the laws will also be brought more to attention and can be fixed. One way we could improve people's understanding of drug addiction is to change the stigmas about how it is presented in media and television. The popular people in shows and movies are commonly depicted to use drugs. If this would change it could help to show people that using drugs is bad and will not make them more popular. This should help to reduce the popularity of using illegal drugs. If people have a better understanding and laws are corrected, then the kids who were forced into a life of struggle can be treated more fairly.