Albia Dugger • Miami Dade College

Chapter 2Drugs in

Contemporary Society

Prevalence of Drug Use

• Nearly every American has used a mind-altering substance:• Alcohol• Cigarettes• Coffee and soft drinks• Ritalin

• Nonmedical use of pharmaceutical drugs

• Use of illegal drugs:• Health and social costs of drug use• Costs of law enforcement

US National Drug Control Budget

Impact of Drug Use and Abuse

• Binge drinking at American colleges:• Deaths• Weak academic performance• Injuries, vandalism, and property damage• Alcohol-related sexual abuse

• Nearly 500,000 Americans die each year from use of tobacco, alcohol, and illegal drugs

Murder Circumstances

Drug Use and Abuse

• Drug use results in:• Fatal diseases such as HIV/AIDS• Males and females pawning their bodies for drugs• Delivery of drug-addicted and drug-impaired babies

• Drug availability:• Widely available in large metropolitan areas• In the US, 8.1% of people aged 12 and older used an illicit

drug in the past month

Drugs from a Social Perspective

• Society’s perception of drugs:• Influenced by social and psychological factors • Illegal drugs are condemned more than legal drugs

• Risk factors for drug use:• Growing up in a chaotic household• Parents who abuse drugs• Lacking of mutual attachment and nurturing• School failure, shyness, or aggressiveness • Perception that drug use is acceptable• Associating with peers who engage in drug use

Impacts on Drug Initiation

Patterns of Drug Taking

• Experimental Use• Infrequent use motivated by curiosity

• Social-Recreational Use

• Taking drugs to share pleasurable experiences among friends

• Circumstantial-Situational Use• Short-term use to contend with immediate distress or

pressure

Patterns of Drug Taking

• Intensified Use• Taking drugs on a steady basis to relieve a problem

• Chronic Use• Indicates some extent of physical or psychological

dependence

• Compulsive Use• Acquiring and consuming drugs is the main focus of life

Drugs used for social reasons

Extent of Drug Use

• National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2010)• 22.6 million Americans used illicit drugs• 7 million used psychotherapeutic drugs nonmedically• 1.5 million were current cocaine users• 28.8 million drove a car under the influence of alcohol• 695,000 Ecstasy users, and 353,000 meth users• 16.3% of pregnant women smoked cigarettes• 2.5 million received substance abuse treatment for alcohol• 69.6 million Americans smoked cigarettes

National Survey on Drug Use and Health

Monitoring the Future Study, 2010

Peer Pressure

Drug Abuse by Older Adults

• In 2008, more than 49,000 people 55 and older went to an emergency room due to illicit drug reaction

• More than 151,000 went to an emergency room due to the nonmedical use of a pharmaceutical drug

• Approximately 2.5 million older Americans have problems related to alcohol

• Because older people are more affected by drugs, they are at higher risk for accidents and illness

Drug Abuse by Older Adults

• Often, substance abuse by older adults is ignored

Drugs in the Workplace

• Substance abuse in the workplace results in:• Lessened productivity• Increased accidents, absenteeism, and health care costs

• Highest rates of drug use are food service workers and construction workers – identifying drug problems in top-level managers is more difficult

• Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) help workers deal with problems that affect job performance, including alcohol or drug problems

Drug Testing

• In 2011, the federal government earmarked $283.1 million for drug-related activities in schools

• Random workplace drug testing has effectively identified frequent users of illicit drugs

• In many jurisdictions, physicians are required to report women who use drugs during pregnancy or infants who test positive for drug use by their mothers

Effects of drug use by pregnant women

• Women whose babies test positive for drugs such as cocaine are subject to losing custody of their children

Testing of Athletes

• Drugs used in professional and amateur athletics:• Stimulants to increase alertness, competitiveness, and

aggression• Beta-blockers to reduce anxiety• Steroids to augment muscle development

• Almost all high schools randomly drug-tested athletes

Methods of Drug Testing

• Immunoassay is fast and less expensive than other methods but may give false positive readings

• Gas chromatography is more expensive and time-consuming than other methods

• Thin-layer chromatography is simple and inexpensive, but requires expert interpretation

• Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry is highly sensitive, but is time-consuming and expensive

Problems with Drug Testing

• False positive• A person tests positive for a drug even though no drug is

present in the person’s urine

• False negative• A person tests negative even though drugs are present in

the person’s urine

Detectability of Drugs

Legality of Drug Testing

• Debated in two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court: • Skinner v. Railway Labor Executive Association• National Treasury Employees Union v. von Raab

• In both cases, the Supreme Court ruled that the testing program was justified

Consequences of Drug Use

• Drug use is a factor in:• Family stability• Social behavior• Education and career aspirations• Personal and social maturation

• Relationship between adolescents’ substance use, depression, and suicidal thoughts and attempts

Drugs and the Family

• Association between drug use and the likelihood that a couple will separate or divorce

• Women subjected to violence have higher rates of alcohol dependence and other drug abuse problems

• Family interventions into adolescent alcohol use reduce the initiation and frequency of alcohol use

• Marijuana use by young Black males is significantly reduced when both parents are present

Drugs and the Family

• Parental substance abuse is a factor for 1/3 to 2/3 of all children involved with the child welfare system

• Substance abuse is a factor in many cases of child abuse and domestic abuse

• Alcohol use is associated with the perpetration of sexual aggression, especially toward boys

Drug Use Increases Domestic Abuse

• Alcohol is implicated with child and domestic abuse

Drugs and Deviant Behavior

• Drug users display more independence, rebelliousness, acceptance of deviant behavior, and rejection of moral and social norms than nonusers

• Children of parents who use drugs are more likely to engage in delinquent behaviors

• Stimulants such as methamphetamines and cocaine are associated with violence, while marijuana and heroin are more likely to produce a passive response

Drugs and Deviant Behavior

• Alcohol is the drug involved with the most violent incidents

• The level of aggression associated with alcohol is dose related

• Binge drinking is associated with unsafe sex and violence, and with nonconsensual sex

• Most cases of dating violence occurred in the South, and in many instances, involved alcohol

Drugs and Education

• There is a higher dropout rate from school for those who used alcohol, illicit drugs, and cigarettes

• There is a relationship between academic performance and drug use

• Drug use is assumed to be a predictor of welfare dependency

• Higher Education Act of 1965: College students who are convicted of a drug offense are denied federal financial aid

Drugs and Employment

• Employed drug users have less stable job histories than nonusers

• Alcohol abusers earn significantly less money than moderate drinkers and abstainers

• Drug use is associated with higher accident rates on the job and lower productivity

Drug Toxicity

• Toxicity is the ability to disturb or nullify homeostasis

• At high doses, a beneficial drug can be toxic

• The difference between a safe level of a drug and a dangerous level (the margin of safety) can be slight

Types of Toxicity

• Physical toxicity: • Danger to the body as a result of taking the drug

• Behavioral toxicity: • Drug interferes with one’s ability to function

• Acute toxicity: • Danger from a single experience with a drug

• Chronic toxicity: • Danger posed by repeated exposure to the drug

Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN)

• DAWN is a reporting system that collects information on the number of times drugs are implicated in both non-lethal and lethal visits to emergency rooms

• Illicit drugs were responsible for the most emergency room visits, followed by pharmaceutical drugs

• Data reflect acute drug problems, not chronic drug use

Drug-Related Emergency Room Visits, 2010

Drug Related Deaths, 2008

Designer Drugs

• Designer drugs: • Synthetic substances that are analogs (chemically similar)

of an existing drug

• Examples: • Bath Salts (Cathinone)• Synthetic cannabinoids• BZP (Benzylpiperazine)• Fentanyl and China white• Meperidine and MPPP• Ecstasy (MDMA)

Side Effects of MDMA

• Side effects of MDMA include nausea, sleeplessness, loss of appetite, depression, headache, hangover, jaw clenching, teeth grinding, and panic

• MDMA can trigger convulsions or seizures and widespread blood clotting followed by collapse, coma, and death

Side Effects of MDMA

• MDMA hinders erection and inhibits orgasm in men and women

Look-Alike and Sound-Alike Drugs

• Look-alike drugs • Appear similar to illegal or pharmaceutical drugs • Example: over-the-counter antihistamines and

biphetamine

• Sound-alike drugs • Names sound similar to those of legal or illegal drugs • Example: herbal ecstasy and Ecstasy• Example: Januvia and Enjuvia

The Drug Business

• Drug trade is a big business with no signs of slowing down

• Tactics for stopping drug flow into the US – military force, reducing aid to drug-producing countries, and promoting crop substitution – are ineffective

• Results in thousands needing medical care for drug overdoses, and has an economic impact on the criminal justice system and environment

Drug Sales

Drug Enforcement

The Drug Business

• Colombia is the leading producer of cocaine

• In Laos, Burma, and Thailand, opium production has largely been replaced by methamphetamines

• In addition to domestic production, marijuana is grown in Asia, the Caribbean, and Mexico – Colombia is the largest exporter

Drug Producers

The Drug Business

• The Global Commission on Drug Policy recommends the end of criminalization for drug use

• Countries could better regulate the use of drugs while undermining the power of organized crime

• Recommends increasing services and treatment to help drug abusers, and education to prevent drug use

The Drug Business

• The narcotics trade is tremendously profitable

• Even after billions of dollars were spent on curbing drug production, coca growth in Colombia rose 27%

• Preventing drugs from entering the United States or reducing the amount of drugs grown in the country is a matter of demand, not supply

How should we deal with drug problems?