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Drug abuse results in annihilating consequences such as substance abuse overdose, death, and children born to addicted parents experiencing psychological and emotional problems. Drug use has been common since ancient times and has been common in almost every society (Barkan, 2020). Statistics show that legal and illegal drugs contribute to 520 000 deaths annually in America (Barkan, 2020). The influensing factors that attract people into addiction include ease of obtaining drugs, gender, education, and ethnicity. Strategies to help mitigate opioid use include improving awareness of the risks of drug abuse to the patients and their families and prescription drug monitoring programs. Therefore, this paper must accentuate the main reasons and consequences of the opioid crisis and, most importantly, highlight the central coping strategies.
The ease of obtaining drugs and the role of gender in this process contribute to the high addiction rate among the abusers. When drugs such as opioids are readily available within ones local area, non-users are likely to be drawn by others into using illegal substances. Males are more likely than females to commit the more serious forms of crime and deviance, such as homicide, robbery, and burglary. This pattern generally holds for drug use of various types (Barkan 2020:333). Females abuse prescription drugs more than males for nonmedical reasons, and this is attributed to females having easier accesss to medical drugs.
People with a increased level of education have a higher probability of consuming alcohol and a low one of abusing tobacco. In contrast, people without college degrees have a greater prospect of using tobacco (Barkan, 2020). Despite the common belief that African Americans form the greater populace of illegal drug abuse, research shows that Native Americans have a high rate of illicit and legal drugs abuse (Barkan, 2020)
As available solutions to individuals who are struggling with addiction there are many scesial prrehabilitaion programms that have people with the same problems. Improving awareness among the patients and sharing resources on the risk of prescription drug abuse and the related costs incurred can help mitigate their usage. Families with individuals addicted to drug abuse incur many expenses when seeking medication, rendering them bankrupt. When opioids use and overdose lead to death, some families are left with the burden of rearing their grandchildren (Libetti and Beasley, 2017). In addition, the children grow up being deprived of parental love and care.
Enacting state prescription drug laws and drug monitoring programs gives the opioids abusers a chance to reform failure; they face the law and are subject to a jail term. These programs provide an opportunity for opioids abusers for giving back to society when they engage in community programs. Moreover, the programs help substance abusers to abstain from drugs. The laws enacted avert individuals from further consuming opioids since they want to gain their freedom.
A symbolic interactionism paradigm is well portrayed in the documentary American Epidemic: A Nations Struggle with the Opioid Crisis (Libetti and Beasley, 2017). The film clearly shows the social problems evident resulting from the interaction of individuals, a key principle of the paradigm. Joel, an opioid addict, makes his family bankrupt as he always requests money from his mother. Furthermore, his parents would always accompany him to ensure he attended his outpatient meetings. Mikayas parents are seen taking up paternity roles for her children after she passes away due to an opioid overdose until a new family adopts the children. Similarly, Ben, who was adopted as a young child, was born addicted to heroin and showed painful withdrawal symptoms (Libetti and Beasley 2017). Constant exposure to witnessing his dad abuse drugs made Ben wish for better physical conditions as he thought it was enjoyable.
References
Barkan, Steven E. 2020. Social problems: Continuity and change. Boston: Flat World Knowledge, Incorporated.
Libetti, Robert, and Adya Beasley. 2017. American Epidemic. WSJDigitalNetwork, YouTube.
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