Drug and alcohol abuse and addiction is a severe issue in the United States today, and it has been for some time now. The problem simply gets worse and worse as the years go by, not better. When it comes down to it the most significant crisis is something that has to do with prescription drug abuse and alcohol abuse specifically. These two substances cause more damage than all other addictive substances combined. In the U.S. today this is an epidemic. Some people get hooked on prescription drugs after popping a few pills at a party, while still others get addicted after a course of prescription pain medication following surgery and others after trying to medicate their way out of depression with leftover pills or with pills they got from a friend. Fighting addiction is one approach. Preventing addiction is the preferred approach.
No matter how you look at it, the addiction crisis is a steadily increasing and serious one. This issue has made life difficult for Americans, and it has put a lot of pressure on law enforcement, parents, and educators to work on preventing these drugs from gaining any ground with various demographics, especially with young adults and students in particular.
This is a lot easier said than done though. However, when people end up hooked on opioids, whether it was accidental or not, one thing is clear and that is that very few successfully get off them once they are addicted to them.
One police officer had this to say on the matter:
The Statistics on Addiction
It’s not just opiates that are causing so many problems. Other substances also cause big problems, too.
Listed below are some of the statistics on the substance abuse crisis of the nation today:
- In the year of 2013, about 39.0 percent of youths aged 12 to 17 perceived great risk in having five or more drinks once or twice a week. Similarly, 39.5 percent of youths perceived great risk in smoking marijuana once or twice a week. So a lot of youngsters do see the risks here, but it doesn’t seem to help prevent the overall use and abuse of these drugs among young adults in general.
- In the year of 2013, 70.6 percent of youths of the age of 12 to 17 reported having seen or heard drug or alcohol prevention messages from sources outside of school, which was lower than in 2002 (83.2 percent) and in 2012 (75.9 percent). For some reason, preventative measures are going down even though drug use is going up. The percentage of school-enrolled youths reporting that they had seen or heard prevention messages at school also declined during this period, from 88.8 percent in 2002 to 73.5 percent. The prevalence of past month illicit drug use in 2013 was lower among youths who reported having such exposure to prevention messages compared with youths who did not have such exposure. So obviously, prevention works, but it just isn’t being applied like it used to be.
- Semi-tractor trailer truck drivers test positive for drugs, and this statistic alone has been increasingly alarming, especially since it puts so many other lives at risk. A 2007 study conducted in the state of Oregon by the Oregon state police found that in fact, nearly ten percent of randomly selected truck drivers tested positive for drugs of one kind or another, with both marijuana and methamphetamine rates just to name a few being higher than in similar checks done in the year of 1998.
Preventing Addiction is the Key to Stopping This Epidemic
Prevention is another major point, yet it is often forgotten about or missed. Prevention is defined as “those actions that are taken on the part of the government, parents, elders, teachers, police officers, and other civil servants and opinion leaders to try to stop substance abuse from occurring in any given area.” Any time a parent talks to a child about addiction, or a police force busts a drug ring, or a teacher educates about drugs, those are efforts to prevent drug and alcohol addiction. Now, more than ever, prevention in the U.S. needs to be increased.
In a lot of ways, teachers and police officers are leading the way in preventing addiction. With a combination of educating about drug and alcohol abuse and addiction and with law enforcement attempts at getting drug use and drug substance out of an area, specific areas where this has been practiced are now doing much better. This model must be followed everywhere though, and if it is then the nation will experience a considerable amount of relief over all.
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