A social issue that I feel is affecting my ethnic and cultural group drug addiction. I’m from the beautiful city of Espanola located in Northern New Mexico. Sadly Espanola has been labeled the heroin capitol of the world. Growing up many members of my cultural community died of overdoses and were arrested for drug related crimes. Growing up I was constantly surrounded by this saddening issue that after a while it became part of my reality where it began not to phase me. It is not until now that I reflect on the issue that I realize how serious and sad it is that I became numb to the issue. This issue affects more than just the individuals involved in drug addiction. Growing up there were countless families torn apart because of drug addiction. …show more content…
It was heartbreaking for me to see a man that I looked up to and cared for become an absolute stranger. It was even harder to see what my aunt and baby cousin went through. My aunt lost the love of her life and my cousin lost his father. I still love and miss my uncle and would really like to help him, but he decided a while back that he didn’t want help and didn’t want to be contacted by the family anymore. According to an article by MetLife Foundation, they found that drug use among the Hispanic population especially in Hispanic teens. The article states that “Since 2008, Hispanic teens’ past-year use of any illicit drug has increased 20 percent, past- year use of marijuana is up 25 percent and past-year use of Ecstasy is up 36 percent” (MetLife Foundation, 2012). In a separate article by the NSDUH Report, they believe that it is important that we begin to address health and health care disparities experienced by Hispanics. The article states “Hispanics who needed substance use treatment were less likely than non-Hispanics to have received treatment at a specialty facility in the past year (9.0 vs. 10.5 percent)” (NSDUH Report, 2010). Both of these articles show that drug addiction among the Hispanic population is growing and we need better facilities to
Although this epidemic has been surging for the past 30 years, there has yet to have been an effective solution to drastically reduce the number of deaths and recurring addictions. The U.S. government has implemented different solutions, but the use of opioids still prevails. Even though drug use is criminalized in most places in the U.S., people are still continuing to use and abuse drugs. While many different approaches are hypothesized to stop the use of drugs, new forms of opioid use and problems seem to arise. There exists stigmas, stereotypes, and false information that have spread about drug use and addiction which hinders people's abilities to be able to understand and offer help to addicts and drug users.
As elaborated by Katelyn Newman, in her article ¨A Personal Look at a National Problem¨, the opioid epidemic in America is both severing family relationships and resulting in widespread suffering. In the aftermath of the historic increase of prescription drug abuse in the United States, as well as the opioid epidemic being deemed a national emergency by President Donald Trump, Newman brings to light the true impacts the crisis is having on the United States. By generalizing the population, expressing her words in a solemn tone, and through alternating between narrating and informing, Katelyn Newman calls all americans to be conscience of the opioid epidemic, and the effects it is having on the relationships between people within the United States.
When looking at a scholarly journal or other form of report pertaining to controlled substances, the theme is usually pretty clear; “drugs are bad, people that do drugs are bad, and it’s only getting worse.” Moore challenges this theme by breaking the mold in his article, “The Other Opioid Crisis” by implementing several rhetorical devices to add a more human aspect to the not so black-and-white issue. (Summary goes here) The article starts out with the story of a woman named Lauren Deluca.
Over the past few years, the addiction of heroin has increased due to varieties of reason in different communities across the United States. The majority of media attention is focused on suburban, white, middle-class heroin abusers, meaning that the majority of America’s effort and resources to end the Heroin Epidemic is mainly for the White Community. Resulting in a dramatic increase of deaths caused from Heroin overdose in the minority communities in the past seven years. In the article, “How the Heroin Epidemic Differs in Communities of Color” by Sarah Childress, mentions how certain minority communities lack medical access for Heroin overdose (e.g. Naloxone) and knowledge of laws to protect the drug users from incarceration, Maryland’s
There is little research on recovery treatment with effective outcomes for the Hispanic community. Having more research that focused on the Hispanic community and their needs as they participate in substance abuse treatment can be beneficial to inform counselors, agencies, and the general population on how to better serve the Hispanic community. To add up, Amaro et al. (2006) suggested that more funding should go to research dedicated to producing scientific evidence about treatment of substance use in the Hispanic community. In
During the late 1960 to early 1970, New York city struggling with the Drug laws, and so many pressures and negative affect around the whole city. The country filled with gloomy air and everyone looks depressed, it is a really tough time. In the 1971s, American president Richard Nixon announced that drug abuse as the number one enemy in the United states, he started a war on drugs, there was unprecedented in history and this policy still continues today. The drug war was a huge failure, bringing an unexpected and devastating effect. In the United States, nearly 90 percent of treatment-seeking patients who began using heroin in the previous decade were white, this is a big change from racial representation prior to the 1980s.
After all, since 1979, many changes were made, or at least suggested to be implemented into the country. “As noted, two decades ago Illinois became one of the first states to make the presence of illegal drugs in newborns prima facie evidence of abuse and neglect” (Testa, M. F., & Smith, B., 2009, para. 42). This is an example of an official law passed over an entire state that truly shows how far the nation is coming in the issues surrounding drug abuse. As more is discovered about drug abuse and the other issues that come along with it, there is more that is being done as a whole. Although that is just one specific side issue, there is also a voice being raised about the issue as a whole.
While Obamacare does include substance abuse as part of the ten essential health benefits, not every plan covers this service to the same extent and plans can offer different cost sharing on each. In the long run, ultimately leaving drug abuse up to the war on drugs not only criminalizes drug users but it does not support rehabilitation: especially inside the prisons themselves. In addition, drug prohibition has caused more violence in countries all over the world. Mexico, as stated above, has directly been impacted. With the war on drugs opening new horizons for drug cartels, the illegal immigration crisis becomes a byproduct of the drug war.
A social problem of great concern to me is the growing drug abuse problem. With drug abuse being such a prominent problem in today’s society it is everywhere you look and so many families are affected by it.
Amidst the ever-occurring tragedies that now seem to be part of our daily routine lies an ongoing affliction that tends to go unnoticed. Although it has been increasing drastically in the last few decades, substance abuse continues to fly under the radar of the average American citizen. Yet, for many of us, it is an unavoidable sight. As citizens of Seattle, we need to find a way to reach out to those that need our help.
Understanding the specific limitations that come with different cultural backgrounds is important in understanding the reasons why people fall into substance abuse or why people can’t leave substance use. For college students especially the implication of substance abuse is damaging to their mental and physical well-being and detrimental to academic performance. Along with family expectations and cultural norms, students dealing with substance abuse aren’t able to find a safe place to seek help causing more stress and difficulties. The limitations have also been opposed institutionally by diminishing the statistics of Asian Americans dealing with substance abuse into one category unable to see the real population of people in need. Prevention programs must be instilled to educate and help Asian parents with resources to increase awareness and encourage open discussion so that students that need help can seek help and others can be educated regarding substance abuse.
This statistics displays the true impact on the Native youth caused by drug abuse, and the true urgency needed in solving this ever growing issue.
This article addresses the possible factors as to why Latino Americans have reported to be underutilizing treatments and responding poorly to treatments for substance use and abuse compared to other racial/ethnic groups in the United States. The main objective for the study was to assess the influence of family conflict on the substance abuse treatment response in a sample of Latino Americans by using two different analyses. Research has shown that substance use among Latino Americans is lower than the national average. However, they also indicated that Latino Americans are more likely to participate in risky behaviors and experience disproportional levels of consequences from the use of substances compared to other racial/ethnic groups such
It does not solve any issues, rather it develops more problems in the long term. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 21.5 million American adults (aged 12 and older) battled a substance use disorder in 2014. It is crucial in understanding that othering drug addicts is the same as turning your back on the community. Twenty-two million Americans cannot be simply ignored, and empathy is the first step in getting drug users out of their trance and back to reality. Sometimes it may be difficult to battle the temptation alone.
This article" without a plan to tackle addiction, you're not qualified to be president" was posted online with the Huffington post, October 22, 2015. Patrick R krill quotes " the title says it all". Journalist Patrick krill touches on his concerns about the overwhelming widespread disease that's known as addiction and has farmed individual dreams as well as their future, especially the American youth. As a result 9 out of 10 Americans touched on using drugs prior to the age of 18, furthermore 1 out of 4 became dependent. According to Patrick these individuals that struggle with addiction that touches on every inch of the economy, natrium security, civil rights,family,education which Patrick covers in the article to inform his readers.