Misuse & Abuse

Names of Drugs

Prevalence

Why?

Lifestyles

Ticket to Join

Economics

Photo Gallery

Links&Books

Acknowledgement

 

Why Misuse and Abuse?

The main reasons people misuse and abuse drugs are:
1) for pleasure, as stress or tension relief, or temporary escape
2) as a means to join specific groups and
3) for economic reasons.

Lifestyles

Pleasure seeking behavior is the main cause thats lead young adults and adults, inside and outside America, to abuse and misuse drugs. Why do people need to seek more pleasure these days? Is it because the current generation inherits pressure-seeking genes more than ever in human evolution, or because these genes mutated to make humans fun-loving creatures more than ever? Probably not. If we have to blame one thing for the current history of young adults and adults being victims or slaves of drugs such as opiates, amphetamines and brain-depressants, it is the nature of the lifestyles people adopt today.

People in America work a lot more than they did previously, and the environment--at home, school or work--is always stress-filled and fast-paced. The mentality of modern people is that they must have something to do every single second, besides sleeping time. To keep up with the uniform fast pace of the whole of society, people need to be active, alert, and even over-energized all the time. "In America, the cars run on high-octane gas, the computers run on nanosecond circuits, and the people run on pills. Speed is essential."[1]

I therefore claim that this busy lifestyle itself is the primary cause of the misuse and abuse of drugs. The standard of living might become higher and offer plenty of luxuries, but the core value of society--whether the people living in it are happy and mentally healthy--is declining over time. People overlook the downside of being busy, such as that family members cannot spend time with each other anymore, and that parents and children, employers and employees, doctors and patients, show less care and attention to each other. The more people work, and the more people try to raise their standards of living with material goods, the higher the intensity of stress will be over time, and people are more likely to feel a void or emptiness when they are not occupied with anything. As long as being busy is a status symbol of modern life, and as long as people take pride in saying "I'm a very busy person," drug problems will be inevitable, because busy people will do drugs to forget about their daily repetitive routine, and people who do not find love and care in their environment will seek pleasure from drugs. Living situations, or how people choose to live their lives in this era, initiate and maintain the indulgence and overindulgence in drugs.[2]

[1] Gail S. 1971. Speed Is of the Essence. New York: Pocket Books. pp: 59. back

[2] Robins, L. N., Helzer, J.E., and Davis, D. H. 1975. Narcotic use in Southesat Asian and aftermath, Arch. Gen. Psychiat. pp: 32, 955, back