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There are quite many definitions of drug and substance use. According to Adrian (2013), drug abuse and substance use is defined as the usage of psychoactive substances, that is, substances that impact on the mood and general mental functioning. Mental functioning refers to reality testing, perceptions, responses, decision making, judgments and actions. Drugs do not only refer to the illegal substances, but also includes the legal ones such as alcohol, tobacco, pharmaceuticals and coffee. Pharmaceutical substances are those given as medical prescriptions such as, tranquilizers, stimulants and sedatives, but people use them in contexts other than medical purposes or for recreation.
Some of the illegal substances that are highly abused today are cocaine, heroin and bhang. The bodies of the users of these addictive and pharmaco-active substances, over time, adjust to their effects until they take overdoses to experience the effect (Dyer, 2016). They eventually develop dependence where the body adjusts psychologically to their presence, without which they cannot function properly. At this stage, any attempts to stop using the drugs lead to psychological, physiological and withdrawal effects that challenge the addict from stopping using them (Adrian, 2013).
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Obtaining most of the illegal substances is quite challenging, and addicted people find illicit ways of acquiring them such as through robberies, muggings, black markets or burglaries (Adrian, 2013). When on influence of these drugs, users tend to act in inappropriate ways, where such behaviors impact on the social lives of other people such as friends, colleagues and families, and consequently lead to social problems in work places, homes, or reduction in performance.
Theorists have developed ideas and concepts that can be used to explain the persistence of drug abuse.
In understanding the persistence of the social problem of drug and substance abuse, the ideas of Emile Durkheim are most useful, especially the concepts of anomie and collective effervescence. Durkheim developed the collective effervescence idea when investigating the religious rituals in Australia and their totemic beliefs. This concept describes the feelings that a group experiences in the verge of these rituals (Spector, 2014). While in those religious assemblies, the people undertook actions and acquire sentiments that, on their own, would never embrace. What is distinctive to their personality is completely left behind, as their identities are merged to a common clan image (Ritzer, 2010). The second concept of Emile Durkheim which can help understand drug and substance abuse is “anomie”. Durkheim outlined the effects of labor division and industrialization on integration of the society. The societal norms were comprised of collective conscience that, although not written, was universally understood as acceptable behavior and moral ethics code, and which maintained the community life.
In the modern world, these concepts of collective effervescence and state of anomie can be applied in the concept of social problems caused by drug and substance abuse. Drug and substance abuse has filled the society with individuals whose character is oppressive and manipulative, making humans lack a life of positive relationship centered to the societal norms. It is like Durkheim foresaw the social problem of drug and substance abuse, that emanate from the modern society anomic state combined with hunger of individuals living in such a state for the collective effervescence powerful experiences. Drugs have affected the social structure of families and friends, leaving individuals suffering due to loneliness and experiencing sense of powerlessness.
Despite losing the guideposts that are provided by the concept of collective conscience, most drug addicts have lost connections with the community that gave them the chances of experiencing collective effervescence rituals. During these periods when the society undergoes a social change, there prevails s disorganized social state where the rules and social norms are completely weakened as explained by Merton (2008). The way in which people view behavior and common rules is broken, and what prevails is the anomie outlined by Durkheim. In this state of anomie, the victim experiences a sense of being disengaged from the community, and they lose the psyche of complying with normative behavior. In the verge of loneliness, emptiness, and lacking firmly set norms of the society and a community to protect and guide them, most of them fall into drug’s promises of euphoria (Ritzer, 2010). It is in that subculture of drugs where the individuals get solidarity and a community sense.
People with high levels of drug and substance abuse lack social structures which are developed and presence of social norms. This is because drugs alter the thinking ability of the brain, leading to uniformed behaviors which break the collective effervescence of the community. Most people tend to isolate such people, whether friends, families or work mates, leaving them lost and lonely. It is this state where they completely lose the motivation to be guided by the set norms and rules, and end up succumbing more into the euphoria promises of drugs.
The Social Dynamics of Drug and Substance Abuse. (2024, Jan 25). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/the-social-dynamics-of-drug-and-substance-abuse-essay
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