Essay Sample: Ethical Lens of the Drug Epidemic

Drug abuse is a mental health issue in America. Now more than ever across the united states, the rapid influx in drug overdoses has been more apparent. The war on drugs has continued now for more than half a century. An estimated one hundred thousand people have died from drug overdoses in the united states from May 2020 to 2021, according to Shane Darke with the society of the study of addiction “Characteristic and circumstances of death related to self-administration of ketamine.”  Yet the government's method of criminalizing the drug use itself has resulted in 137,000 Men and women behind bars for drug possession, leaving them and their lives ruined.  Paulomi M. Sudhir with the department of clinical psychology(NIMHANS) their article introduces mindful approaches to relapse prevention, meaning teaching patients to manage negative experiences. Their mental health worsened as they were not being adequately treated for their substance abuse leading them to the same behaviors out of prison as expressed in the Article ( US; Disastrous Toll of criminalizing drug use.).  Drug addiction in modern society has always been a subdued subject throughout history. The public perception and understanding of drug addicts have developed through a negative lens and stigma. The new method endorses educating addicts alternatively so they build their self-sufficient processes to prevent relapse when challenged with harmful incidents and emotional breakthroughs. This type of rehabilitation is crucial to having real change because the basis is that these patients are often misunderstood and the research proves that there are more characteristics of childhood traumas and incidents that cause substance abuse in adulthood, as emphasized in the article by Emily M. Zarse ”The adverse childhood experiences questionnaire…” 

The understanding of severely substance dependent :

With so many complex solutions to the drug epidemic and why people are using and dying, the answer lies in mental health identification. In the article by Milad Parpouchi, “Multivariable modeling of factors associated with criminal convictions among people experiencing homelessness and serious mental illness: a multi-year study” the results from their study conclude this pattern that people living on the streets have a past of poverty, social marginalization, and crisis involving mental illness. Simply whats discovered in many of these researches is unresolved mental issues that leave people coping with illicit substances and use, then over time, entire dependence to not be ill. Morally what's not seen by just getting people off the street is that these people are escaping the world for what the world has done to them and simply incarcerating them. Housing them to get them off the street is not the solution because they continue using the systems. 

Problems and the root of those problems are deep inside. People say it's a choice, but it is not a choice. So many testify you cant simply put your substance down and stop. There is so much more to delivering real help.

States have legalized illicit recreational substances, drugs are in fashion, in stores and accessories, and the internet and movies have romanticized drug use. The overall concern is that substance use and abuse have skyrocketed in the last five years, despite our government promising to bring it down. Most detrimental is the rise of substance dependence. Addicts are not being understood here. Stigma, punishment, and misunderstanding continue. Research is proving now that drug dependence is a mental illness. People who are substance-dependent people are not in control of their bodies anymore. Only through therapy understanding patients' state of mind is a suitable method to help. 

Results of the studies (Examing Relationships between Gender Opioid Dependence and Distress Tolerance among Patients in Substance Use Disorder Treatment. Illicit substances lead to their addictions, substances such as natural opioid analgesics (morphine), synthetic (e.g.methadone), semi-synthetic opioid analgesics (oxycodone), and Heroin. These substances are shown to have the most painful withdrawal symptoms because of the concentrations of dopamine effects. Essentially, the body can not function properly without such chemicals.  (Heroin Overdose, Shane Darke, SSA)

According to the study, 11 million people misused prescription opioids, an additional 948000 used heroin, and 2.1 million people were diagnosed with opioid use disorder (OUD; substance abuse and Mental health Services Administration 2017). the influx in users in the past years, the amount of money the government has used on the drug epidemic, transparent who's won the war on drugs. For the lives of these people dying and for the more that will come if the system does not find success. Lives that victims could have saved but are misunderstood. 

Furthermore, in the research, there is a considerable theme in many of the studies that these new modes of treatment, such as how exactly childhood characteristics of abuse and pstd lead to disrupted self-worth and stress management resulting in more drug abuse as a means to cope (Examining Perceived stress, childhood trauma, and interpersonal trauma in individuals with Drug addiction; Julia Garomi et, al. psychological reports 2019) moreover whats referred and concentrated on is this theory that severity of childhood psychiatric disorders, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and physical neglect were significantly discovered to be very common among opioid-dependent patients (Garomi et, al. psychological reports 2019) agreeing with that statement was found in the article (Pathways to change : use trajectories following trauma informed treatment of women with co occuring  post- traumatic stress disorder and subdtance use disorders Teresa lopez,2015) because results of the study that they implemented on victiums of ptsd who have substance abuse disoreder, their results s where that more than after of yera of being treated for their ptsd mental rruama their usage was non to zero because of the mental health treatment aspect of ptsd. A research study on Australian prisoners presented information on the results of a questionnaire. More abuse neglect incidents led to increased levels of drug use and suicidal ideation(frestad asebunte kjsberg, 2014), so many critical issues with the systems solutions. Conclusion.

The world has changed, and more influences cause relapse. Everyone has their reasons for getting into bad habits. But the united states is in a tragedy; from April 2020 to 2021, one hundred thousand three hundred and six people have died from overdoses (CDC 2021), and it is not right to let it continue. Thus awareness and understanding are crucial in refining substance abuse treatments for people who need them. Those in authority are responsible for making a change to the current implements. As for substance abusers, may god pray for them because, in the end, it is about loving and living with yourself.