The documentary ‘The Drugging of our Children’ by Gary Null is a learning piece that enlightens the society on the dangers of some of the prescribed drugs. Children are often diagnosed with behavioral disorders with ADD and ADHD being the most common ones. Medications are then prescribed and the common ones being abused are Ritalin and Prozac. Pharmaceutical companies and governments have made huge profits from treating diseases that do not exist. The side effects of these drugs are not analyzed fully because people no longer read the drug packages. The side effects could include development of new disorders and becoming addicted to the drug. The worst case scenario is if the children are diagonized with having behavioral disorders when they don’t. In this case the children do not need the drugs but it is given to them by force.
In the documentary, different case studies related to this problem are reviewed. These case studies include children who were not well diagonized and ended up taking prescription drugs that were not necessary. It also has case studies of children experiencing learning disorders and going through allergies. Over prescribed drugs include Prozac, Ritalin and other similar drugs. As a result, children who take such medications have halkycinatikns, become violent and suffer from depression. Columbian shooter, Eric Harris was under the medication of a drug almost same as Prozac. He held hostages at gun point in his class. The documentary starts with Harris explaining the event as he was under the medication of psychotropic drugs. In another case, a child was taken by protective services because the mother was accused of negligence concerning the child’s medication. Testimonies provided in this film are scary but they also provide awareness to the viewer (Null, 2005).
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Null explains that years back people were not using such kind of drugs but the prescription and use of such drugs by children has risen tremendously. The disease is even referred to as being genetic. Instead of prescribing these drugs, children should be checked with reference to other issues such as environmental factors, video games and television. Another person who speaks in the film is Michael Moore who explains that pharmaceuticals companies convince people to treat children for being children. Other interviews from professionals reveal that pharmaceutical companies do not reveal facts and data and convince professionals through paying them off. This causes negative consequences on the users such as killing the people around them and even death for some of them. Professionals explain that in most cases the children do not require the drugs because it is normal behavioral changes since they are still growing up. Parents are threatened with jail if they attempt to withdraw their children from such medications (Null, 2005).
Drug problem in America has increased relatively since the 1990s and is quite common in the society. It is more common among young adults and adolescents but the habit decreases as they grow. It has been noted that prescription drugs have increasingly become misused by most people in the recent years. Marijuana is the number one most abused drug in America while prescribed drugs are the second most abused drugs. Drug abuse of prescription medications has received a lot of attention recently because of the increasing number of young adults abusing it (Schulden et al., 2009).
Drug problem in America goes beyond the abuse of illegal drugs such as heroin and cocaine as prescribed drugs are also abused and addicted to. Use of illegal drugs and prescribed drugs all pose a risk of addiction. In the end, it causes both economic and societal problems (Caulkins et al., 2005). Drug problem associated with prescribed drugs is on the rise in the United States. More and more people are becoming addicted to these drugs. Drug abuse arising from use of prescribed drugs is affecting the children in the society. The American society has become dependent on the use of pills to solve every issue and everything. This issue has led to unintentional drug overdoses. Such medicines have become easily available to children in homes or from people who acquired prescription from a doctor. Many have opted for prescription drugs in the recent years as compared to Marijuana. This has affected children and their future, thus, affecting society as a whole (Hall et al., 2010).
Healthcare providers may be the reason as to why there is an increase in abuse of prescribed drugs among them is the association with undesirable social effects. The quality of life due to addiction and side effects is reduced as the health care costs are also increased. Addiction to prescribed drugs have an impact on the users of the drugs. They develop a variety of risk factors such as the users might develop delinquent behaviors and psychiatric disorders. Among school going children it may affect the performance leading to a drop in the performance levels. A user may develop violent behavior which affects his or her interpersonal relations. Experts assert that there is a positive relationship between the rise of prescriptions to these drugs and the abuse of prescribed drugs. The rate of abuse of prescribed drugs is high in the American society causing more problems to the younger generation especially college students. Disorders arising from prescription drug use continue to grow at a higher rate and can be compared to disorders from other substance abuse (McHugh et al., 2014).
The society has become more aware of the problem concerning prescribed drug abuse. As a result, stigma from the society has been replaced by understanding that the person may or may not be struggling to get over addiction. Due to the increasing number of people addicted to drugs, the society has gained more experience in dealing with such people other than stigmatization. Drug problems have impacted the society in general. It has led to an increase in law enforcement efforts in order to curb increased crime rates. Individuals involved in substance abuse are more likely to cause crime and pose a risk to the society (Hall et al., 2010). The case in Null’s documentary film perfectly portrays the risk posed by substance abusers whereby a high school student after taking a prescribed drug found himself in juvenile because he held his classmates captive at gun point (Null, 2005). This shows that it is not only the individual suffering from drug abuse that is affected, rather, the whole community feels the effects of having more and more people drowning in addiction.
Disorders arising from drug use poses a risk to the public health sector of the American society. The individuals become unable to carry out some activities and some of them end up not reporting to their work places (Schulden et al., 2009). According to Hall et al. (2010), there is reduction in productivity when more people start abusing drugs. This affects the society as even learning outcome in schools is reduced as more students become addicts. Employment is also affected as these people cannot do much in their state. A lot of money is used in covering for health care provision for the affected individuals which would otherwise have been saved or used for other purposes. The whole American society is affected by the drug problem being experienced.
Drug use affect the users because it eventually leads to addiction. Drug users are a burden to the society as the period within which they abuse drugs stretches to unlimited period of time. Most of them become involved in criminal activities in order to be able to support their drug use habits. This becomes a social problem because insecurity levels will become high. Violence associated with drug use is mostly because of controlling wealth in the market. This kind of lifestyle attracts the young adults who might end up joining these groups of people. Therefore, more young adults find new careers in the criminal world and end up destroying their future and education. Other users may commit murders when they are on those drugs. This affects the society because it will continue losing productive young adults to addiction and crime. Users recruit more users forming a social cycle which depends upon drugs destabilizing the societal links. The employment rates are also affected as more people turn to the drugs.
How the society deals with this issue will help in shaping the future of the American society. If there is implementation of effective interventions, it will result to a reduction in the number of people being associated with substance abuse. Lack or ineffective strategies to curb drug problem in America will only result in more people perishing under drug problems. The worst case scenario is that the young adults in America are the most affected by the drug problem. Interventions and education will save the future of the young adults. This will positively impact on the economic and societal future of America.
Hall et al. (2010), provides estimates of interventions that were implemented in America. The authors explain that 8% of the youth would have avoided smoking and 30.2% would have avoided using cocaine with the implementation of educational interventions. With such figures the country would be moving towards making the society better and solve the drug problem. In order to solve the drug problem, the nation needs to adopt educational programs in the community. The community needs to be sensitized and educated on the issue of drug problem and how everyone can be part of solving the problem. Treatment of individuals who have been addicted to the drugs and making follow-up efforts will help in setting their future. Long-term based approaches are effective in dealing with the drug problem wholly.
Drug problem has already shaped the future of America because relevant agencies and the government need to have more effective interventions. It will force the government to adopt integrated approaches towards human behavioral study in order to shape the future of the American society. Drug use disorders will be solved if the trans-disciplinary approaches are adopted by the relevant agencies. Connection between drug use and social and environmental factors need to be assessed in order to approach the drug problem from every angle. Evaluating risk domains associated with substance use such as social environment and individual susceptibility lay a foundation for shaping a better future with regards to drug abuse (Schulden et al., 2009). A Strong foundation for dealing with the drug problem will also lead to a long lasting solution to the drug problem in America.
Efforts by the government to deal with the drug problems have not been effective. This explains why still the number of people getting involved is still increasing at an alarming rate. Having a society free of drugs is impossible and that is why interventions put in place have not been successful. The government should not hold a policy that is based having a society free of drugs. Instead efforts to solve the drug problem should focus on reducing its availability while making it less desirable to the population exploiting it. Availability of the drug is what makes the drug more famous among the young adults (Caulkins et al., 2005). The American society still has a long way to go because the drug problem currently is very high as compared to the previous years.
References
Caulkins, J., Reuter, P., Iguchi, M.Y., & Chiesa, J. (2005). How Goes the “War on Drugs”?: An Assessment of U.S. Drug Problems and Policy. Retrieved from https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/occasional_papers/2005/RAND_OP121.pdf
Hall, B., Hawkinberry, D., & Moyers-Scott, P. (2010). Prescription Drug Abuse & Addiction: Past, Present and Future: The Paradigm for an Epidemic . Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8baf/b1b494f30686c07f78468d1c804812a11fb2.pdf
McHugh, R.K., Nielsen, S., & Weiss, D.R. (2014). Prescription Drug Abuse: From Epidemiology to Public Policy . Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4250400/
Null, G. (Director), & Loudon, M. (Director). (2005). The Drugging of our Children . United States: Gary Null & Associates.
Schulden, J.D.,Thomas, F.Y., &Wilson M. Compton, W.M. (2009). Substance Abuse in the United States: Findings from Recent Epidemiologic Studies . Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3144502/
