Drug addiction affects the brain and behavior of a person, causing total independence of the drug despite the harms that come with its use. Over the past years, America has been fighting drug addiction in vain. Drug trade continues and is on the rise, resulting in increased crime and violence. A lot of money has been spent on the war on drugs which now, focuses on the criminalization of drug use ( Mohammad, & Fulkerson, 2015) . Treating drug addiction as a crime rather than a medical issue has contributed to the failure of the project. A report from the Global Commission on drugs stated that the war has continuously failed, affecting individuals and societies globally. Society needs to understand that addiction is a medical issue and persons undergoing this need counseling, treatment, and education. The state should focus on ensuring education on the effects and prevention of drug abuse instead of spending billions on law enforcement.
Continued use of drugs has affected moral principles, threatening public safety in society. Drug addicts are more likely to indulge in risk-taking behaviors, resulting in violence, burglary, and immoralities in the society. This causes the society to view them as a threat, and therefore discriminate, and stigmatize them. Unfortunately, society secludes and treats these people as criminals instead of helping them in their struggle for addiction.
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Opioid addiction has had a devastating impact on children and families ( Vadivelu, Kai, Kodumudi, Sramcik, & Kaye, 2018) . Opioids are prescribed to help people with chronic conditions but people seem to misuse them due to the euphoric feeling they get upon consuming them. Expectant mothers who are opioid addicts endanger their fetuses due to nutritional neglect caused by opioid abuse, which in turn, results in birth defects. Families with parents that are opioid abusers are often unstable and apart. Opioid addiction creates a hostile environment even to children due to violence and disputes between parents and family members. This causes fear and depression, especially for children.
Unlike criminalization which has been a complete failure on the fight against drug addiction, harm reduction, has been a great success. The project focuses mainly on reducing the spread of the disease by helping addicts recover through a range of public health options. Among other harm reduction strategies set by the American government is the Medication-assisted treatment program which aims at assisting in weaning off opioid addicts from its use. Under this is the opioid replacement strategy which involves the substitution of illegal opioids, with legal ones that are less euphoric and less sedative ( Hawk, Vaca, & D’Onofrio, 2015) . Some patients get used to the replacement drug and stick to it, hence curbing the mortality rate problem that arises due to overdose of illegal opioids. Medication-assisted treatment together with other harm reduction strategies has made a great impact in the fight against drug addiction. Research shows that the significant reduction in cases of drug abuse has been brought about by the government's strategies on harm reduction and not incarceration and criminalization.
References
Mohammad, F., & Fulkerson, G. (2015). The “war on drugs”: a failed paradigm. In New Approaches to Drug Policies (pp. 229-249). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Vadivelu, N., Kai, A. M., Kodumudi, V., Sramcik, J., & Kaye, A. D. (2018). The opioid crisis: a comprehensive overview. Current pain and headache reports , 22 (3), 16.
Hawk, K. F., Vaca, F. E., & D’Onofrio, G. (2015). Focus: Addiction: Reducing fatal opioid overdose: Prevention, treatment and harm reduction strategies. The Yale journal of biology and medicine , 88 (3), 235.
Pfaff, J. F. (2015). The war on drugs and prison growth: limited importance, limited legislative options. Harv. J. on Legis. , 52 , 173.
Drucker, E., & Crofts, N. (2017). Are we anywhere near there yet? The state of harm reduction in North America in 2017.
