Psychoactive substances are known to affect behavior. Different substances have a range of various possible effects on different people. The same substance can affect different people differently (Abadinsky, 2014, p. 28). Moreover, in two separate cases, the same person may be affected differently by the same drug. However, a lot of efforts have been made to define general effects of drug use on behavior, particularly criminal and violent behavior. Studies show that drug use, in fact, is connected to crime and violence, but exploring this connection is complicated.
The correlation between drug use and crime has been the subject of numerous researches within recent decades. Various studies of drug use among criminals as well as of crime among drug users were aimed at defining causal links between the two things. As a result, most researchers agree nowadays that there is no clear cause-and-effect correlation and that the “question of whether crime is a pre-drug-use or post-drug-use phenomenon is actually an oversimplification” (Abadinsky, 2014, p. 11). However, drug use or addiction can shape inclinations to crime. Goldstein (1985) points out three types of drug-use effects on criminal behavior: pharmacological (crimes under the influence of intoxication), economic-compulsive (crimes for obtaining money for drugs), and lifestyle (criminal behavior induced by the environment of drug users).
A particular issue in this area is whether or not drug use promotes violence. Based on a literature review and own experience of being a parole officer, Abadinsky (2014) asserts that drug users and addicts are more disposed to commit violent acts. It is also noted that the drug distribution subculture is “permeated with extreme levels of violence” (Abadinsky, 2014, p. 12). Although different psychoactive substances have different effects on people in terms of inducing aggression, many street drugs, including cocaine, heroin, and PCP, have been confirmed to cause violence. Also, according to Abadinsky (2014), alcohol is a factor in approximately 40 percent of violent crimes in the United States.
However, even if drug use is chemically proven and sociologically observed to stimulate aggression, there is still the challenge of attributing particular violent acts to intoxication. Studies show that, in many cases, criminals consumed alcohol or cocaine to gain courage and disinhibition to commit crimes that they had planned before (Abadinsky, 2014), which might or might not mean that they would have committed those crimes even without the influence of intoxication. The impossibility to state conclusively that drug use leads to violence suggests the necessity of a different approach. Abadinsky (2014) proposes that, instead of attempting to define the impact of drug use on crime or crime on drug use, researchers should focus on the impact of environmental and biological variables on drug use and crime.
An important aspect of the relationship between drug use and crime is that people who have illegal drugs in their possession are technically criminals already. The criminalization of drug use creates environments that predispose these people to disregard the law in general, increasing the risk for drug users to commit other crimes, including violent ones. Besides, the effect of intoxication in many cases is an increased level of aggression. However, I think it is very important that researches in the area of drug use and crime recognize that there are other social and psychological factors that drive the same people into addiction, and into violence. I believe that this recognition is particularly significant for the study of drug use.
Drug Use Effects on the Central Nervous System
The Central Nervous System (CNS) of humans consists of the brain and the spinal cord. The brain contains 10 billion to 50 billion neurons, i.e. cells that exchange information in the form of signals. This is where everything about the way our bodies function is controlled and regulated. The control and regulation are exercised through releasing particular chemicals that launch and govern various processes in our organisms. Some of these processes are responsible for our mood, desires, motivation, determination, etc. Psychoactive substances are able to intervene in those processes, altering the ways a person feels and acts. To understand this alteration, it is necessary to explore how these processes work and how they are affected by drug use, which will provide evidence for the discussion of legality or illegality of particular drugs.
One of the most important survival mechanisms in humans is that actions aimed at staying alive or reproducing are rewarded. The so-called reward circuit in our CNS generates pleasure when we fulfill surviving functions like assuaging our hunger or quenching our thirst. The pleasure we thus gain teaches us to repeat such actions. The communication within the reward system is performed through neurotransmitters, a specific kind of chemicals, one of which, dopamine, participates in shaping our mood and motivation. The release of dopamine makes one feel good and accomplished. The lack of dopamine causes depression and unwillingness to do anything (Abadinsky, 2014). Dopamine is important for the proper functioning of an organism as a whole.
Although various psychoactive substances may have many different psychological and physiological effects on humans, the common feature is that these substances intervene in the reward circuit. They imitate neurotransmitters to overstimulate the reward system, thus gaining pleasure and satisfaction for the drug user (Abadinsky, 2014). There are two main consequences. First, a compulsion develops to take the drug again. The reason is that the initial meaning of rewarding is teaching to repeat actions. Second, the overstimulation of pleasure centers disrupts their normal functioning. When a person gets addicted, the natural release of dopamine decreases as it is replaced by the effects of drug use. Therefore, when the person stops taking the drug, they are likely to experience depression.
There is an ongoing debate on which psychoactive substances should be legal and which should not, based on their effects on the organism. In many countries, the possession and sale of cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and LSD are crimes, while alcohol and nicotine are sold without any or with significantly lesser restrictions. Abadinsky (2014) stresses that, although the laws may distinguish between legal and illegal drugs, “biology recognizes no such distinction” (p. 3). Kleinman (1992) points out that, in terms of addiction and overdose risks, alcohol and nicotine are as much of drugs as heroin and cocaine. The legality of drugs is thus a discussion that goes beyond physiological considerations.
Drug use disturbs the natural processes of gaining pleasure in human organisms. It causes addiction and, when the consumption is discontinued, withdrawal. Drug use creates a kind of artificial happiness, which makes a person miserable when the drug influence is over. I believe that this knowledge is important and should be spread so that more people who use drugs understand what those drugs do to them. I do not think that banning some psychoactive substances altogether, while imposing no restrictions on other ones, is a smart policy. The debate on drugs should go on, involving governments and societies, as well as taking into consideration the scientific knowledge.
References
Abadinsky, H. (2014). Drug Use and Abuse: A Comprehensive Introduction, 8th Edition. Web.
Goldstein, P. J. (1985). The drugs/violence nexus: A tripartite conceptual framework. Journal of Drug Issues, 15(4), 493-506.
Kleinman, M. A. (1992). Against excess: Drug policy for results. New York, NY: Basic Books.