Introduction
Substance abuse is the excessive use of something that if taken in large amounts becomes addictive. Excessive usage of these substances leads to one becoming addicted to the substance and therefor has adverse effects on the user and the society at large. Today, the most commonly used and abused substances are alcohol, marijuana, and methamphetamine. These substances, if one is not careful or uses them without limits, can have grave effects on the user and the society (Gavin, 2004).
What then is the distinction between marijuana, alcohol, and methamphetamine
Methamphetamine is a powerful stimulant. It is mainly taken by sports personalities who are recovering from an injury are their services to the rest of the team are needed urgently. Its abuse is the excess usage of the stimulant that has made the sportsperson or any other person using it an addict. Unlike alcohol and marijuana, methamphetamine is not recommended for medical usage at any point. Alcohol abuse on the other hand is a psychiatric diagnosis. It normally describes the use of alcoholic beverages despite negative consequences. The excess use of alcoholic beverages also leading to addiction is referred to as alcoholism, the victim being an alcoholic. Finally, marijuana is a green, brown, or grey mixture of dried, shredded leaves, stems, seeds, and flowers of the hemp plant. There are many other slang names for marijuana used all over. The biological name, however, is cannabis Sativa while the chemical one is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) (Ianston, 2007).
Social effects of the substances
The continued use of marijuana is associated with respiratory infections, loss of memory, panic, anxiety, and increased chance of lungs and respiratory cancer. This can lead to adverse effects to society like lowered education performance due to poor memory, increased government expenditure in meeting the health care of the addicts, and increased accidents. On the other hand, methamphetamine will cause stroke, cardiac arrhythmia, high blood pressure, hallucination, weight loss, and paranoid psychosis. This will make society spend so much in trying to help the addicts. The addicts are also likely to cause more accidents to themselves and others due to the state of hallucination. Alcohol abusers are likely to engage in promiscuous behavior which can play part in the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, more accidents due to affected coordination, suicidal tendencies due to depression, health complications, financial problems, and poor family relations. This might be passed to the other generations as some research suggests the high chances of alcohol users to pass the trait to their children. (Heath, 2005).
One common effect of the substances is the fact that they all lead to addiction if taken excessively. Addiction is a continual, relapse ailment, characterized by obsessive remedy seeking and medicine use which accompany a molecular and useful change in the brain. This leads to low productivity levels experienced by the addict. This affects the general society in one way or another. Failure by one member of the society to reach his/her potential in performing his/her roles makes the society less productive than it should be (Heath, 2005).
Another effect of the substances is that they make the users and abusers behave in violent manners. The relatives and partners of the addicts have regularly complained of violent behaviors and assaults from their partners. Parents have also complained that their children who have engaged in the activities have become violent and some have even complained of abuse.
Some of these drugs affect the physical performance of individuals. Marijuana and alcohol have received the majority of the blame for this. Research has shown that many of the couples in the US that are victims of divorce put the blame squarely on alcohol abuse. Those that are yet to go through divorce have blamed alcohol for affecting their performance in bed. The chemical composition of many of these substances does not go well with the biological makeup of the human body. Some of them affect the cells in the human body (Kelly, 2005).
Conclusion
All in all, substance abuse affects society in one way or the other. Whether or not it is affected directly, the fact remains that the problem will come back to bite society if it is not taken care of. So long as one person in the society is affected, the whole society is affected either socially or economically.
References
- Gavin, C. Love. (2004). A learner’s permit for drinking. Morgan Hill Times.
- Heath, Dwight B., and Hanson, David J. (2005). The misguided prohibition that governs U.S. colleges. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2005, 47(48), p. B14.
- Ianston M. (2007) Medical Use of Methamphetamine. New York: New York University Press.
- Kelly, A. (2005). Marijuana Usage In The US, Baltimore. Craig and Paterson Publishers.