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The study of drug abuse has always been prominent in the study of law. Many booklets, articles, serious textbooks, and monographs are devoted to narcotics. It is as hard to cover all aspects of the problem, even in the most profound study, as it is to establish absolute truth, especially, since reality keeps creating new problems all the time.
The key solution lies in the need to pool international efforts in eradicating drug addiction and narco-business. In the present-day world with its integration processes it is impossible to do away with drug addiction in any one country. Yet there is no way for the world community to regard itself free from the problem even at a time when drugs will be a peril only in one particular country. An intensive and continuous buildup of the world community's joint effort against narcotics is a top priority objective of the world at large.
Chapter 1. Concept, Manifestations and Tendencies of Drug Abuse
1. The Concept and Manifestation of Drug Abuse
Sociologists, lawyers and medical experts single out three basic aspects of drug abuse: social, legal and medical.
These aspects are interconnected and interdependent and reveal the diverse nature of drug abuse. Moreover one can also point out the criminological, economic and ecological aspects.
To highlight the entire multiplicity of this phenomenon, it is necessary to go beyond the widespread notion of "drug addiction" because strictly speaking it applies only to the medical or biological aspects of drug use being viewed exclusively as a disease without covering social, legal and some other aspects. This is why the notion "drug abuse" rather than "drug addiction" is used in juridical literature as a much wider term covering social, legal and other aspects. So, drug abuse is understood as a "social phenomenon" which combines such illegal actions as willful consumption of narcotics, dealing in narcotics illegally, as well as solicitation to use drugs, creating the conditions for becoming a part of illegal drug trafficking.
This definition is acceptable on the whole and may be used as a basis for describing the phenomenon, yet it fails to cover the biological aspect and insufficiently expresses the economic, legal and criminological aspects.
There is a need for a term that would cover all the aspects of this negative phenomenon, and of the ways of combating it.
Social Aspects of Drug Abuse:
Most concisely, the social aspect of drug abuse can be described as a combination of social behaviors linked to narcotics and their social consequences in the form of damage that has been done and can be done to society.
The actual negative social manifestations of drug abuse are expressed in various drug-related actions: cultivation of drug bearing plants, preparation, acquisition, storage, sale and consumption of narcotics, as well as persuasion to use narcotics.
Negative Social Consequences of Drug Abuse:
The negative social consequences of drug abuse are similar to the social consequences of crime. They amount to "real harm caused by crime to social relationships and expressed in the cause-and-effect combination of criminal behavior and in the direct and indirect, immediate and mediate negative changes (damage, losses, and other ill effects), ultimately affecting the social (economic, moral, legal, etc.) Values and also implying the combination of society's economic and other social hazards attributed to the effort to combat and to socially prevent crime.
Proceeding from this definition it is possible to recognize the negative social consequences of drug abuse. The first is the negative social changes, such as harm to people's health, the destruction of family foundations, and a decline in work efficiency. The second is the cost which society has to pay to overcome these changes. Other changes also include refusal to work, various antisocial actions, and crime. A closer look at these negative changes shows that drug addicts are poor workers because of their ill health, which, in general, makes work impossible for them during spells of abstinence. Their entire range of interests and thoughts lies in the desire to find ways of obtaining drugs. The list of negative changes also includes material damage perpetrated by the drug addicts who are often the source of transportation accidents and accidents in industry. For example, 60 billion dollars worth of damage is done annually in the United States alone. There is also the moral damage resulting from the various unlawful actions motivated by the desire to find means for buying drugs, such as the willingness to commit crime for the sake of meeting that desire. Forgery, embezzlement, abuse of authority and office duties is just a few. Drug addicts create unbearable conditions for their families by denying them normal lifestyles and means of existence. They harm their offspring by upsetting the hereditary stock. Drug addicts undergo physical and moral degradation and die early. They destroy their own basic moral and ethical values.
Реферат опубликован: 14/12/2009