We all know that the best way to address any situation is to become educated about it. The same thought process is true with drug and alcohol addiction and with substance abuse as a general problem in this country. How it pans out is that substance abuse is a widely misunderstood or just not understood issue! People think they might know a lot about drugs and alcohol, but they usually do not. Americans need to become more educated about addiction today. Education is our key to addiction prevention.
Lack of Knowledge About Addiction
Around the early 2000s, it became clear that there was a lack of understanding of substance abuse and addiction in this country, so certain organizations started studying and researching this problem.
To give you some immediate information and data regarding addiction, some of their facts and statistics and study findings have been included below, concisely summarized for the sake of brevity:
One of the significant problems and difficulties that people tend to struggle with when it comes to addiction is the simple fact that this issue is getting a lot worse every single year. Statistically speaking, this is a rapidly growing concern for this country. Between the years of 2001 and 2005, the United States experienced a more than 300% increase in the use and abuse of pharmaceutical drugs and various prescription drugs. This increase coincidentally followed a 300% increase in the production and distribution of pharmaceutical drugs and prescription drugs into the hands of the American populace. Coincidentally, it was right around this time that addiction started to get very problematic and concerning in this country. All of a sudden the nation was experiencing some of the most difficult and uncertain issues with substance abuse possible, and there was indeed a lot of concern and worry regarding these matters.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the perspective that Americans have towards this country’s current substance abuse problem is not entirely optimistic by any means. In fact, the opposite is true. This is to say that drug and alcohol addiction in the nation today is thought to be terribly concerning and very problematic. In all honesty, the United States does not feel very positive about the future at all as far as drug and alcohol abuse and addiction goes. Studies now show that 45% of the American populace seem to think that drug and alcohol abuse and addiction is something that we are not making any progress with and are instead losing ground on. Usually, it is this group that is correct too, sad to say. Only about 16% of the American people feel like we are making any progress with addiction in this country. Depressing statistics like these show just how severe drug and alcohol abuse has gone in this country and where it is likely to go if we do not take on more urgent action to do something about it.
When all of the cards are on the table, and there is nothing else hidden, we can see that it does not take much searching and investigation to understand that drug and alcohol abuse is a severe issue in the country today. More specifically, it will seem like it is the American youth that is the demographic that is affected the most by this addiction nightmare. This is to say that young people, adolescents, teenagers, young adults, and even children are falling on hard times with their addictions every year. This is terrible news.. Young adults tend to experience the most accidents and injuries and problems physically to their detriment because of substance abuse. If this issue is not addressed soon, it does not look suitable for the future adult generation of our country. Addiction prevention must become a priority to try and curb the number of young lives affected by drug and alcohol addiction.
Education and Addiction Prevention
Education, education, education, and more education is the key to preventing substance abuse from growing in this country. Even tough, sometimes raw, law enforcement and crime prevention-based organizations like the Drug Enforcement Agency agree that education is the key to addiction prevention as opposed to drug busts and crime prevention.
According to the DEA, if people know about addiction to drugs and alcohol, then they just won’t partake! It is as simple as this. The truth about drugs and alcohol is so terrible and harmful that adequately educated people just do not engage in substance abuse habits.
Article Source: bestdrugrehabilitation.com
