Drugs - Society's New Plague

Essay by xmunpietruUniversity, Master's March 2004

download word file, 2 pages 0.0

Drugs - Society's New Plague

Despite numerous campaigns by the government and police, the narcotics trade is one of the most rapidly expanding international criminal industries. The result of this trade is triggered by the extremely high level of profit and the annual increase in the number of drug addicts.

So why are the government and police so much against this trade when one knows that more than a billion dollars a year are being fed into the Bolivian economy as a result of this trading? Although many government authorities prohibit the trade with austerity, in Amsterdam, for instance, the situation is more lax. The quandary of whether to consider drug addicts as criminals or victims is still an unsettled issue. Some state that drug addicts are victims of their crime and should be free from any retribution. However, how possible is it to ascertain that individuals who indulge of their own free will, do not cause any harm upon others?

If we take the parents of these drug addicts, it is quite easy to determine the unbearable affliction they have to endure seeing their children throwing their life away.

Although no physical harm may be directly associated with such an abuse, the psychological pain they have to bare is still considerable.

But then why did these saps become dependent on drugs? They would not have fallen for such a trap unless some unscrupulous people dragged them into it. However, they would not have embarked on such a deadly journey unless they had already some major problems. Carita's director, during a seminar organised by the National Youth Council, spoke about drugs as being the symptom of something which was not right in today's world. In fact, people become drug addicts due to solitude and traditional structures which are...