How does the abuse of drugs affect families (break them) Essay

How does the abuse of drugs affect families (break them) - Essay Example There are moms like Charlotte Sanders (2006) who experimented with drugs at 16 but took methamphetamines as a regular habit in her twenties in order to cope with the pressures of motherhood; or Lynn Smith, who resorted to drugs as an actress in New York; or even Mike Shirley, a father of a family. In 2004, more than 3.5 million persons who were 18 years old or over admitted that they had, at some point in their life, taken at least one injection of an illegal drug. (National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC), 2006). The NDIC also reports that drug abuse in the US is cost it $181 billion in 2002 alone, and that amount continues to rise every year. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) defines drug addiction as â€Å"a chronic, relapsing brain disease that is characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, despite harmful consequences.† It must be understood that, under this definition, specialized agencies such as the NIDA and the NIDC classify alcoholism and smoking as forms of substance abuse classifiable as drug addiction. Regular use of alcohol and nicotine, the so-called â€Å"legal drugs,† are prone to abuse with the same resultant effects as narcotic abuse. Also, prescription drugs are also prone to abuse when the user administers them in the inappropriate amounts, or resorts to their regular use even when the reason or medical condition that required their use no longer exists. Recently, more teens have been experimenting with combinations of prescription drugs that increases the danger of fatalities due to toxic reactions of drugs with each other. (Buddy T., 2007). Rather than being viewed as mere socially deviant behaviour, drug addiction is viewed by the medical community as a disease. Drugs alter the brain’s structure and the way it works, usually with permanent effects when left untreated. Initially, the individual embarks on his first drug trip out of curiosity and