Essay: Drug Addiction: A Brain Disorder, Not a Crime

Addiction kills thousands of Americans every year and affects millions of lives. Substance use disorder (SUD), or addiction, is a chronic mental health disorder. Substance use disorder affects 20% of Americans with depression or anxiety disorder. Drug overdoses have tripled in the past ten years and have not stopped increasing. Addictions destroy relationships, like marriages and friendships, careers, and even a person’s health. SUD affects normal brain function, so it causes a person to repeatedly use substances or encourage behaviors even though it is harmful. Addiction alters how the brain functions regarding pleasure, stress, and self-control. Long-lasting, these effects may continue even after the person has ceased using drugs. However, not everyone agrees that drug addiction is a disorder. According to others, addiction is not a disease because it is not contagious or transmissible, it is not autoimmune, genetic, or degenerative, and it is self-acquired, which implies the patient causes the ailment. When someone starts using drugs, they do not become addicted on purpose because their brain cannot help the pleasure or reward it registers when the drug is consumed. Addicts should not be treated as criminals because they have a brain disorder that developed from taking drugs. Because of brain chemistry, it is in human genetics to be susceptible to certain drugs. Punishment of addiction has been proven only to worsen the chances of overdose. There needs to be Federal Laws and guidelines to help people with addictions because they should not be punished but should be treated for their substance disorder.
Clinically, there is a difference between abuse and addiction; however, in the criminal justice system, there is no distinction. In the early 2000s, after nine decades of trying to combat drug use, the U.S. had one of the highest rates of incarceration related to drug use (Johnson). America has been using drugs since the Europeans colonized the country. Native Americans introduced tobacco to the settlers, and it became a cash crop. The colonists drank alcohol with every meal because the water was unsafe and purified. Alcohol was a form of water purification in colonial America, and Americans normalized it. Eventually, it changed, and Whiskey became more popular because of the extra grain available and molasses being cut off. People began to realize the dangers of alcohol and tobacco. The consumption of alcohol continued to increase in the United States, and the threat of alcoholism began to creep into the American consciousness.
Since alcohol use was so prominent in early America and there was a lack of understanding of what alcohol did to the brain, it was not a public concern yet. It soon became a concern when domestic abuse and violence became a problem. Prisons became overwhelmed with people arrested with drinking problems. The use of alcohol and tobacco opened the door for more drugs to be introduced to Americans. They were gateway drugs that only led Americans to more potent substances, far more dangerous and lethal. These brain-altering substances have left Americans untreated and imprisoned. Decade after decade, history repeats itself with the amount of Americans still addicted, imprisoned, and untreated. Incarceration has proved to be unhelpful to the addiction epidemic and only causes more people to abuse substances.
The history of drug use and addiction has changed over time, reflecting various eras’ changing attitudes and social constructions. Culturally, drug and alcohol use is often associated with particular racial groups, and these stereotypes are problematic for these groups to overcome. Native Americans, for example, introduced the European settlers to alcohol. Native Americans have a history of heavy drinking as a part of their culture. It was used in ceremonial and celebration settings but also as an antidepressant. It is still used to cope with living in poverty and social issues faced by Native Americans. Numerous diverse populations of color feel the impact of the discriminatory application of drug prohibitions. Cities and regions may experience this impact differently.
Black and Latino individuals experience some of this country’s most extreme racial inequities. Increased arrest and incarceration rates in these regions are not due to a rise in drug usage but rather to the focus of law enforcement on urban areas, communities of color, and those with lower incomes. People of color are subjected to discrimination throughout the criminal justice process. They are more likely to be stopped, searched, arrested, found guilty, given punitive sentences, and given a permanent criminal record. This is especially true for violators of drug laws. For drug-related charges, about 80% of inmates in federal prisons and nearly 60% in state prisons are Black or Latino. According to research, Black people are twice as likely to face a mandatory minimum sentence as White people charged with the same crime. Compared to other racial or ethnic groups, black people and Native Americans are more likely to be killed by law enforcement. Because they are portrayed as being violent or having alcoholism or drug addictions, according to experts, stigma and prejudice may significantly impact how the police and the community interact. These old stereotypes are difficult to overcome and continue to identify Native Americans, Latinos, and African Americans. There needs to be a change in the criminal justice system so that it doesn’t target minorities even though it may be prevalent in their culture. Unfortunately, history continues to repeat itself with racial profiling in the United States. Every American deserves to be treated equally because no one is better than another.
In recent years Fentanyl overdoses have increased and killed thousands of Americans. It is an unending rabbit hole that seems to have no solution. Unlike other drugs, a person can overdose from as little as two milligrams, and that’s why it’s so deadly. You can become addicted to Fentanyl because of its potency. Over the previous two years, deaths involving synthetic opioids have shot up by an unbelievable 80%. The increase in overdose mortality is primarily due to the distribution of Fentanyl, but the coronavirus pandemic further intensified the issue. It is evident from the opioid deaths’ regional distribution that there was a change during the pandemic months. During the pandemic, there was less cross-national traffic, which made it harder for smugglers to transport illegal drugs across the border. They relied on Fentanyl because it was inexpensive and easy to transport. Because fentanyl-laced fake pills have grown more prevalent, people addicted to opioids that usually use prescription opioids instead of heroin have also been impacted. They did not seek out Fentanyl on purpose and ended up overdosing on accident.
Fentanyl has also become popular because drug traffickers know that people want the most extensive high they can get. Additionally, some drug users looking for a stronger narcotic at a lower cost have come to prefer Fentanyl to heroin or prescription medications. As Kristen Marshall, a San Francisco-based Harm Reduction Coalition representative, puts it, “For drug users, it’s just like you or I making decisions about the products we choose when we grocery shop. Fentanyl is stronger, you need less of it, and it’s cheaper. So why wouldn’t I, as somebody with limited funds, want to spend my money on something that’s a better value and, therefore, a better product?” (O’Neil). Fentanyl usage is still on the rise due to how accessible and available it is. It is only going to get worse before it gets better. Fentanyl and opioid overdoses must not be ignored but should be recognized by Americans for how dangerous they are. It is a threat to the future of America and future generations of Americans. There is no solution to get rid of it entirely, but being aware of this illicit drug can prevent its future use.
While possession of drugs is illegal, a public health crisis cannot be solved by locking people up. People argue that if drug possession is made legal, addictions, dependence, and treatment issues will increase. They say legalizing drugs will result in substantial price reductions, easy access to hypodermic needles at the local pharmacy, and widespread available substances for sale. However, a few nations that decriminalized drug use and possession for personal use and invested in harm reduction initiatives are the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Switzerland. As a result, there aren’t many diagnoses among drug injectors in such nations. It’s time for countries to make the brave move toward decriminalization, as drug use, consumption, or possession for personal use is illegal in at least 67 nations. The American justice system over-criminalizes addicts, and sending them to jail does not help. In New York, about 30,000 people were detained on drug-related charges in 2012. In California, about 117,000 people were arrested for drug offenses in the same timeframe. That year, there were around 10,700 drug-related arrests in Washington. Some of these individuals have experienced many arrests; lengthy incarceration has not improved their addictions. Too frequently, the cycle keeps going round and round.
In Seattle, Washington, they decided to make a change. In 2012, the city started the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) group that offers alternatives. LEAD doesn’t waste time by having a court hearing and burdening people with a criminal record before they may receive therapy and resources. LEAD participants are not threatened with jail time or expulsion from the program if they relapse, unlike those in drug courts. The program is effective, according to the people surveyed. For example, Mitsi Barrickman became addicted to painkillers because she had scoliosis since she was a teenager. It hurt to walk and lie down, so she took painkillers. Mitsi took Oxycontin, and when that was no longer available, she turned to heroin. She struggled with addiction for several years and became homeless. She lived between the streets of Seattle and a jail cell, accumulating charges for prostitution and possession. Her story is too familiar, but with LEAD, Mitsi is now sober, no longer on the streets, and her pain is no longer out of control. Mitsi’s story is only one of many that lives changed because the police took them to services rather than jail.
This nation has been fighting a losing war on drugs for many years. Drug use has not decreased. Drug availability is unchanged from before. We’ve evolved into a culture that seems to neglect millions of lives, especially the lives of black and brown people, rather than addressing our drug problem. Although white people make up the majority of drug users and distributors in Seattle, the rate of black drug arrests was 13 times greater than the rate of white drug arrests in 2006. Communities have been devastated by aggressive over-policing. A sizable portion of the population is imprisoned. And billions of dollars have been lost when they could have been used much more effectively for treatments that might have genuinely changed people’s lives. Drug addiction is one of the numerous societal issues we’ve relegated to the criminal justice system. However, like with homelessness and mental illness, handcuffs and prison cells haven’t improved and cost far more than the available programs and treatments. This is not necessarily the case. America can, without risk, cut back on incarceration. While crime rates have decreased, several states have cut their prison populations. Addiction should not be a crime.
As a country, we must seek a better future by creating more programs like LEAD. The first thing someone can do is acknowledge that they have a problem with relying on substances. Finding a treatment program that can best help their health and well-being is the next step of the process. Different treatments exist for different types of people because not everyone takes the same treatment. For example, a person with a severe addiction will go to a detox program before they enter rehab. Since SUD is a chronic condition with a chance of recovery and relapse, treatment for it frequently necessitates ongoing care. It is often preferable to treat co-occurring mental health illnesses and substance use disorders (SUD) rather than treat them separately.