Drug Abuse in Houston and Defining it in Public Health
Do you think that there is a lot of drug abuse in Houston, Texas?
You see, in Houston, Texas, drug abuse has been called a number of names (e.g., substance abuse, drug dependency, etc.), but one thing these names share is the same negative connotation associated with the term “abuse”.
In Houston, Texas (or any other state, for that matter), another thing drug abuse has been related to is the psychoactive or performance enhancing effect or “high” it gives the user, which is obviously non-therapeutic or non-medical in nature.
Hence, the term drug abuse always implies a negative perception of the person’s drug use as compared with the term responsible drug use for medicinal purposes.
The most common types of drugs often subjected to drug abuse in Houston, TX are those that contain amphetamines, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, cocaine, methaqualone and opium alkaloids. People addicted to these drugs often visit one of the 60+ drug rehab centers in Houston, TX. Unwarranted use (or should I say abuse) of these drugs may lead to criminal liabilities, depending on local laws in effect for each state in addition to social persecution and possible long-term physical and psychological harm.
Typical definitions of drug abuse in Houston, Texas often fall into four categories and usually relate to public health, medical, political and criminal justice fields.
Worldwide, the United Nations estimates drug abusers to be more than 50 million in number. However, these numbers are just for regular users of heroin, cocaine and other synthetic drugs.
Letís take the two most common definitions of drug abuse as related to the Public health and medical field:
Public health practitioners have been attempting to remove the social stigma usually associated with drug abuse in Houston, TX by veering away from the term and instead using phrases like ìsubstance abuseî or ìalcohol dependencyî to encapsulate the role of society, culture and availability to the prevalence of the problem.
As a matter of fact, the Health Officers Council of British Columbia has adopted a public health model of psychoactive substance use that challenges the simplistic and often interchangeable usage of the terms “use” vs. “abuse”.
This model, explained in length in their 2005 policy discussion paper, A Public Health Approach to Drug Control in Canada, explicitly recognizes a broad spectrum of the term use, which ranges from beneficial use to chronic dependenceî as against the term ìabuseî, which automatically connotes negativity.
Medical Definitions
Medical practitioners, same with those in Public Health, have already disregarded the term ìdrug abuseî in favor of the less discriminatory term, “substance abuse” when talking about drug abuse in Houston.
The group International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems or ICD, also no longer uses drug abuse to describe the psychological harm attributable to unsupervised use of any dependency-inducing drug and instead prefers to call it ìharmful use. Although people do search for “drug abuse in Houston” when looking for information and stats.
Drug Abuse in Houston: Signs and Symptoms
Depending on the actual compound a person is “abusing”, alcohol misuse and drug abuse in Houston, Texas may result to health problems, social stigma, morbidity, physical injuries, prevalence of unprotected sex, increase in violent behavior, deaths, vehicular accidents, increase in the occurrence of homicides or suicides, drug dependence and psychological imbalance.
If that is not enough to scare you, then look at the statistics which show that there is a high incidence of suicide in drug abusers and even in alcoholics. Authorities believe that the reason behind this is the ìpsychological distortionî of the brainís chemistry, which is the usual side effect of certain dependency-inducing drugs like heroin, cocaine and other barbiturates. Add to this the social isolation which results from the display of erratic and often temperamental behavior of substance abusers.
In the United States alone, approximately 30% of suicides are related to alcohol abuse and 1 out of 4 drug users are ìexpectedî to commit suicide while high on prohibited substances. Aside from contributing to the high incidence of suicide, alcohol abuse is also associated with increased risks of committing criminal offenses (e.g., child abuse, domestic violence, rapes, burglaries and other types of assault).
Drug Abuse in Houston: The types
In Houston, it has also been found out that drug abuse, whether it involves alcohol or prescription drugs, can induce a behavior that closely resembles that of a mental illness. This behavior can occur while in the intoxicated state or during the withdrawal state, which can probably explain why drug abusers often seem out of it. You may also want to look at Houston Drug Rehabilitation Centers.
What is worse is that exhibiting symptoms of a psychiatric disorder have been noted to persist long after a personís detoxification. Hence, it is not common for former drug abusers to experience prolonged psychosis or depression long after their episode of amphetamine or cocaine abuse.
As if these were not enough, former drug abusers can also experience “protracted withdrawal syndrome”, which persists for months after stopping their drug abuse. The drug Benzodiazepines is most notable for inducing these prolonged withdrawal after-effects.
Abuse of hallucinogens can likewise trigger delusional and other psychotic phenomena long after a drug abuser has stopped. Same with cannabis, which triggers panic attacks.
Severe cases of anxiety and depression are also commonly associated with sustained alcohol and drug abuse in Houston. Even moderate alcohol intake may increase feelings of anxiety and depression in some individuals.
All in all, drug abuse in Houston, TX has been proven to result to negative effects on the central nervous system, which translates to frequent mood changes and impaired levels of awareness, perception and sensation.
Related Terms:
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- prevalence incidence of substance abuse texas
