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Essay on The Rise of Teenage Drug Abuse in urban Communities
The terms "drug use" and "drug abuse" are often applied interchangeably; for example, the use of an illegal drug may be considered an abuse. For many people who use marijuana on occasion in order to achieve a state of euphoria, pleasure, or relaxation it may be argued that they do not abuse the substance. Other perspectives of abuse rely on the notion of potential or actual harm. The use of almost any drug, even those under the guidance of a physician, has at least some potential for harm.
The American Medical Association once referred to "abuse" as the use of a drug outside a medical context. Used in this sense, "abuse" conveyed the impression that a behavior is measurable and announced to the world that the nonmedical taking of drugs was undesirable. In 1993, the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse stated that the term "drug abuse" must be deleted from official pronouncements and public policy dialogue. "The term has no functional utility and has become no more than an arbitrary code word for that drug use which is presently considered wrong.
Continued use of this term, with its emotional overtones, will serve only to perpetuate confused public attitudes about drug -using behavior." More than 20 years later, however, it has been found useful to differentiate users and abusers: "Users are those individuals who have tried or continue to use alcohol or other drugs but who are not dependent or addicted. They also fall into different subgroups: a) those that have tried a substance but have discontinued use; b) those that use infrequently and primarily in response to social circumstances; and, c) those that use periodically but infrequently enough to avoid dependence or addictions. Abusers are heavily involved in alcohol or drug use, while level of abuse may range from early dependence to life-threatening use; treatment is clearly the appropriate intervention......
