Drug Abuse the Relationship Between Drug Use Term Paper

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Drug Abuse

The relationship between drug use and economic status has been one looked at research for decades. However, the topic is a complex one to consider because significant research and commentary today suggests that the older studies showing such a relationship may have had significant bias, in the form of assumptions, built into their research design.

One of the largest assumptions has been that members of minorities use drugs in an effort to escape the problems of depressed economics and racism, as well as a way of making money in communities where few opportunities for well-paying jobs exist (Covington, 1997). These beliefs, critics maintain, are revealed in research when phrases such as "high-risk youth," "underclass drug user" or "hard-core drug user" as used as descriptors. However, this criticism itself may reflect some bias, since "hard-core user" in particular cannot be tied to any racial group. However, critics point out that attention regarding drug use is often focused on minority youth, and are often described in terms of economic factors (unemployment or welfare), social factors such as single-parent families typically headed by women, or presence of crime and poverty as evidence of "social breakdown.

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" (Covington, 1997) While the critics might or might not be right about such bias in research, he makes a case for these factors being used as preliminary assumptions in some research design.

It's not that neighborhoods, which tend to encapsulate people of similar backgrounds and financial circumstances, have no effect on drug use at all. Rather, it is that many factors affect drug use, making it hard to determine which factors influence which groups of people and under which circumstances. Allison et. al. (1999) summarize several reports drug use becoming common in minority, economically depressed neighborhoods within urban areas. However, this does not necessarily mean that economically depressed neighborhoods are typically more prone to drug use by its residents.

Research that does show a tie to economic factors and substance abuse are also tied to other factors. In addition to the neighborhood being economic depressed, as indicated by such things as childhood poverty rate and economic resources present within the….....

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