Drugs and their relationship to violence

What is addiction?
You can get mentally addicted, physically addicted, or both. When you are mentally addicted, you feel that you cannot act normally without drugs. When you are physically addicted, you have forced your body to need a substance that is foreign to it naturally.


Some types of drugs...
Heroin is an opiate processed directly from the extracts of poppy. It was originally created to help cure people of an addiction to morphine.
Cocaine is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. It is both a stimulant of the central nervous system and an appetite suppressant. The effect has been described as a euphoric sense of happiness and increased energy.
Methamphetamine, popularly shortened to meth or ice, is a psycostimulant drug.
Crack cocaine, often nicknamed "crack," is believed to have been created and made popular in the early 1980's.
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), or acid, is a semisynthetic and psychedelic drug.
Ecstasy is a recreational drug that is associated with club drugs and often used with sex.
Marijuana, as it is known when it is in its herbal form, is a psychoactive product of the plant Cannabis sativa. In the 20th century, there was a rise in its use for recreational, religious, spiritual, or medicinal purposes.


Drugs relate to violence in that drugs make people's emotions change and do dangerous things. Drug use is more closely linked to robbery and property crime than violent crime, as many addicts commit crimes in order to get money to buy drugs. In state prisons, those convicted of violent crimes are less likely to have used drugs than those convicted of property crimes, yet at least a quarter of men who commit acts of domestic violence also have drug abuse problems. In addition, women who are drug addicts are more likely to be victims of abuse.


Statistics seem to indicate a connection between alcohol, drug abuse and domestic violence. When a drug addiction enters a family via one of its members, the effect can be devastating. Whether drinking alcohol has a cause-and-effect relationship with domestic abuse is uncertain, but the truth is that violence is a part of many alcoholic and drug-abusive homes. The usage of drugs not only has an affect on households but the community. Drug cartels are an obvious and dangerous source of community violence. From 1969 up until now, the number of homicides in America from the usage and dealing of drugs has easily surpassed one million deaths.
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Contributed by RC, RT, and JP, all age 16