... liberal country in terms of litigation and therefore less likely to just haul people off to prison. These statistics mentioned before a but a few of the reasons drug legalization has become a hot topic in the American judiciary realm. The drug most brought up in these discussions is marijuana. According to the 1999 SAMSA ... being users of marijuana ("Drug Policy."). This goes in hand with another SAMSA finding that 36% of the American population has used illicit drugs at least once in their lifetime. Over a third of our population has at least tried drugs, and it can reasonably be assum...

• Word Count: 1914
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography

... 12 and older in the us in 1998 was 1.8 million people down from its peak in 1985 of 3 percent of the total population in the united states. Current statistics show that a large number of drug users work. Currently 70 percent of drug/substance abusers 18 and over are employed. This is ... of drug users are stealing from there employers. In America 10 percent of adults are alcoholics and regularly abuse alcohol while 10 million American adults regularly use marijuana. It has been estimated that all of these losses in productivity add up to over 80 billion dollars ... also for employees. C...

• Word Count: 1297
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... collected by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) showed about fifty percent of the juveniles arrested reporting recent drug use prior to their arrest. Wagner (1996) adds that the "general population studies showed a 2 to 4 fold increase in the likelihood of committing violent acts among adolescents who are drug involved" (Barnes, Hoffman, & Welte, 2002, p. 2). In addition the impact of drug use ... that juveniles have a greater chance of become delinquent once they have been psychologically abused or are having trouble dealing with divorce (Akers, 2000). Barnes, Hoffman, and Welte (...

• Word Count: 1969
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... , the most exploited ethnic groups and groups suffering from discrimination are the part of the population with the heaviest hard drug abuse problems (Bourgois, 2003). Statistics of drug abuse among racial groups are as follows: Asians, three percent; Caucasians, seven percent; Hispanics, seven percent; African Americans, eight percent; American Indians/Alaskan Natives, eleven percent; and mixed racial groups, eleven percent. Illicit drug use ... is most common in the Western United States at about eight percent and the Northeast at about seven percent. These statistics are relative to t...

• Word Count: 1296
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography

... did not work as well as hoped, so anti-marijuana groups adopted the next strategy: exaggeration. The goal was to scare potential marijuana users. Even such respected periodicals as the American Journal of Medicine went along with this strategy, publishing such warnings as: "Marijuana users will suddenly turn with murderous violence upon whoever is nearest to them. They will run amuck ... most forms cause assault and murder" (Grinspoon, 1971, p.17). It appears that the current attitude toward marijuana prohibition is based on the belief that relaxed policies lead to greater use. Statisti...

• Word Count: 1532
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... of at-risk youth." They argue that rural areas have higher child poverty rates and higher percentages of poor school districts than urban areas, leading to a very large "at-risk" population (Martin, 1996). However, other analysts would disagree. They claim that children from the inner-cities are the most impoverished, and therefore have the greatest chance of being "at-risk." These ... ). The majority of studies on youth related to alcohol and drug abuse have been conducted in urban areas, as many believe that the problem is something that only faces poor American communities in the urba...

• Word Count: 2073
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography