There are many reasons why drug/substance abuse can be defined as a social problem. Kornblum and Julian developed three criterions for a condition to be considered "a social problem". The first criterion is that the condition must be defined as a problem. If any American on the side of the street is asked if he or she thinks that substance abuse is a problem, the majority of them will answer, yes. Therefore, because majority believes it is a problem, then it fits the first criterion. The second criterion for defining it as a social proble

9. Bureau of Justice Statistics Drug Arrests by Age. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/drug.htm

Some of the social inequalities are portrayed through these statistics. One is a clash between male and female. It is often true that men are more likely to be drug users than women. As time progresses this becomes less and less true. However, currently there are more males using than there are females statistically. (McDonald, 1994) In the instance of age, there are more youths becoming users at even earlier ages. This can be attributed to the pressures put on young children at an early age to do well and succeed, as well as pressures from peers. This can be found mainly in large metropolitan areas where classes are mixed in schools. It is obvious that the Bourgeoisie-the 'Haves' and the Proletariat-the 'Have Nots' are affected for several reasons. Considering the racial statistics, it is apparent that the most discriminated groups have the highest abuse rates as well as lower incomes. One exception to this is the Asian statistics. This, however, can be attributed to deeply rooted traditions from the societies they come from.

1. Long, Robert Emmet. 1986. Drugs and American Society, New York, NY: The H.W. Wilson Company.

Every year they publish a Uniform Crime Report, otherwise known as the crime index. It is an "official" statistic report for crimes including murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. In this particular report the statistics for Drug Abuse violation arrests is recorded. Drug abuse violations are defined as State or local offenses relating to the unlawful possession, sale, use, growing, manufacturing, and making of narcotic drugs including opium or cocaine and their derivatives, marijuana, synthetic narcotics, and dangerous nonnarcotic drugs such as barbiturates."

Many cultures believe that drug addiction is a fault found in a person's psyche and thus they are considered unclean. This is mostly due to the belief that addiction is a choice. "Absolutely crucial to disease-model thinking is the theory that when addicts are taking their drug, they have 'lost control'. They supposedly cannot help themselves; they have no option but to go on taking the drug. It's easy to see that this theory is indispensable to the disease model. Without this loss of control, how could anyone claim that the decision to take or not to take some drug was not a genuine choice? 'Loss of control' has been repeatedly sought by researchers and has never been found. All the

4. Schaler, Jeffrey A. Ph.D. 2000. Addiction Is a Choice, Peru, IL: Carus Publishing Company.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Indian/Alaska Natives, Drug Abuse, Karl Marx, Kornblum Julian, Brandeis University, , Sisters United, Crime Report, drug abuse, Arrests Age, substance abuse, Sayegh Aaron, help people, addiction choice, war drugs, sayegh 2001, drug education, statistics drug, illicit drug, conflict perspective, drug abuse violation, abuse violation arrests, drug abuse related, statistics drug abuse, abuse related crimes,
Approximate Word count = 1867
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)