LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Drugs and Crime: People
built 185 days ago
In 2005, an estimated 19.7 million people in the United States suffered from dependence on illicit drugs, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA. According to the same source, 33.7 million Americans aged 12 and over reported using cocaine at some time in their life, and 7.9 million reported using crack cocaine at some time in their life. An estimated 2.4 million Americans reported current use of cocaine -- 682,000 of whom reported using crack. There were 1.5 million persons who were classified with dependence on or abuse of cocaine. In addition, there were an estimated 900,000 new users of cocaine in 2004. Approximately 797,000 patients sought treatment for cocaine abuse in 2005.
Source:
The costs of a war on drugs for many states were very high because many of the law enforcement resources committed to the drug war were diverted from the control of property and violent crime. But what of the benefits? Drugs may create many harmful effects for the individuals who consume them. However, criminalization is rarely justified on the grounds of protecting people from their own actions. Rather, criminalization requires that an action has spillover effects creating costs for others in society. In this regard, there is a widespread belief that drug use causes other crime.
Source:
Foreign ARV drugs, which help dramatically improve the health and extend the live of people with HIV, were introduced into Vietnam in 1993, but few local patients have access to them due to their high cost. As of March 31, Vietnam had diagnosed more than 93,000 HIV carriers, of whom 14,913 developed full-blown AIDS, including 8,768 fatalities. The actual number of infections may be higher. The country has targeted to reduce the HIV/AIDS infection rate among its 82-million population to below 0.3 percent by 2010, and keep it unchanged after 2020.
Source:
''A lot of families in the suburbs have good medical care and will oftentimes have these drugs in their medicine cabinets," Alves said. ''With kids, availability and ease of use are two key factors when kids are using drugs. Klonopin doesn't smell, but you can still be high on it. And if there is a network of people selling these things, it's easy access."
Source:
This is a book primarily for those who work to tackle drug abuse and crime. It presents a comprehensive account of the information concerning the people who are drug abusers, the measures currently taking place to reduce drug dependancy, particularly where this dependancy is accompanied by criminal behaviour. The author attempts to cut through the confusion and pessimism that currently exists. He exposes the assumption that the successful treatment of the criminal's drug abuse will necessarily result in the reduction of his criminal activities. He is quite clear on what doesn't work and suggests a way forward that will work. This is a must book for all criminal justice and health care workers.
Source:
Some research studies have found that a lot of acquisitive crime (stealing) is committed by dependent users of heroin and crack cocaine trying to pay for their drugs. Some show a high proportion of people arrested for a range of offences testing positive for drug use. It has been suggested that one third to over a half of all acquisitive crime is related to illegal drug use.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
People