Drug abuse as a crime

Drug abuse as a crime: Introduction: My research is about the comparison of the habit of drug abuse with crime. Crime is an understood offense and all legal charges apply upon a person when he/she commits the crime. Crime is condemned because it is a social issue. The criminal tends to cause harm to the society in any way. It is something that is beyond the criminal’s individualistic self, and his/her act has social consequences. Contrary to a criminal, a drug abuser causes harm to nobody else but his/her own self. It is a very personal matter. The drug abuser willingly chooses to indulge in this practice. Accordingly, it is no one else but the very abuser that suffers in the end. This division between the consequences of crime and drug abuse makes one think of the extent to which, drug abuse should be considered as a crime. Through my research, I shall tend to find answer to this question; Taking its consequences into consideration, to what extent is drug abuse a crime? Significance: More and more people are indulging into the practice of drug abuse. This practice saps their ability to play a constructive role in the society. Drug abusers ruin their own life. Caught in this habit, drug abusers are more in need of psychological counseling and moral help than punishment. In fact, punishment may even aggravate the negativity in the behavior of drug abusers. Therefore, there is dire need to distinguish between drug abuse and crime so that more rational ways can be adopted to deal with drug abusers and make them become responsible citizens. Theory: One of the popular theories of crime is the Lombroso’s theory of crime. In 1876, Lombroso said that criminals are born criminals. They are born with some physical features that distinguish them from the society in general. Lombroso believed that criminals were in the middle of existing and ancient humans. Their heads and faces have specific features that make them criminal. In light of this theory, it is rational not to consider drug abusers as criminals because a vast majority of drug abusers are skinny unlike the muscular criminals. Literature review: According to Montaldo (2009), research conducted by the “ White House Office of National Drug Control Policy” concluded that about 87 per cent of people who are imprisoned in America are drug consumers. Results and discussion: This tells that most criminals are drug consumers. However, the report does not necessarily tell that all drug abusers are criminals. The matter has to be analyzed from both directions in order to draw rational conclusions. Conclusion: The purpose of my study is to differentiate between a drug abuser and a criminal. The research question aims at comparing the habit of drug abuse to crime considering consequences of both. From the view of Lombroso’s theory, drug abusers are least likely to be criminals. Despite the fact that research shows that a vast majority of criminals are drug abusers, we can not say that many drug abusers are also criminals without thorough research. References: Montaldo, C. (2009). Report Links Drug Abuse to Crime. Retrieved from http://crime. about. com/b/2009/06/04/report-links-drug-abuse-to-crime. htm.