Substance Abuse And Drug Law Violations

Murder, theft, sexual assault. These are just a few crimes that people that have substance abuse users have committed.. Substance abuse increases the risk of criminal activity which can lead to increased economic and medical costs. Over 1.5 million arrests are due to drug law violations resulting in drug law violations to be one of the major crimes committed in the U.S. (Hart & Ksir, 2015, p. 40) According to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (2015), drugs and alcohol are implicated in an estimated 80% of offenses resulting in incarceration. As a person goes further into the descent into drug abuse, a lot of them loss their employment due to absences or lack of work. According to Professor M. Rush, that is estimated that
over 100 billion dollars is lost every year due to loss of productivity (personal communication, September 11, 2016). With no employment, people can go to desperate measures such as committing crime to obtain money, clothes, medication or food. About 74-76% of state and jail inmates who had a mental health problem met criteria for substance dependence or abuse (James and Glaze, 2006, pg.1) . There are also other medical issues that could come about from abusing drugs or alcohol such as HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, organ damage, and even accident related injuries. (Professor M. Rush, personal communication, September 11, 2016) With an estimated 80% of crime being implicated with the use of drugs or alcohol, one can see that crime is the most pressing social issue of substance abuse. Over 100 billion dollars are lost due to lost of productivity, which I am sure does not include the fact that now we, as taxpayers are now footing the bill as they are now in prison. Once in prison, all medical issues are covered by taxpayers and by federal money.