Blog Assignment #9

Substance abuse is a major public health issue for a multitude of reasons. Not only does it contribute to already rising health care costs, but it is also a huge factor contributing to an increase in crime rates, homelessness, and domestic violence or abuse. Even productivity in the workplace is affected by substance abuse. Substance abuse includes drugs as well as alcohol and these things can lead to mental health issues that are often overlooked when discussing this topic. For example, a surprising amount of suicides and attempts at suicide are caused by the person being under the influence of a drug of alcohol. This shows that substance abuse can be a very direct cause of death, and not just a factor among many other things that contributes to a person being injured or sick, and conveys the overall seriousness of the issue as more than just a generation of young people engaging in high-risk behavior for amusement.

I chose this topic, for the time being, because it is incredibly relevant, especially for college students. Drinking is something that is almost a part of college culture and so integrated into the lifestyle of many social environments that many individuals do not bother to stop and think about their decisions and the possible consequences of their decisions. Many do, but even personally, I know many who do not and consciously choose not to so that they won't have to change their minds or their plans for that evening.

Like many other public health issues, substance abuse is almost entirely preventably, if not entirely. It is an issue that involves individuals consciously making the choice to give into substances like drugs and alcohol. I definitely believe that society is partially at fault for making these things to accessible and then advertising them in such an excessive fashion. However, if substances are something that so easily turned into a norm in our society, it is something that we can also transform into the opposite, even though this will be much more difficult. I find hope in the fact that this is preventable, because it is sad the way people only understand the risk factors of substance abuse after a tragedy has already occurred. Hopefully, public health as a field can do something so that such is not the case.

Essentially, I chose this topic of substance abuse because I do think wholeheartedly that it's something the public health field has the capability to fight. I've also known friends or family either experiencing alcoholism or who have experienced tragedies because of alcoholism combined with a split second of bad luck, such as a car accident in which the person hurt was not the one drinking. I feel as though the confidence that “nothing bad will happen” in terms of these situations is actually overconfidence, and the good time that substance abuse can lead to is never really more valuable than someone's life or future.