Drugs and Crime in the Recession

In the September 23, 2010 issue of the New York Times, columnist Abby Goodnough explains the increase in specific illegal activities. Goodnough's article, "A Wave of Addiction and Crime, with the Medicine Cabinet to Blame," describes the new crime wave as a result of increased drug consumption, and explains the proposed buy-back day for prescription and over the counter drugs.

In 17 states, deaths from drugs — both prescription and illegal — now exceed those from motor vehicle accidents, with opiate painkillers playing a leading role. The number of people seeking treatment for painkiller addiction jumped 400 percent from 1998 to 2008, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. And from rural New England to the densely populated South, law enforcement officials are combating a sharp rise in crime tied to prescription drugs.

Both of these rises in illegal activity, crime and drug consumption, can be partially traced back to the feeling of cornering and hopelessness that the recession brings to many people of the lower classes. There is a direct correlation between the bad economy and the increase in people looking to use drugs because, for the most part, drugs are and have been a means for people to escape the world, forget about their problems, and feel better. I find it quite surprising that deaths from drugs is quickly approaching deaths from motor vehicle accidents because motor vehicles are abundant and are used by the majority of adults, which means that the use of drugs may also be used by a large majority of the entire population of the United States. While the buy-back day for handguns may have been successful, I have a feeling that the buy-back day for drugs will not be as successful because drugs allow people to fully escape many of their problems during their "high," whereas handguns improve security, or sense of sense of security, just one of the many problems that people are dealing with.