The environment we live in is very
significant as to how we go about our everyday lives. The atmosphere has a lot to do with how our
brains develop and how we grow throughout adulthood. Along with the general surroundings we have,
income is a big factor as far as lifestyles go. Sure, we tend to see that people in affluent
neighborhoods have more access to everyday items. Opposite goes with the neighborhoods that
don’t have a high level of income. They might have trouble getting access to
certain materials. However, drugs are used in both socioeconomic classes. What are the differences between these two
social classes as far as drugs go? Do we automatically assume people who are
poorer will be affected more heavily than those who are richer?
When we see people living in a lower
social class, we might assume a few things about their lifestyles. To clarify
what I mean by a “lower social class”, we can infer that they’re deprived of
certain things. For example, they don’t have access to a quality house,
education, job, and medical coverage. In
neighborhoods that are deprived of these things, especially jobs, they might
find themselves selling drugs as their way of making money to survive. In this
sense, getting illegal drugs is easy to find in neighborhoods with a lower
socioeconomic status. Also, it is harder
to get out of that atmosphere when drugs are surrounding the neighborhood.
However, when average people see the
population of a lower class partaking in illegal substances, they are looked
down upon. There are assumptions and
stereotypes given to poorer people just because of their financial status. For example, they’d be assumed to end up
homeless, in prison, or resulting to drugs because of unhappiness with the
outcome of their life. Vijaya Murali and Femi Oyebode state that: “These
‘maladaptive’ behaviours are not necessarily undertaken with a harmful intent,
but may be regarded as coping behaviours to provide comfort or relief from
stressful lives. Moreover, people in lower socio-economic classes by virtue of
their life circumstances are exposed to more stressors, and with fewer
resources to manage them and greater vulnerability to stressors, they are
doubly victimised.”1 We might even look at a homeless person walking
down the street and think “I’m not going to give them money because they’ll
probably just use it on drugs.” We subconsciously associate drug addicts as
people with a low socioeconomic status. We don’t usually think “rich” people
are addicts right away because they still have a lot of money and it doesn’t
appear as if their life is torn apart. Appearance has a lot to do with it too.
We could be deceived just by the way a person is dressed. A man from an
affluent community could be walking around in nice clothes, and we could have
no clue he was a drug addict.
On the other
hand, when average people see the population of a higher class partaking in
illegal substances, they aren’t negatively sanctioned as much as people of a
low income environment. For instance, celebrities are a great example of how
richer people are almost praised for their drug habits. With celebrities such as Charlie Sheen, Amanda
Bynes, Whitney Houston, and Heath Ledger, we can notice how we don’t hold them
at the same standard we do for people of a poor community. If any of these
celebrities were homeless or not famous for anything, they’d be looked down
upon just like the rest of the lower social class with drug problems.
1 Vijaya
Murali and Femi Oyebode, “Poverty, Social Inequality, and Mental Health”, Advances in Psychiatric Treatment (2004),
216-224.
It’s harder to tell when a person of a higher
socioeconomic status is a drug addict. First, their appearance can be deceiving
like I said before. Also, with the amount of money they have, they can get
drugs whenever they want. They don’t have to beg or panhandle to feed their
habit. Also, they might have a sense of
comfort in their addiction. Since they
are of a wealthier environment, they know that if they get too far deep into
the drug cycle, their family has the potential to send them to a nice addiction
rehabilitation center while supporting them financially. Poor communities with a drug problem don’t
have that option- which makes breaking the habit that much harder.
The Advisory Council for the Misuse
of Drugs helps clarify that: “Rather than deprivation being related to whether
people have ever tried drugs or not, it is more likely to relate to a lower age
of first use, progression to dependence, injecting drug use, risky use, health
and social complications from use and to criminal involvement.”2 This
is implying that people of a lower social class are more likely to be convicted
of a drug related crime. Just like the
comparison of celebrities as examples of a higher social class, we find that
they too get arrested; however, they have so much money and fame that they get
out very quick and they receive the finest treatment and care to help them
return to everyday life.
Another concern for both social
classes is the chance of diseases. With deprived people living in poor
conditions, there is a chance that they could be overcrowded, resulting in the
2 http://www.drugscope.org.uk/resources/faqs/faqpages/is-drug-use-mainly-in-deprived-areas
(Accessed November 15, 2014).
sharing of needles, equipment,
etc. With that being said, there is a
much higher risk for HIV, Tuberculosis, and Hepatitis. Diseases aren’t limited
to just people of a lower social class; however, they are more likely to be
stuck in that cycle because they are in such deprivation of medical coverage
and clean materials for the drugs.
Along with this cycle of deprivation
and continued drug abuse, it’s unlikely for a person of a lower social class to
break the habit. There are not as many
positive alternatives and opportunities in comparison to how the drug makes
them feel. Plus, they cannot afford any
care and treatment that will be successful in the long run.
As I said before, income plays a
huge part in people’s lives along with the environment they are surrounded in.
In most cases, wealthy families are around other wealthy families- thus,
forming a higher social class community. The same goes for a lower social class
and the neighborhoods they live in. Some
people make a choice to abuse illegal drug substances while others don’t have
that choice. Some are born into that
lifestyle as a young child. They are surrounded by their parents’ bad choices
and therefore, take part in those activities as well.
So, by no means can we limit drug
intake to one social class. It definitely happens within both socioeconomic
statuses. As average middle-class people, we just notice the lower class to be
more severe and tragic. We ostracize them more often and tend to make light of
the drug addicts that have more money and fame. Either way, both social classes
have their own reasons for using illegal drugs that ultimately alter the
brain’s development in the long run.
You made a good point when talking about how the lifestyles people live is a main factor when judging them, but is not always accurate. For example, when you talked about drug addiction you included how people may sometimes praise high income addicts because they're famous and have money unlike low income addicts because they don't see to have their life together. I agree on how they are treated way differently because societies norms have to be met in order to be accepted or at least seen as normal. In this case they treat the actors who are fighting addiction more normal than bums in the street asking for money because of their socioeconomic status.
ReplyDeleteGreat job Jackie! I like how you touched on socioeconomic status; it does not matter what class you are, even people in higher social status will buy/sell drugs and abuse them just like anybody in the lower class would do. So I agree with your points. Good job of putting your opinions in there also, that's always a good thing to do.I like your closing paragraph because you brought everything together and made clear of what you were trying to say. Good job.
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