Prosecuting Drug Offenses

There's much debate as to whether drug use by young people is an issue for law enforcement or public health. The stiffer drugs laws of the past decade are controversial in part for crowding prisons. Critics say prosecuting drug offenses doesn't address the disease of addiction suffered by the defendant. Some communities have responded by creating new kinds of courts for drug offenders. Commentator David Feige, a public defender, visited an experimental drug court in New York City. Drugs addiction is becoming prevalent among teenagers because of the common belief that drugs are not highly addictive and epitomizes glamour, with popular addicts such as Kurt Cobain and model Zoe Fleischauer. Its victims are also at an age when they are looking

I was doing it just to feel normal again, to keep from feeling like I was going to throw up all the time," says Misty, who says that heroin made her into "another person," someone who stole from her parents to buy drugs. When she couldn't? "I slept with guys I normally wouldn't have gone near, if I wanted to get heroin from them.Data from a large-scale probability survey of drug use across the five major racial/ethnic groups in the United States Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Asian/Pacific islanders shows that, with the exception of Native Americans, racial/ethnic minorities are generally no more likely than are White people to use legal or illegal drugs.Two issues arise from this research. First, although substantial differences in drug use exist within each of these large groups, most of the available data on drug use do not typically allow for more detailed comparisons among subgroups. Second, concern related to surveys may influence reported drug use by race/ethnic group. Most of the people have to go to a rehab center.4,664 12- to 17-year-olds were asked if "heroin was a great risk," only half said that it was, according to the 1994 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, led by the Department of Health and Human

Such potency means users can get addicted sooner, and the risk of an accidental overdose has increased.Some drug experts contend that young people have a "no big deal" attitude toward heroin because they don't remember the harsh lessons of the '60s and '70s with the drug-related deaths of rock musicians, Jimi Hendrix and the Doors' Jim Morrison. Yet they are certainly aware of the deaths and arrests associated with heroin among well-known bands. At the top of the list, of course, is Kurt Cobain, whose tragic suicide was heroin-related. But the list also includes the overdose deaths of Blind Melon's Shannon Hoon and Sublime's Bradley Nowell, the arrest of Stone Temple Pilot's Scott Weiland and the controversy involving ex-Smashing Pumpkins' drummer Jimmy Chamberlain. Some people like taking risks, but all people like to feel good. In the drug hierarchy, heroin, an opiate that mimics brain chemicals that block pain and induce enormous pleasure, is the undisputed