This research focuses on the African American as the main population to be studied. African Americans originated from the African during the slave trade period. According to Rutledge, Jemmott, O’Leary & Icard, (2017) African Americans are the third largest ethnic and racial group in the United States of America after the Hispanic and Latino Americans. Most of the African Americans originated from West Africa and Central Africa, and some of them also have the native ancestry. Based on the analysis which was made by the United States Consensus Bureau, African Americans do not typically self-identify as African Americans because some of the immigrants in the United States are from the Caribbean, Central America and South America countries thus their descendants may or may not be identified with the term African Americans.
The health concern of the African Americans is focused on in this research to reflect the needs and the main issues that put this particular community into the substance abuse. Currently, the African American male population is considered among the biggest groups that are known for the substance abuse in the United States (Hatch-Maillette, Beadnell, Campbell, Meade, Tross & Calsyn, 2017). Drug selling in the African American community is rising at an alarming rate as far as the data provided by the prisons where many African American are imprisoned for engaging in drug trafficking, pedaling and consumption.
Statistics and background data on Substance Abuse of African American Males
Most of the African American male find themselves in prisons due to drug abuse. According to the research, it shows that high prevalence of the substance abuse among the homeless African Americans puts them at high risk of committing crime through the arrest for possessing drugs, public intoxication and selling drugs (Forman, & Overdrive Inc, 2017). Many types of research show that many people in the streets are vulnerable to drug abuse due to the reason that most of them believe that being under drug influence can reduce stress and depression that are caused by the toxic feelings an individual’s experiences when missing basic needs such as shelter, food, and clothes. Statistics indicate that 90% of the Americans who are arrested for abusing drugs are the African Americans inhabiting in poor neighborhoods in urban and rural areas. Most of the drug abuse victims are the adolescents and young adults who do not have significant economic contribution considering that most of them are students and unemployed youth.
Due to the high rate of drug abuse among the youth in the United States, past research shows that most of the African Americans males who engage in substance abuse are also linked to other criminal activities such as robbery, killing and even raping (Taylor, 2013). Drug abusers have metal problems especially those who abuse drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, and heroin. Strong drugs have adverse on the human brain. Thus it affects the thinking of the users and eventually kills the conscience. Lack of life conscience reduce human person ethical standards and resultantly makes an individual engage in activities that are prohibited by the social morals and federal and state laws. In the neighborhood where most of the African Americans live, insecurity is high due to the reason that most of the people in the neighborhood ignore laws. Guns are used carelessly by the young drug abusers since they are always insecure considering that they protect drugs they possess. Diseases such as HIV/AIDS, syphilis among other sexually transmitted diseases kills most of the African American males who abuse drugs. About 80% of the persons infected with transmitted sexual diseases are the drug abusers, and about 75% are the African American male who abuse drugs and alcohol. African America young male is known to be participating in explicit functions where drugs and alcohol are abused and engaging in unprotected sex In (Ḳaminer & American Psychiatric Association, 2016). People under the influence of drugs are likely to engage in unprotected sex with women they do not understand their sexual status.
The political, economic, legal, practical, and ethical aspects of the Substance Abuse of African American Males
Political
Factors contributing to the Substance Abuse of African American Males. Recently President Donald Trump declared opioid crisis a public health emergency because drug abuse among the United States citizens has become worst and needs to be controlled through big and wide campaigns across America (Patterson, & Graham, 2018). Despite Donald Trump’s August 2017 vow to spend a huge amount of money to fight drug abuse, he did not inject additional funds into the epidemic that has distracted communities particularly the African American male. Many people are losing lives due to the abuse of the prescription painkillers to the street drugs such as heroin and lethal drugs such as fentanyl. According to Donald Trump, drug overdose is the biggest killer more than the gun and accident related deaths. Thus he urges the political leaders in the United States to act as the Ambassadors of the fight against drug abuse. It is also quite unfortunate that most of the drugs channeled to America are linked to some politicians and security officers. Therefore, it is high time for every politician to serve Americans with due respect to avoid some allegations in relation to drug trafficking.
Economic
The small share of the income from the sale of the drug to the male African Americans contributes to the economic development as to how other legal drugs contribute. However, spending more money on buying drugs that kills and deteriorates the human health is not advantageous to the general economy putting into consideration that healthy nation is more productive than the unhealthy nation. Therefore, if the drug abusers will argue that they contribute to the money circulation and economic development, then they need to be enlightened on the broader impacts of the drug abuse in the community. Drug abuse impact on the employment status and productivity. Young people are supposed to be more productive at the workplaces, but analytically relation between drug abuse and unemployment is directly proportional (Belgrave, & Allison, 2016). Many organizations prohibit drug abuse in within their premises thus most of the drug addicts are rejected since most of them cannot work effectively especially when the drug content decline in their bodies. In general consumption of the illicit drugs among the African American male-limited their chances of entering the workforce, while the frustration triggered by failure to find employment favors drug consumption, hence creating a vicious circle. The price elasticity of drugs in the united states is high because whenever the scarcity of any product is high the prices are high thus forcing the drug abusers to deep more into their pockets to buy drugs and avoid investments that could have contributed to the economic development and for these reason most of the African American male who abuse illicit drugs prefer living in poor neighborhood because they prefer spending on illicit drugs and alcohol instead of acquiring good standard houses.
Legal and ethical aspects
Screening African American male for drug abuse raises key legal and ethical concerns. It is difficult to for the security or the health officers to check about an individual’s drug and alcohol use while continuing to respect that individual’s autonomy and privacy (Gullotta & Gregrich, 2011). Screening African Americans male for drug abuse is difficult because it raises issues in relation to the marginalization based on race and social standards, despite that it is legal to investigate anyone on drug and alcohol abuse. Whether a person screening is a clinical officer, staff member at a senior center, adult protective service worker, pharmacist or a staff member at a long-term care facility, legal and ethical issues still arise because a drug abuse or addict needs thorough consent which is difficult to make. Most of the drug abusers neglect legal and ethical matters that are supposed to be followed by every American; for example, many people do not focus on educations, treatment, and rehabilitation because they believe drug abuse is a lifestyle and civilization little do they know that drug abuse is illegal and an unethical act. In reality, the systematic regulation of drugs must be given through identification of clear parameters; for example, the parameters that state the way people are supposed to use drugs since most legal drugs are being abused. Abusing legal drugs has complicated legal and ethical standards that are supposed to protect the society against illegal drugs since people have become creative thus they use legal drugs to make illegal substances.
The Personal, Professional, and Ethical implications on the society
Personalities matter a lot in connection to the drug abuse among the African American male. According to most researchers, African Americans suffer esteem issues due to high racism in America (Belgrave, & Allison, 2016). Most of the African American are victims of racism and negative remarks from the native or Whites. Since most of them are frustrated and depressed, they tend to engage in drug abuse as a way of reducing frustration they get through discriminations. Therefore, personal issues contribute to the abuse of the substances in America particularly the African Americans.
Professionals conclude that substance abuse is common to the male African Americans since it has been historical matter. Therefore, choosing to abuse substances is contributed by social factors such as the social classes and peer pressure in the society. It is argued that in professionalism among the people in the community matters because those people who handle in blue color jobs are more likely to abuse substances as compared to the people who always spend most of their times in the offices handling white color jobs. People believe that abusing substance reduces fatigue and stress that are encountered during working hours thus many people prefer taking alcohol or any other stimulating drugs as a way of cleansing all the stress encountered during the day or working hours. Professionals in the healthcare sector advise people to avoid drug or substance abuse since they understand the impacts of drug abuse to the society; for example, healthcare professionals who understand the welfare of the society advocate that substance abuse can cause social issues such as insecurity and immorality in the society.
An ethical person understands the differences between the right action and wrong action or thoughts. Thus a society made of ethical human persons understand that substance abuse is wrong and therefore, such society embrace avoidance of all illicit drug and other illegal substances. Contrarily, the society where most of the people are not ethical is likely to engage in drug abuse since they do not understand they understand the negative impacts of the substance abuse by they ignore and resultantly abuse drugs and cause some negative factors such as insecurity, diseases, and poverty in the society. In conclusion, it is important for the African American male to consider acting ethically to void all the negative social feature that is seen in a various neighborhood dominated by substance abusers.
Research Proposal
The priority is the African America male since they are the individuals who make the population. In the population, some few individuals will represent the entire population (will act as the Sample). The best place the population can be allocated is the key areas where the majority of the neighborhood are the African Americans. Seeking consultation for the legal authorities such as the police department and the healthcare authorities will be necessary because according to the research ethics it is important to seek authority as a way of exercising ethical procedure for the study. The realistic time to conduct the research is daytime particularly during weekends when many people are not working. Thus they can be located in the recreational areas such as social play fields among other areas where people spend their times during weekends. About 50 people can be a reasonable sample for the research since interviewing 50 people cannot take much time and resources. 50 respondents can take about 500 minutes if every individual can take about 10 minutes to answer all the questions in the questionnaire and make some remarks. The most appropriate statistical method which can suit this research is sampling method since the entire population cannot be interviewed.
The Importance of Substance Abuse of African American Males Research
Research on the ‘Substance Abuse of African American Males’ is essential to the entire society because drug abuse is deteriorating and killing young men in the society. Men play an important role in the society since according to many types of research men participate more in economic development than women putting in consideration that men engage in all activities regardless of the energy and skills needed, unlike women who do not play a big role in activities that require more physical energy that cannot be handled by machines. In regards to the health concerns in the United States, it is important to understand the problems that cause substance abuse among the African Americans (Patterson, & Graham, 2018). The results of this research can be applied right from the personal level to the government level to solve the problems that cause substance abuse in the society.
Conclusion
Research on substance abuse is a health and security sector concern, but according to the rate in which young people are subjecting themselves to the illicit drugs and alcohol, it becomes everyone’s concern since it affects everybody considering that it affects economic development, security, and relationships among the United States.
References
Belgrave, F. Z., & Allison, K. W. (2016). African American psychology: From Africa to America. Thousand Oaks, Calif. [u.a.: Sage.
Forman, J. J., & Overdrive Inc. (2017). Locking Up Our Own. S.I.: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
Gullotta, T. P., & Gregrich, J. (2011). Handbook of Evidence-Based Substance Abuse Treatment in Criminal Justice Settings [recurso electrónico]. Estados Unidos: Springer New Y
Hatch-Maillette, M. A., Beadnell, B., Campbell, A. N., Meade, C. S., Tross, S., & Calsyn, D. A. (2017). Heterosexual Anal Sex Among Men and Women in Substance Abuse Treatment: Secondary Analysis of Two Gender-Specific HIV-Prevention Trials. The Journal of Sex Research, 54(1), 33-41.
In Ḳaminer, Y., & American Psychiatric Association. (2016). Youth substance abuse and co-occurring disorders.
Mayer, K. H., Wang, L., Koblin, B., Mannheimer, S., Magnus, M., Del Rio, C., ... & Piwowar-Manning, E. (2014). Concomitant socioeconomic, behavioral, and biological factors associated with the disproportionate HIV infection burden among Black men who have sex with men in 6 US cities. PloS one, 9(1), e87298.
Patterson, G. T., & Graham, W. K. (2018). Clinical interventions in criminal justice settings: Evidence-based practice.
Rutledge, S. E., Jemmott, J. B., O’Leary, A., & Icard, L. D. (2017). What’s in an identity label? Correlates of sociodemographics, psychosocial characteristics, and sexual behavior among African American men who have sex with men. Archives of sexual behavior, 1-11.
Taylor, G. R. (2013). Practical application of social learning theories in educating young African-American males. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
Zapolski, T. C., Baldwin, P., Banks, D. E., & Stump, T. E. (2017). Does a crossover age effect exist for African American and Hispanic binge drinkers? Findings from the 2010 to 2013 National Study on Drug Use and Health. Alcoholism: clinical and experimental research.
