Are Americans Killing Themselves

Are Americans Killing Themselves

Introduction

This essay is based on the topic that 'Are Americans Killing Themselves'. I believe that it's true that American are killing themselves due to variety of social and cultural problems such as prevalence of high obesity rates, smoking, exercise, risk taking behavior, stress, illegal drug use, suicide, domestic violence etc. Some of the main issues facing America in the war on drugs are that the main drug dealers are located in Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and several other countries in the region (Becker, 2013).

Like most types of offenses, crimes committed by juveniles in United States have increased since the mid-twentieth century. There are many theories about the causes of juvenile crimes, which are regarded as particularly important within criminology. This is because the number of crimes grows enormously between fifteen and twenty years. Second, any theory on the causes of crime should consider juvenile crimes as adult criminals probably have had a start in crime when they were young.

Similarly, obesity in American society is also a huge threat. Factors that contribute to obesity can be complex, ranging from poor nutritional and behavioral habits to genetics and cultural. In absolute terms, obesity occurs when more calories are consumed than burned.

Discussion and Analysis

The war on drugs has been going on since over 40 years, but there is not much visible evidence that it is being successfully fought. Although, the war has been fought on various fronts, it has not done much to resolve some of the main issues. With the drug market still booming, the war on drugs can be considered a failure for the country as it has so far lost billions of dollars. Studies show that around 20.4 million US citizens consume drugs and addiction has reached to a point where around 20% of the youth are involved in its consumption. Although there are several recovery and preventive strategies, not all the programs are effective and it totally depends on the efforts of the individual under treatment. I strongly believe that efforts need to be made in order to change the approach adopted by the government against those who consume drugs. There is a question of whether these people should be treated as criminals or abusers since they have not commit a major crime by consuming a substance that is banned. Therefore, the individuals who consume drugs should be treated in a way by which they can later return to normal life and avoid the consumption of this substance (Wallace-Wells, 2007).

Furthermore, I perceive that stressful life events of American contribute to obesity, for example separation, deaths, abuse. People who have stressful environment tend to be overweight. The population of obese people in US has been three times what is used to be 25years earlier, because of variations in food availability, lifestyle and amount of food people tend to take. Food is getting better and available with more choices and types. And because of easiness and quickness people are inclines towards fast food, which are commonly ...