101972731ToniSharpSOC10004

Sociological Imagination

By

Toni Sharp

SOC10004

Samuel Teague

08/04/2019

Swinburne University

Sociological Imagination on Drug Use and Abuse

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Conceptualization of sociological imagination by Wright Mills gave a new breath of

ideas of understanding the social concerns. Mills describe sociological imagination as the

capacity to intellectualize how individual experience are influenced through historical social

forces that have conditioning effect. One of the social issues in the modern Australia is drug

and substance abuse.

According to Anon (2019), it was noted that more than 3 million people use illicit

drugs. The endemicity of the substance and drug abuse is highest among the teenagers and

the youthful population. The drugs that are mostly abused are opiates, cannabis,

amphetamines among others. It is a problem that need to be understood from the prism of

sociological imagination. This calls for extrapolation of the current problem retroactively to

examine sources of historical social forces that could have socially conditioned the current

generation into substance and drug abuse.in Australia the social economic status plays a

significant role in those who abuse drugs. For instance, majority of those using illicit drugs

are the lower social economic class where hawking of these drugs is common.

Development of drug and substance abuse among teenagers is gradual and is brought

about by numerous social economic and generic factors. To begin with, genetic factors play a

significant role in drug and substance abuse. In most cases, more than one member of the

family engages in drug and substance abuse because of genetics. Normally those with genetic

factors to drug addiction have been predisposed to these substances in their early years hence

making it difficult for them to resist. People whose relatives use drugs have a higher risk of

indulging in substance abuse. In addition, identical twins have a high risk of both taking

alcohol in case one of them starts drinking, while in the case fraternal twins one twin might

use drugs and the other does not (Fitzgerald 2015). Finally, the human brain chemistry which

is unique to each individual, is essential in addition to alcohol. For example, alcohol releases

dopamine, hence people with lower dopamine levels which is a genetic factor are likely to be

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addicted to alcohol since less dopamine leads to a stressful life and poor quality of living.

Thus, the use of alcohol can play a role in alleviating stress and increasing the levels of

dopamine in the affected individuals.

Overtime there, Australia has experienced use of different types of illicit drugs

among people depending on their cultural background, or historical time. in the early 20th

century, tobacco and marijuana was common, however with stringent laws in trading of the

commodities the drugs were replaced by cocaine and heroin. Secondly, most children learn

and copy their behaviors by observing people whom they adore. Secondly, family ties are

very important in the wellbeing of teenagers. According to Palmer et al. (2015), children with

a strong relationship with their parents or siblings are likely not to engage in the use of illicit

drugs. On the other hand, those children who have been sexually or physically abused or with

family members who take alcohol are likely to engage in the taking of the drugs. In addition,

children growing in an environment where there is easy access to drugs are likely to be

addicted at the end of the day. Often the social environment affects teenagers who start using

drugs by imitating their friends, peers or classmates for acceptance by friends or desire to

look cool. For young people when they start using one drug, they develop an urge to

experiment another (Müller & Homberg 2015). In most cases, drug use starts with the most

common like cigarettes and alcohol then followed by harder drugs like cannabis and heroin.

Sexual and physical abuse in children and adolescent can also lead to abuse of drugs.

Normally victims result in using drugs to deal with emotional problems resulting from

difficult experiences and end up being addicts. In addition as (Mills 2000) illustrates, gender

plays a role in drug and substance abuse men being the most affected.

Finally, through social imagination it is much easier to understand some of the factors

that promote drug and substance abuse. Genetic factors, environmental factors, and social

factors play a role in the menace of drug and substance abuse. Thus, proper understanding of

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this factors in the light of social imagination, it is much easier to prevent young people form

engaging in trading or abusing drugs.

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Reference list

Anon, 2019, ‘Drug abuse’, retrieved April 8, 2019, from

<https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/drug-abuse>.

Fitzgerald, J 2015, Framing Drug Use: Bodies, Space, Economy and Crime, Palgrave

Macmillan UK.

Mills, CW 2000, The Sociological Imagination, Oxford University Press.

Müller, CP & Homberg, JR 2015, ‘The role of serotonin in drug use and addiction’,
Behavioural Brain Research, vol. 277, pp. 146–192.
Palmer, RHC, Brick, L, Nugent, NR, Bidwell, LC, McGeary, JE, Knopik, VS & Keller, MC

2015, ‘Examining the role of common genetic variants on alcohol, tobacco, cannabis

and illicit drug dependence: genetics of vulnerability to drug dependence’, Addiction,

vol. 110, no. 3, pp. 530–537.