Substance Abuse Trends in the United States

Substance abuse has been a serious challenge in the United States. Illicit drug use has been on an increase in recent times though a decreasing trend was generally observed as from 1979 to the 1990s. There are some instances where illicit drugs are considered culturally acceptable especially for medicinal and ritual purposes. Despite all these, substance abuse has led to many health and social problems in the U.S. mainly due to the addiction thereof. Some of the illicit drugs in question in this case include cocaine, marijuana, tranquilizers and analgesics used for non-medical reasons, hallucinogens and heroin among others.