Growing up in an environment that ranks very low on the social class spectrum, I witnessed the consequences of drug use, abuse, and arrest. Now that I am an adult, I can see the effects of drug use and all the fallout that comes with it, so I have to ask myself, “What can I do to understand better what is going on throughout the United States and what can I do to help it”? When I began to read about drug abuse in the United States, it was clear that countless people have attempted to make a difference in this area. Some with a degree of success and others with little to no impact all. Also, discovered that throughout the literature on drug use there are countless theorist who have something to say about the issue. The problem here is that the information is so convoluted with information that contradicts each other that it 's hard to make sense of what the real issue could be. I could infer that because there is so many different theories on the subject that scientists could be obscured by their intellectual field of expertise, meaning they cannot see the forest for the tree in front of them, or scientist have yet to fully understand the real issue behind the complexity of this crisis.

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Through the lens of executive leadership, I would like to take a look at this problem. Executive leadership brings a new vantage point that bridges the gap of psychology, sociology, addictionology, and a host of other narrow perspectives that have the potential to limit an accurate depiction of the real issues if only viewed from one field. The unfortunate part of this undertaking is that the problems of drug use in the United States has one substantial obstacle that hinders scholars and practitioners from fully discovering the roots of drug problems and just how deep and wide they go. As a means of addressing drug use, the United States has largely viewed drug use as a criminal behavior, so people who use drugs are issued convictions when they are caught, which creates permanent barriers to gaining employment, housing, and even education. Moreover, the individuals that are most likey to use drugs are young people who are experimenting and will develop beyond drug use as a priority. After decades of fighting a war on drugs, it has been determined that the United States has been unsuccessful at having any lasting effect of drug use with a judicial approach. Instead, we have contributed to the problem by arresting people in droves which has inadvertent consequences on families and communities, “From the executive leadership perspective, how does a first-time arrest alter the trajectory of an individual’s life”? I hope to discuss this matter with senior executives that work with first-time, non-violent, drug offenders in their respective fields.

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I also chose to look at the African-American population because the literature supports the claim that one in three African-American males will face prison time for a drug conviction (Gray, 2012; Hari, 2016; Hart, 2013). That’s significantly higher than any other group of people. With this is mind, I can preclude that there may be a synergistic effect between mass incarceration and its effect on the individual, family, and community of those who are arrested, which further promotes the use of drugs in those communities.  

 

Gray, J. P. (2012). Why our drug laws have failed and what we can do about it: a judicial indictment of the war on drugs. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

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Hari, J. (2016). Chasing the scream: the first and last days of the war on drugs. New York: Bloomsbury.

 

Hart, C. L. (2013). High price: drugs, neuroscience and discovering myself. London: Penguin Books.