Drugs Affecting Mental Health
Marques Q. Chino
Pueblo of Acoma
Drugs Affecting Mental Health
Marques Q. Chino
Pueblo of Acoma
In the article “Substance Abuse in the Indigenous Community” by Kristen Fuller, she states that the Indigenous population is at risk of its future. Being how things are now rather than before a couple of years ago, alcoholism is the primary source of what young indigenous people are being pulled into at such a young age. Native Americans are on the edge of losing their identity by still trying to modernize in a society that views them in a discriminated way of all the stereotypes, which is one reason why young indigenous youths are turning towards substance abuse. Study shows that if Indigenous communities are at a high risk of being forgotten because of intergenerational trauma that leads into chaotic events within a young Native youths life, could affect its future generations even more severely. Programs and support groups are reaching out to the youth so that they can encourage them to be who they are as Indigenous people, rather than being a typical stereotype that the rest of the population views them as.
Global Connections
The article “Facing drug addiction: Vietnam’s struggle with opioids” by Dang Hinh Hieu, Benjamin Gray, Dang Hinh Tuan, and Benjamin P. Colman, discusses the long history of Vietnam’s drug abuse, being that the country is known for its producing opium poppy fields and drug trading. Vietnam’s government and authorities are now discussing if drug abuse is now a health problem rather than a social emergency considering that each year the country has one of the highest death rates in the East and SouthEast of Asia. Although the cases of deaths have increased over the years, Vietnam’s government and authorities have made a huge difference in the decrease of its production and drug trafficking by encouraging more education, focuses role on families, communities, and civic organizations. For now even though this situation may have decreased by reaching out to the community more, it's still a huge problem that not only Vietnam itself but also globally as well and it's really the choice of the people to help bring a stop to this drug pandemic that's increased rapidly each year.
In the article “Fentanyl and COVID-19 May Have Made the Opioid Epidemic Even Deadlier” by Tara Law, discusses the issues of Illicit Fentanyl has made its presence now in the U.S. since the Covid-19 pandemic first broke out. “The recent surge in drug overdose deaths shocked even some of the most jaded observers of American addiction: 100,306 dead from April 2020 to April 2021, the first time the toll topped six figures in a 12-month period, according to provisional data from the National Center for Health Statistics.”(Law). Fentanyl has since become one of the most rapidly deadliest narcotic to ever hit the U.S. hard since the Heroin hitted hard during the mid 70’s and late 90’s. Drug traffickers and users are now starting to favor fentanyl than any other type of substances that’s out there but researchers are now finding out that drug producers are now lacing fentanyl with other unknown substances that are more deadlier than a regular prescription of legal fentanyl. Not only has it become popular, authorities are now finding fentaly in communities that they themselves would not question about, so far the highest distributions are found in low income and inner city communities. Even without the pandemic, the opioid epidemic has gotten worse than ever since last year.
Addressing the issue in the video “Turning 12-Year-Olds Into Drug Dealers' ' by VICE, explains the crisis of Drug dealers in the United Kingdom are now using children to be runners for their crime organizations. Specifically the reason being is that children are the most vulnerable in a person’s life and when you can control them by fame of money and power and also by the threat of violence that occurs, people like drug bosses or people of high ranking can use them to their advantage. Asha Taranbi was an ex County Line Former Gang member who herself was drawn to the dark underworld of drug marketing as a child by first hanging out with people who were already affiliated with the business, it started off by going to parties or just hanging out, then it turned into favors of can you hold this or can you do this for me. Soon it was already too late she had been involved in too much to the point she was initiated into the gang and started dealing. Neil Woods an Chairman of Leap Europe and Ex-Undercover Cop said “There is two very common instances, One is where the child is given a load of drugs and then robbed at knife point, but what the child doesn't realize is that the people who gave them the drugs are the ones to set that up. Another common instance is sexualized black mail, the child male or female has happened to both, are filmed in sexually compromising situations that can be black mailed in very intimidating or very terrifying ways, thats keeps them really working as a slave labor.”(Woods, 00:05:31 - 00:06:00).
Bibliography
Armstrong, Jeanette. “Sharing One Skin: The Okanagan Community,” in Jerry Mander and
Edward Goldsmith (eds), The Case Against the Global Economy. San Francisco, CA,
Sierra Club Books, 1996. Pp 460-470.
Avalos, Natalie. “What Does It Mean to Heal From Historical Trauma”.AMA Journal of Ethics.
https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/what-does-it-mean-heal-historical-trauma/202
1-06. Accessed 16 November 2021.
Fuller, Kristen. “Substance Abuse in the Indigenous Community”.
https://discoverymood.com/blog/substance-abuse-in-the-indigenous-community.
Accessed 17 November 2021.
Perry, Horse G. “Native American Identity”. New Directions for Student Services. Wiley
Periodicals Inc. 2005. Pp 61-67.
“Substance Abuse and Native Americans”.The Red Road.
https://theredroad.org/issues/native-american-substance-abuse. Accessed 17 November
2021.
“Understanding Historical Trauma and Native Americans”.Native Hope
.nativehope.org/understanding-historical-trauma-and-native-americans. Accessed 26
October 2021.
Shorting, Matthew. “Intergenerational Survivor and Healing”. Tedx Talks. Tedx Winnipeg.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecgXgHQySiE&t=620s. Accessed 17 November
2021.
In the article “Sharing One Skin: Okanagan Community” by Jeannette Armstrong, she recognizes and represents our community by learning about the importance of being a community and identifying as humans. The four main capacities that you carry is physical self, emotional self, thinking/intellectual self, and lastly your spiritual self. Physical self opens up our senses in our minds and body senses that help guide us through life, Emotional self is about being one not only as yourself but with the world which is how we connect both to land and our community that helps by keping as whole. Thinking/Intellectual self is best described as reasoning which helps us understand how to perform certain tasks. Lastly, Spiritual self is being one with human and nonhuman entities, it's this interrelationship that helps us understand how things work when we are gone. With all these changes in the world and different outcomes, we are to always remember who you are and who you identify as because without it we wouldn’t be at peace with ourselves.
In the article “Native American Identity” by Perry G. Horse (Kiowa), it has been best described as there is a huge change in Indigenous lifestyles from the past when our Ancestors first came and settled, to today our current life of how we depend on Social Media and Tik Tok. Blood quantums are being discussed on how a piece of paper from the federal government and tribal government can determine whether or not we have Indian Blood. Another topic that was mentioned was about how language and education were dominated by white people, basically cultural domination was influenced on us Native Americans. Although colonialism had holded our traditional way of life and made us feel vulnerable without it, we still remind ourselves that we need to keep on believing in us as our Identity. The Indigenous Identity that does not remain on a piece of paper that says “Certificate of Indian Blood”, our Identity remains within ourselves. We may be living differently than 100 years ago but we will not forget our Identity as Indigenous People.
“Understanding Historical Trauma and Native Americans” by Native Hope is expressing how young Native children were taken from their families, being later on stripped away from their identity. The system of how society was being taught, made Natives feel as if they were to be ashamed of their identity as Indigenous people. According to Dr. Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart, she states “cumulative emotional and psychological wounding over one’s lifetime and from generation to generation following the loss of lives, land and vital aspects of culture.” (Dr. Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart). Historical trauma is a major overview that goes through in today’s society which is a reason why families of all Native people have experienced a huge trauma of impact in their lives because an occurrence that had happened in the past can replicate later on in the future. Today many Natives still live in the shadow of history that was hidden for many years, but now we are slowly starting to find our voice also to seek the true identity that was forced out of us many years ago.
In the article “What Does It Mean to Heal From Historical Trauma” by Natalie Avalos, she is expressing how for the last 2 decades Native Americans have experienced the most trauma than any other human ethnicity throughout history. Also to the fact that not only does trauma affect one person who has experienced in the past but in fact comes to show that this trauma can genetically pass onto one generation to the next making trauma intergenerational. Colonization is mainly the key role of what led Native Americans to experience so much trauma throughout their lives which is now defined as Structural Violence. Structural Violence basically means in my opinion taking one's rights away but is still given partial needs to get by, which led Europeans to take full advantage upon Native Americans. By this traumatic perspective that had a huge impact on Indigenous people, it made us feel vulnerable to the point we still struggle culturally and spiritually to this day.
“Intergenerational Survivor and Healing” presented by Matthew Shorting, he describes how he himself experienced being an Intergenerational survivor. His words express how dramatic events are changing the way people see themselves now rather than comparing it to what our ancestors have been through. Being a survivor of structural violence is something that he still faces to this day because being taken away at such a young age and being put into foster care really did feel as if he was stripped away from his mother. Poverty is what he feels that led him to become part of a cycle that keeps repeating itself over and over again which he defines as Structural Violence. Also, he made a point to overcome the feeling of being a pattern by addressing not to blame others but to change the environment which would lead to changing people's perspectives upon others. Historical Trauma that he describes in his opinion is not something that could change within a heartbeat but is something that we indigenous people could learn and accept to help others who are in need of helping overcome their own dramatic events.
Referring to “Substance Abuse and Native Americans” by The Read Road, it addresses the current state of the issue that substance abuse takes upon young Native youths specifically Junior High and High School students. Regardless of Native Americans who represent so little of the population in the United States, yet have one of the highest cases of substance abuse in the entire country. Not only is substance abuse the main issue that Native communities still have trouble facing, but also the traumatic events that are still present in our society. In an attempt to resolve the issue of (substance abuse among young youths), Native American cultures and values have also been disturbed within that process. Native youths are abusing drugs and alcohol as a way to escape the reality of all the dramatic events that occur in their daily lives because of depression, suicidal behavior, violence, loss of a loved one, and loss of self-determination.
In “Substance Abuse in the Indigenous Community” by Kristen Fuller, she states that the Indigenous population is at risk of its future. Being how things are now rather than before a couple of years ago, alcoholism is the primary source of what young indigenous people are being pulled into at such a young age. Native Americans are on the edge of losing their identity by still trying to modernize in a society that views them in a discriminated way of all the stereotypes, which is one reason why young indigenous youths are turning towards substance abuse. Study shows that if Indigenous communities are at a high risk of being forgotten because of intergenerational trauma that leads into chaotic events within a young Native youths life, could affect its future generations even more severely. Programs and support groups are reaching out to the youth so that they can encourage them to be who they are as Indigenous people, rather than being a typical stereotype that the rest of the population views them as.
“Facing drug addiction: Vietnam’s struggle with opioids” by Dang Hinh Hieu, Benjamin Gray, Dang Hinh Tuan, and Benjamin P. Colman, discusses the long history of Vietnam’s drug abuse, being that the country is known for its producing opium poppy fields and drug trading. Vietnam’s government and authorities are now discussing if drug abuse is now a health problem rather than a social emergency considering that each year the country has one of the highest death rates in the East and SouthEast of Asia. Although the causes of deaths have increased over the years, Vietnam’s government and authorities have made a huge difference in the decrease of its production and drug trafficking by encouraging more education and focusing their role on families, communities, and civic organizations. For now, even though this situation may have decreased by reaching out to the community more, it's still a huge problem not only in Vietnam itself but also globally as well and it's really the choice of the people to help bring a stop to this drug pandemic that's increased rapidly each year.