Issue of Drug Abuse in a Film & Two Books
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Drug abuse is the central issue in three works--the film Less Than Zero, and in the books Prozac Nation and In Search of Respect. Each presents individuals or groups of individuals who are alienated from their time and place in society. Drug use is the way these individuals deal with their alienation, or rather, avoid having to deal with it and instead escape into another mental realm. This "escape" is not to a better existence, and indeed, all three works suggest that the drug existence is a hellish one. The film depicts drug use among the wealthier class, featuring a group of young people in Beverly Hills. Elizabeth Wurtzel in Prozac Nation is also a young person, but from a different social class and with a different family background leaving her effectively on her own at too young an age. The minorities in the barrio in In Search of Respect turn to drugs for a different reason--they are caught in an eternal present, with no history to speak of, and no future they can see. Young people are faced with a number of difficult decisions at a time when they are only forming their identity and discovering ways of presenting their self to the outside world. These three works point to some of the forces at work and the problems encountered in this effort, and the way the young people in the three works respond suggests similar themes in their lives. One thing that seems evident about the young people in all three of these works is that they have their own non-adult world
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e. The ideal of social equality in America is just that, an ideal and not a reality. Education should be a way for the young people in the barrio to fight their way out, but they see little evidence that this works and do not have the necessary conviction to make them do what is needed to achieve change. They have instead been convinced that change is not possible, and withdrawal into drugs is a result.
Bourgois observes the problems in the barrio and comes to certain conclusions regarding the drug war America is waging and the many casualties of that war. He sees the policy as misdirected and would suggest legalization as a way of breaking the criminal element in the equation, since legalization would reduce the price and drive street corner dealers out of business. Proponents of legalization offer a number of arguments for their point of view, three of which are as follows:
1) Drug use is a matter of personal choice and is an issue that is fundamental in a democracy based on individual freedom as protected by the Constitution.
2) The link between street crime and drug abuse would be broken by legalization.
3) The failure of law enforcement to win the war on drugs reflects badly on other law enforcement efforts and contr
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Beverly Hills, Search Respect, Prozac Nation, , Marek Zero, people barrio, prozac nation, search respect, University Press, Houghton Mifflin, people beverly hills, beverly hills, drug dealer, people beverly, people zero, law enforcement, people world, themselves people beverly, similar themes,
Approximate Word count = 1280
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
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