The family unit is a society unto itself, dependent on certain rules and modes of conduct that should mutually support its members. However, stress and crises of varying kinds can force this functioning body to change in ways that can have detrimental effects on each member. Drug use can precipitate such a crisis. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how drugs, including alcohol, impact the family. As the research will show, life-long relationships, as well as the financial stability of the unit and the health of all members are affected as a result of these insidious substances.
"When people live together over a period of time, they develop patterns of relating to one another" (Lammana, 1991, p. 514). Any factor that disrupts these expectations marks the onset of a crisis. The insertion of drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, crack, barbiturates and alcohol, with their chemical dependency nature, can not only generate a crisis but force a total reorganization of the family unit (Lammana, 1991, p. 524).
Young people have been turning to drugs in record numbers over the last ten years: "They're getting high on everything from Raid to tea bags, and they're doing everything from stealing money out of mom's purse to turning to prostitution to buy drugs" (Polson, 1984, p. 6). Drugs are everywhere and they strike troubled families as well as those whose children are seeming achievers, good students, and athletes. However, a parent can also be the drug addict, a situation that creates its own set of variables that are just as destructive.
In addition, the public is finally learning how dangerous heavy drinking is, how many teenagers are alcoholics and, simultaneously, putting behind the notion that alcoholism amounts to just odd and strange behavior. Since 1935 the members of Alcoholics Anonymous have been telling society about the seriousness of alcoholism; Al-Anon has made public the news that relatives and friends of d...