A social issue that I feel is affecting my ethnic and cultural group drug addiction. I’m from the beautiful city of Espanola located in Northern New Mexico. Sadly Espanola has been labeled the heroin capitol of the world. Growing up many members of my cultural community died of overdoses and were arrested for drug related crimes. Growing up I was constantly surrounded by this saddening issue that after a while it became part of my reality where it began not to phase me. It is not until now that I reflect on the issue that I realize how serious and sad it is that I became numb to the issue. This issue affects more than just the individuals involved in drug addiction. Growing up there were countless families torn apart because of drug addiction. …show more content…
It was heartbreaking for me to see a man that I looked up to and cared for become an absolute stranger. It was even harder to see what my aunt and baby cousin went through. My aunt lost the love of her life and my cousin lost his father. I still love and miss my uncle and would really like to help him, but he decided a while back that he didn’t want help and didn’t want to be contacted by the family anymore. According to an article by MetLife Foundation, they found that drug use among the Hispanic population especially in Hispanic teens. The article states that “Since 2008, Hispanic teens’ past-year use of any illicit drug has increased 20 percent, past- year use of marijuana is up 25 percent and past-year use of Ecstasy is up 36 percent” (MetLife Foundation, 2012). In a separate article by the NSDUH Report, they believe that it is important that we begin to address health and health care disparities experienced by Hispanics. The article states “Hispanics who needed substance use treatment were less likely than non-Hispanics to have received treatment at a specialty facility in the past year (9.0 vs. 10.5 percent)” (NSDUH Report, 2010). Both of these articles show that drug addiction among the Hispanic population is growing and we need better facilities to