drugs is NOT an excuse! __ #2

"Assiociation is not Causation", written by Richard J. Gelles & Mary M. Cavanaugh is about whether or not drugs and alcohol can used as an “excuse” for violence and aggression. One thing that boggled my mind is the evidence that they have to prove that the way people behave when they are “drunk” or are drinking is how their society tells them or shows them how they should be acting (page 2, paragraphs 1 and 2). I find this so interesting because that means that when people I know are drinking, they probably really aren’t even really “drunk” or intoxicated, they are just pretending. They are doing it for show because that’s how you are “supposed to act” when you are “drunk”.

 That fact that all these studies prove that all past studies are wrong and that in fact violence and drug abuse do not go hand in hand, is also something new to me and I think that this should be shared more. I think that these two writers did a lot of basic research; they researched the aspect of society of how people are in groups and around others when they are drinking and they expanded their knowledge and understanding of this topic. They applied their research by directly addressing their issue and publishing this article and then they publicly released it so that others can read it and expand their knowledge and understanding as well.

 I also found the statistic that fewer 20% of men were legally intoxicated in 1974 when they were arrested for domestic violence (page 3, paragraph 2), very interesting because most of the time you hear “I was drunk and didn’t know what I was doing” as an excuse for beating on their wife when in fact that excuse is wrong! I mean there is no excuse for beating on someone period, but now no one can really blame it on alcohol because it’s proven to be wrong! And the fact that some drugs, like marijuana, are proven to actually reduce violent behavior is new to me too.

 I think the fact that this article really opened up my eyes and taught me a lot of new things, proves the fact that society chooses what is acceptable and what isn’t. Just recently a friend told me that her boyfriend hit her and the first question out of my mouth was, “Was he drunk?” She replied, “Yes,” and I just shook my head. Now I know that that is not an excuse!