Drug Abuse: The age old social pariah

Drug Abuse: The age old social pariah

Drug Abuse is an increasing problem in our affluent societies and carries great social and economic costs through its impacts on crime and health. From a neuroscientist’s point of view addiction is increasingly seen as an organic disorder of brain function; if this could be better understood we might be able to offer more effective treatments to addicts.

The consumption of any psychoactive drug, legal or illegal, can be thought of as comprising three stages: use, abuse, and addiction. Initially the user may consume the drug simply to obtain the resulting pleasurable or other beneficial effects. If the use of the drug escalates to the point where it is interfering with the ability of the user to function normally, use may turn to abuse, and if drug consumption increases further the user may become addicted.

Now, one wonders what are the instigating factors to drug usage, well there are many, however,  a few important and most common ones are; genetics, easy access, peer pressure – which is pretty common in Pakistan.

Some factors of a person’s life that may cause them to seek relief; such as financial pressure, problems at work, loss of loved ones or other negative experiences. One other important factor which is not pondered upon is psychological makeup: a person may turn to drugs if they lack self esteem. The drug makes them feel better, because it fills a gap that they are incapable of filling themselves.

Pakistan became a major exporter of heroin in the 1980’s, following the influx of Afghan refugees escaping the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The presence of a large drug industry in Pakistan leads to a redistribution of income from the poor to a few rich individuals (aka drug lords), who control the trade.

Like many of the country’s other human development problems, the issue of drug abuse touches the most vulnerable: an interesting fact is that the majority of drug users in South Asia belong to the poorest strata of society. Not to mention, injecting drugs is a major cause of spread of HIV/AIDS among the younger generations.

Albeit, there are many effects of drug usage, dependence is a major problem that arises from the consumption of psychotropic drugs. The compulsion to use the drug despite any deterioration in health, work or social activities is known as dependence.  Dependence varies from drug to drug in its extent and effect; it can be physical or psychological or both. The greater the dose and duration of consumption, the greater is the risk of dependence. A person might develop tolerance which is the gradual decrease of a certain dose as the drug is repeatedly taken.

Moreover, it is established from research that there is not only a nexus between drugs and crime, narcotics and terrorism are also directly related.

All the manifestations of this grave social disease have to fought at all levels; individual, parental, community, societal, administrative, legal and of course educational. All stake holders must play their role to fight this menace which threatens the national and international well being of people.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=1367

Posted by Momina Khan on Oct 25 2011. Filed under Opinion, Pakistan, South Asia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry