Socio-cultural Context of Drug Addiction and Ways to Deal with It

Among many other problems, modern society today is faced with the problem of ‘Drug Abuse’. Drug abuse is a misuse of, or over indulgence in drugs resulting in physical or psychological harm to the individual involved in it. The World Health Organization defines drug addiction as ‘a state of periodic and chronic intoxication produced by repeated consumption of drug ( natural or synthetic)'.

The drugs may vary from prescribed medications to narcotic drugs such cocaine, hashish, heroine etc. The use of these substances produces a craving or a physical addiction, which leads to regular intake of these drugs and is called ‘Drug Addiction’. In severe cases the drug addict can neither lead a normal life nor survive without drugs.

Drug abuse is a widespread and critical problem not only for the Western countries today, but has emerged as one of the major point concerns for Indian society as well. India today has not only become a key transit of drugs, but also a large consumption centre. According to official figures, India has about 7.5 crore drug addicts and the number is going up significantly, especially in semi-urban and backward areas. The monthly drug sales in India varies between 100 crore to 125 crore rupees.

India’s location, between opioid generation and export capitals of central and south east Asia, may be one reason for the hold that these drugs have within the nation. Sociocultural changes and financial precariousness have cleared out a few people especially powerless. Household generation of opium and relatively open worldwide exchange policies- India is the sole licensed worldwide exporter of crude opium have contributed to the issue.

In spite of the fact that predominance of illegal sedate infusion in India is relatively low, at less than 1% of the entire population, current research and literature reviews estimate that there are between 180 000 and 1.1 million users of injected drugs in the country infused sedate utilize was concentrated within the north east of the nation, but quickly developing population of clients in Punjab and other states within the north west show modern challenges for care and administration.

The typical injecting drugs user in India is Male, aged between 15 and 35, uneducated and unemployed. Up to 20% of injecting drug users are female and even some users are under 18. In one of the studies 66% of female users are also reported engaging sex work in trade for drugs. The most commonly abused infused drugs in India are moderately powerful opioids such as buprenorphine, nalbuphine, dextropropoxyphene and dicycloverine, which are occupied and trafficked by for abuse.

Injected drug use has a negative impact on families and communities, it causes financial misfortune, affecting social disharmony, brings down self-regard, and advances social withdrawal. Substance abuse is related with expanded rates of crime, domestic abuse and motor vehicle crashes.

Users of injected drugs are more likely to die prematurely out of overdose and have increase rate of morbidity and mortality associated with other high-risk behaviours. Unsafe injection hones such as sharing needles and syringes are common, with rates of 58-95% within the north eastern states. These practices encourage transmission of HIV and hepatitis C. An assessed 9.2% of drug users (1650) in India are HIV positive., and in spite of broad of the broad accessibility of antiretroviral treatment only 11.7% of injecting drug users who are HIV positive receive treatment.

There are various causes of increasing drug menace in India, one of the main reasons is India sandwiched between two largest opium producing regions of the world that is the Golden triangle, (which comprises Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam) on a side and the Golden crescent (Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan) on the other side. Other than this their various more reasons also, like Peer pressure, financial problem, social neglect and poor implementation of laws.

The situation worsens because of limited treatment. Less than 6% of infusing drug users in India have access to opioid substitution therapy. Monetary and infrastructural assistance from the government to organizations combating medicate abuse remain negligible. The situation in India is more regrettable since there’s no government framework to identify and treat individuals from infusing of drugs and the country’s total wellbeing budget is as it were 1.2% of net residential product. India contributes ineffectively in healthcare in general, and mental healthcare remains an excessively dismissed area.

Research shows that different procedures are required to recruit a different cohort of infusing drug sedates clients into treatment and HIV prevention programmes. Focused on outreach by prepared workers remain the foremost successful implies of coming individuals for counselling, but it is additionally the foremost asset seriously as distant as people, time and concerned.

When comes to treatment then, no one has treated any significant number of medicate addicts, will wander the assertion that any treatment is fruitful in bringing around lasting cures in the majority of the cases. To create a temporary remedy may be straight forward matter. One can be in comparatively short time deprive the addict of his desires for the drug, build him up physically and to all construct appearances have him totally cured. But return the addict to his previous partners and frequents and in spite of the fact that he completely realizes how this habit has demolished the career, the person will not hesitate to take the vice again.

When the treated patient returns to his previous house, he is greeted by his old companions, who are quite solicitous that he has ‘being’ in case he needs it. As the ordinary drug addicts becomes much of enfeebled volition, he very often falls again. Obviously, the thing to do at that point is to remove the cured addict from his former environment and to place him in new surroundings with new companions or relatives who are on edge to lead him within the right path. This a path for social worker. The director of state hospital or other institution where the remedy is managed cannot be expected to do this ensuring work. As long as they are produced in the quantities they are today, the drug traffic will continue to flourish.

There are number of medications of the medicate compulsion, the best known and the most compelling being the Lambert and the Hyoscine treatments. To this there are modification. The progressive withdrawal strategy isn’t effective, and for the foremost portion has been discarded. A few addicts utilize the strategy themselves. They fill a bottle with saturated solution of morphine and every time they remove a syringe full of this solution, they return to the bottle a like amount of water. In this way the solution gets to be weaker and the addicts gets less of his drug as time goes on. He trusts inevitably to be utilizing plain water as it were, but this once in a while happens, for the monster breaks over and treats himself.

For treating drug addiction, all curative methods can be divided into two broad categories, ‘ambulatory’ and ‘institutional’. The ambulatory treatment is described as any treatment in which drugs are prescribed or dispensed to a patient for self-administration by the patient, so he has control and possession of drugs and is physician’s instruction. The institutional treatment is defined as any treatment in which narcotic drugs, if used at all, are administered by a physician or by a nurse under a physician’s direction.

Aamir Khan’s television show ‘Satyamev Jayate’ also dealt with this concept of alcoholism amongst Indians, especially the youth. It came out with a brilliant example of reputed lyricist Javed Akhtar, who confessed his obsession for alcohol he had almost 27 years. He confessed that it spoiled his life and was happy to come out of it. So, it is clearly also understood that until and unless the addict did not understand himself and tries to come out of the drug trap and take right path, no treatment will show any result.

Merely observing 26th June as the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking is not enough. All measures or compulsions even punishment should be laid to check the evil of drug addiction from spreading and paralysing the society. So then the world can see change in the rate of drug addiction.