Our modern societies are beset with a number of issues, drug abuse or addiction being one of the most serious one. Needless to say, it has become a major problem in our lives and continues to ravage countless innocent families.
Drug abuse is a chronic, relapsing brain disease that is characterised by compulsive drug seeking and use, despite its harmful consequences. As the cases reveal, drug addiction undoubtedly has a severe impact on our public health, its tendency to encourage crime, cause disease, poverty and destruction of family life. The initial choice of taking drugs is deliberate, but its repeated use is indicative of its addiction. Habit of any structure is dangerous. What is considerably more terrifying is that for the most part, children and young people continue to suffer, many fatally.
Most of the drug abuse starts at the age of 16 to 17 years. It starts with just smoking and gradually sinks man into the trap of drug use. Economic burden, anxiety, psychological problems, violence, disturbed family environment and peer pressure are some of the main causes of drug abuse. Laws and policies designed to control drug abuse and regulations on drug addicts has not brought any major change or desired outcome in our societies. Therefore rehabilitation of drug addicts has become an urgent necessity.
Before it’s too late, we all have to pay close attention to this serious hazard. The government, primarily, should focus on curtailing the abuse of different kinds of drugs and ensure that effective safety measure have been taken. At the societal and our individual levels, we must contribute strongly in annihilating this issue.
Drug addiction is preventable and can be successfully managed if all responsible citizens of our society whether they are social workers, parents, teachers and health care workers, provide their contributions in educating youth about drug abuse. In addition, it is a major responsibility on parents to interact with their children and shape their minds in a direction which is productive and keeps them occupied in works beneficial to them and the society as a whole. The one area where we as parents need to work is in our interaction with the children. We must not, in any case, put undue pressure on them to achieve high grades in exams or make them unnecessarily chase some goals that will inevitably land them in this hazard. Parental control including the healthy home atmosphere is one of the effective tools in tackling the menace of drug addiction.
The author is a Ph.D Scholar at Jiwaji University Gwalior and can be mailed at tariq.mir50@gmail.com