Cost of Drug abuse and Preventive Strategy
-Leban Serto

Cost of drug abuse

There is an incredible loss of productivity due to drug abuse. Drug seriously effects how a person function on the job and in the social interaction at work. Studies have found that the substance abuser is often late for work, output is far lower them a non-user , and they make far more mistakes in spite of putting in extra hours. As addiction develops, drug abusers experiences 3 to 4 times more health problems and the job accidents that endangers the well -being of co-workers and the general public. Thus drug abuse has major consequences for business in terms of loss of productivity and in medical and legal cost. A person who is using drugs often resort to embezzlement and theft to support their addiction. All these factors greatly weaken the potential of states and nations to develop and maintain themselves as strong viable and stable economies.

Violence and Crime

Crimes also results from drug abuse having a direct correlations. Statistics have shown that there is direct correlation between drug abuse and violence. Since certain drug alike alcohol tends to lower the users inhibition, they contribute to violent behavior by provoking people to release their deep seated hatred and anger or the act upon desires which are otherwise socially unacceptable .Furthermore since these substance disrupt reason and judgment , a persons conscience or commonsense is suppressed. As a result they often cannot control themselves and act in regrettable ways. Alcohol and drug abuse are a significant factor in most spousal abuse cases and the statistics concerning child abuse read about the same. Although it is difficult to judge whether drugs are a genuine or spurious correlate of violence or under what circumstance drugs may contribute to the occurrence of violence, it is important not to discount or deny the obvious connections among drugs, disorder and crime.

Drug abuse, Relationship and HIV virus

Drug abuse can affect interpersonal relationship in many different ways. Human beings have the ability to relate to each other in confident, responsive and mutually satisfying ways. Drugs and alcohol can seem to facilitate social relationship by lowering inhibitions thus overcoming shyness and chemically instilling false confidence .The problem is that a persons genuine social skills may never develops and they may acquire a psychological reliance on drugs to manage all their different social relationships. Drugs are used as shortcut in an attempt to bypass the complexities of loving caring, emotional, commitment, communication and responsibility. What psychoactive drugs do is artificially manipulate the body's natural biochemical , imitating , stimulating , inhibiting or confusing true sensation and emotions about love, intimacy comfort and sexuality. Whatever temporary benefits of the companionship that are aided by this type of drug use are often achieved at the expense of one's safety and health. For instance, many drugs impair one's judgment and when judgment is impaired, there is a risk that a person will engage in promiscuous sexual relations without really being in control of their actions. Such behaviors greatly increase the risk of contacting the HIV infection, which is predominantly spread through sexual contact. With the rise of AIDS epidemic what is evident is that there is direct correlation between sharing intravenous drug needles and the spread of the HIV virus. It is believed that in the Northeast above 80 percentage of AIDS patients are due to the IDU users.. The reason is that small amounts of blood remain in the needle after use and sharing the same needle injects this potentially infected blood directly into the blood stream. In the US, the Center of Disease control says that infections among drug users and their sex partners are not the driving force in the US epidemic. In the New York City around 70% of intravenous drug users test positive for the HIV virus. AIDS has not scared people away from injecting drugs any more than it scared them away from having sex says, Don Des Jarlais, an expert on drug abuse at Beth Israel Medical Center, New York. Some people will do almost anything in order to satisfy their need for drugs.

Preventive methods

The development of strong social skills can be helpful to avoid reliance on drugs as an illusory aid in social relationship. Young people must learn the proper skill that will enable them to enjoy healthy and constructive relationship. The family environment is the most important factor in the nurturing of such social skills .As children experience healthy familial relationship they learn patterns that can be applied in the content of their extended social encounters. Many strategies have been employed to fight the world wide drug crises such as Treatment, Interdiction, Law enforcement and Prevention. The first three of these strategies primarily addresses the symptom of the problems, and in most countries exact the greatest portion of money spent on War against drugs. Whatever the cost in each of these areas are extremely high, particularly with regard to the actual results.Of course when there are drug addicts suffering in our communities, it is necessary to show compassion and provide adequate treatment to help them overcome their habits. However Drug dealers need to be deterred through severe penalties and prison sentence. Understanding the Global interdiction strategy is necessary to evolve an effective local law enforcement. But the fact can be that drug users who go into treatment have a high rate of recidivism and it is possible to interdict a very small percentage of all drug abusers. Prevention receives the least resource and gives the most promising results; An old adage " prevention is better than cure". Effective drug prevention programs must be long term , comprehensive designed to prevent use of any category of illicit drugs. They must include a wide array of components rather than a single strategy or curriculum .For example a comprehensive community based prevention program include components for individuals, families, school, media, health care providers, law enforcement official and other communities agencies and organization. Prevention programs should be geared to specific audiences and should recognize the specific needs, resource levels and infrastructure of each community. Communities , families and local religious leaders must make such a commitment to play a greater role in the preventive of drug abuse without their support no Government or Organization can be successful in the fight against drug abuse and drug trafficking.

State intervention and empowerment

What is required immediately is that the Government constitutes a high level committee to look into the problems of drug abuse in the State. This committee should be headed by nothing lesser than the head of the State to oversee the functioning, recommendations and implementation for effective results. Mediocre method should best be avoided.It has also become imperative that professional help are immediately sought for treatment, counseling and prevention. Much to the prevailing situation in all spheres of life, what is needed immediately in the northeast today with regard to the drug problem is to create awareness among the communities and to empower them with the knowledge to help themselves, with the rapid speed of cultural changes taking its toll, perhaps the old traditional methods are not sufficient, this is perhaps why newer method and approaches to the solution of the present problems are essential.