Escaping horror of drugs

by Dhaneshi YATAWARA

Let’s call him ‘Sirimal’. This nineteen year old young man is on his revamped search for his lost life. Sirimal is stranded in life not knowing which way to turn. His love for addictive depressants, better known as drugs, made him lose the grip of his life. His father, a bank officer and mother, a devoted housewife presently undergo a life-long struggle to save ‘Sirimal’ who is receiving medication at the ‘Nawadiganthaya’ Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre in Nittambuwa.

There are many like Sirimal trying to escape from the deadly habit of consuming drugs at Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation centres run by the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board at ‘Sethsevana’ in Thalangama, ‘Mithsevana’ in Galle and ‘Methsevana’ in Kandy.

World Temperance Day fell yesterday (October 3), and it is timely now for us as responsible citizens to at least briefly review the present situation in our country.

Majority of this group is in their budding youth. Drug addiction, smoking and drinking inhibited the healthy growth of their life. In fact alcohol, tobacco and drugs stand in the way of healthy growth of society, and the negative impact on families of the users is severe. It greatly affects the economic well-being of the people. Out of an entire income of an average family, shockingly 2/3rd of it’s spent on alcohol, tobacco on an average.

Threat on the young

Gone are the days when youth advertising was believed to be a waste of financial investment on underage consumers, not legally allowed to purchase alcohol products and who have limited purchasing power.

The adolescent stage of life is well-known to be a tumultuous time, characterized by the often overwhelming desire ‘to fit in’. Adolescent behaviour frequently pushes boundaries, at times endangering themselves and others. Teenagers rarely believe that they themselves will experience any of life’s pitfalls.

Building a strong relationship and sense of engaging with the youth of the present equates to long term increased sales. The expansion of as future customers replaces the original customer base that will soon disappear from the market.

Addicted tobacco users Spot Survey:Alcohol & Drug Information Centre

Addicted alcohol users Spot Survey:Alcohol & Drug Information Centre

It is obvious how advertising and promotion target fun activities such as sports and cultural events close to the hearts of the young ones. This explains why the industry, worldwide, target sports, musical and cultural events. By sponsoring they try to create an image that alcohol use is fun, enjoyable, promote friendship etc. Yet, the effects are evidently proven to be the opposite.

“Intoxicants may have symbolic and ritualistic significance and they are widely used to provide excuses for social ineptitude, poor performance, bad behaviour and various other kinds of failure: There are no grounds for attributing to their pharmacological properties any feelings of well-being or joy that may be associated with their use,” says Dr. Hans Olav Fekjaer in his book ‘Alcohol and illicit drugs - myths and realities’.

He further states in his book that people, in self-handicapping, arrange circumstances in order to keep intact their self image of competence and intelligence and objects of attribution may be used for this purpose, notably drugs and alcohol. Intoxication is an alibi for defective performance and unacceptable behaviour. The offender is spared from feeling guilty and shame as the conventional view regarding an intoxicated person is that they are unaware of what they are doing.

The pharmacological effects of intoxicants - alcohol, tobacco and drugs - on mood and behaviour is mostly, neutral or unpleasant. Dr. Fekjaer states in his article that experimental studies with experienced marijuana users, who believe that they get a pleasant effect, do not get the same ‘pleasure’ when given pure marijuana extract or tetrahydro-cannabinol (THC) orally.

When opiates are given to medical patients or when craftsman accidentally inhale solvents, most of the affected people regard the psychological effects as unpleasant. The interpretation of the effects as highly unpleasant seems to be a learnt response linked to an intention to identify with user groups.

Studies have confirmed the adverse effect of alcohol on skill and performance. Experts believe that several societies later copied the unhibited drunken behaviour of colonist. In the book ‘Drunken comportment : a social explanation’ by C. MacAndrew and R. E. Edgerton states relating to a leading survey of anthropological research that “over the course of socialization, people learnt about drunkness, what their society ‘knows’ about drunkness, and...... become the living confirmation of their society’s teachings.”

Correcting misleads

“Punishing illegal drug users does not cure their addiction,” says Karunadasa Gamage, Director General of the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board.

“Thus we have taken new extensive measures to correct these people treating them as patients at our Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation centres. Those who were arrested by the police and produced before courts are directed to our centres,” Gamage said.Treatments are mainly psychological in order to change the attitudes of the patients thus changing behavioral patterns to that of a productive, optimistic person.

The Drug Dependent Persons (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act was passed by the Parliament in 2007 thus regularizing the treatment and rehabilitating centres spread islandwide. Any such institute must get registered at the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board and should adhere to the rules and regulations imposed by the regulatory authorities.

A special attention is given to compulsory rehabilitation in this Act. The Act states that where an Officer-in-Charge of a Police Station receives information that any person is a habitual user of dangerous drugs and has since become a drug dependant, the OIC should take necessary steps to examine that person by a Government Medical Officer and upon the report the person should be produced before a magistrate and according to his judgement the person who is found to be a drug dependent should be directed to a Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation centre run by the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board.

Strengthening the law

Conventions against Illicit Traffic in Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act was passed in 2008 by the Parliament. It regulates and gives permission to authorise and monitor a long list of chemicals that are used as synthetic drug ingredients.The overall goal of the Government in relation to the drug problem is to reduce the drug supply and drug use, at least to the barest minimum possible. To achieve this goal, programs such as ‘Mathata Thitha’ were launched with all drug law enforcements directly involved in it - all responsible to meet the objective.

The Government has adopted a broader approach to drug abuse control within the context of human development, focusing particularly on the link between drug abuse and poverty reduction, crime prevention and improving health.

It is a strategy where supply control and demand reduction will reinforce together.

A high sense of shared responsibility will be the norm.Yet the intensified promotional effects by the industry have greatly obstructed the policy measure introduced by the Governments of the developing world controlling consumption of these intoxicants.