Addicted!

With an estimated 100,000 addicts, drug abuse is a serious problem, but cause for concern is the toxic cocktail that’s being used to retain the high:

Living in violent households where at least one parent uses narcotics or abuses alcohol, many young adults today are increasingly at risk of becoming victims of substance abuse themselves. And many adolescents are indeed experimenting with various forms of drugs, which they inhale or inject into their bodies. Of this group, more than a few are likely to end up as addicts, while the rest are more likely to put such experiments behind them as they mature.

Yet the tragic fact is that all of them will suffer from negative health impacts. For even a small amount of these harmful drugs, which are often a cocktail of other harmful drugs, is likely to take a toll on their health.

A drug addict can be anybody, for drug addiction is non discriminatory. Although 98% of drug addicts in Sri Lanka are males, women are also being drawn into this habit, many of them being sex workers who have been forced into taking drugs by their male partners who are often involved in the peddling drugs. Increasing these women are used to sell drugs to young drug addicts.

Chairman of the National Drugs Control Board, Dr Nalinga Samarasinghe, in this interview with the Sunday Observer, answers a wide range of questions about drug abuse, its health impacts, sexually transmitted diseases and say though Sri Lanka with 2.5% drug addicts rank below the global average of 5%, the actual official and unofficial numbers show a huge disparity, with the estimated number being 50,000 and the more likely figure being in the range of 100,000, although he admits no head count has been taken to verify the latter figure. Pointing out that official figures are based on statistics sent from hospitals and clinics which drug addicts have visited for various reasons, he explains only a few addicts will actually admit to taking drugs and that neither they or their parents or guardians are willing to voluntarily give out this information .”So what we are left is estimated statistics.”

Excerpts:

A: Step out into the streets and see for yourself the number of drug addicts roaming the streets, especially in urban areas such as Colombo, Galle, Gampaha and Kandy. You will see them sleeping on pavements and bus stops.

Or pass them while they hide themselves in alleys and dark corners so that they can’t be seen as they inject themselves or inhale drugs.

The numbers are many but my guess is it could be over a 100.000, as this vicious trend is gradually infiltrating our rural villages.

A: Although the prevalence rate is high, the actual level of consumption of pure drugs is low. This is because what they are actually taking is really a mix of a lot of other drugs, which though harmful to health, may not affect their brains as much as taking pure drugs.

A: They range from lactose to powdered diazepam, panadol and aspirin to kurakkan flour and crushed mosquito coil.

They give the effect of heroin or marijuana or some other drugs consumed here, but don’t have the same impact that pure drugs have. What is more dangerous is that drug traders double the amount of these extraneous agents just to make an extra buck.

So a 100 gram of heroin bought from a street vendor would actually consist of an additional 100 grams of a ‘drug cocktail.

A: They are wide ranging and have increased due to the proliferation of new and more dangerous narcotics appearing on the scene in recent years.

A: Some of the major problems arising from inhaling of drugs relate to chest and respiratory diseases. Their lungs get weak .They become prone to Tuberculosis (TB).

A. TB has a six month regime, which patients are required to complete in order to be cured.

In the case of drug addicts, many of them don’t complete this course and go back to the streets only half cured. This can cause Multi Drug Resistance TB (MDR TB), for which there is no medication.

A: The symptoms are similar to TB such as persistent coughing, blood in sputum, weight loss, sweating at night, fever.

A: When heroin is burned it forms a thick smoke, which has a typical shape of a Chinese dragon. Addicts who use this method, usually inhale the smoke through a drinking straw.

A: Yes. If you are travelling in a bus or train be careful of the person you sit next to.

He could infect you and the rest in the bus or train compartment he is travelling in, just by coughing and releasing the infected droplets into the air. Always cover your nose with a handkerchief, if someone seated close to you is coughing.

STD

Roads most dangerous

According to Police Narcotics Bureau sources, some of the most notable areas in Colombo where the prevalence rate is the highest and where such illegal deals are struck and the products thereafter distributed by street dealers, are Magazine Road, Serpentine Road, Grandpass, Dematagoda, and Kunuela in Wattala.

Dr Samarasinghe says the drug dealers are now increasingly using their women folk, usually their wives, to lure more addicts to the business. “However we have not found any evidence of children being used for this business as most men, although willing to exploit their wives to do their dirty business, will hesitate using their children as they have told us they don’t want their children to become drug addicts,” he says.

A: Most drug addicts are not concerned about personal hygiene. They also have many sexual partners who could carry STDs that could infect them if they aren’t infected already. They also use injectable utensils like syringes, cotton swabs and heat blood in test tubes, mixing it with lemon juice to prevent clotting. Because they share these utensils with others, they have a high chance of getting Hepatitis C and HIV as well as other blood borne diseases. Hepatitis C is a blood borne disease, which is incurable and spreads rapidly. It affects the liver and one can also get hepatic cancer.”

Treatment

Q. What is the usual treatment given to a drug addict? Are there special rehabilitation and treatment centres for them?

A: There are five rehabilitation treatment centres run by the State, and between 20 and 30 run by non-governmental orgainsations. Most of the time we use non drug treatment methods or modules such as counselling, faith based treatment, community based modules.

A: Faith based modules involve prayer and meditation. The community based module involves allowing an addict who has been rehabilitated but gone back to his old habit to tell his story while others in the same group share their own experiences on the same theme.

A: We also use a narcotics substitute treatment method, where we offer patients alternative drugs with less impacts. But the danger is they could become addicted to this substitute.

A: Persons with drug problems need to have regular programme which they will follow through. They need more trained counsellors whom they can trust. We also need volunteers from the community to prevent these kids from going back to the streets once they are discharged from the Rehab centres.

We also need to have more life skill programmes to empower them with vocational skills. Once discharged from the rehab centres, they also need to get a regular employment to keep them off drugs.

A: We hope to use social media to get our message across to young people who are vulnerable to drug addiction. Using TV, e-mail, twitter to give short messages and cartoons on drugs, and street dramas will appeal to the target group more than lectures and discussions, which bore them. We have set up a Volunteer forum to help us.

A: 2020 has been set as the deadline for Sri Lanka to reach its goal of a Drugs Free nation. For this to become a reality, we need the co-operation of everyone – from school heads to office managers to corporate heads to politicians and the clergy.