Addiction is a multi-dimensional issue and dealing with it requires a holistic approach. Addiction is not just an individual’s problem; it is a societal issue as it causes collective harm and collective efforts are required to tackle it. But society often ostracises and stigmatises the addicts, excluding them further. One of the key elements involved in the therapies is societal acceptance and a feeling of belongingness. But most of the time, society shies away from its duty to support its individuals when they need it the most. At a time when society should step up and hold the hands of the needy, it shuts the doors right on their faces. The stigma created by society leads to their further exclusion, exacerbating the problem.
Experts deem addiction as a preventable and treatable issue. But generally, this is not the approach adopted by society. Many people stereotypically deem addiction as a vice requiring no further action. Some even feel that such persons “deserve” to suffer. This view driven by purity-pollution values and an “us versus them mentality”resolves nothing. Some so-called “social champions”, driven by political ambitions, deploy harsh methods such as violence and humiliation to deal with addicts. Some personalities also try unscientific and illogical ways to resolve these issues, but all in vain. Harsh methods deployed to deal with addiction do not work in the long run. At best, they serve short-term personal goals.
Ethically, addicts are humans with rights and duties who fail to claim and perform them because of their temporal incompetency. Nobody willingly wants to ruin their lives. Circumstances lead to a chain of events and people end up being addicts. Such circumstances often are a result of poverty, exclusion, trauma and so on. Thus, the causes and effects of addiction are similar. The myth that rich people are prone to addiction has been proven wrong by various surveys which have shown that most of the addicts are from not-so-affluent backgrounds. Multifarious reasons could push one into substance abuse, most of them being beyond one’s control. Displaced people, people living in ghettos, and victims of abuse often resort to substance abuse as a means to cope. What they needed was help, what they got was addiction. If somebody is to blame for this, it must be the cartels running such nefarious businesses, exploiting the needy.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime describes “alternative development” as a process of nudging families involved in cultivating psychotropic substances into cultivating alternative crops. They cultivate psychotropic crops mostly owing to a lack of decent income from other traditional crops. The weakening rule of law and its link with organised crime are what pushes families into such traps. This leads to a rise in addiction and very few people are able to seek help owing to poverty. Women find it more difficult to seek help than men due to the stigma involved. Such issues could be dealt with only through collective efforts, effective policies, and societal acceptance.
Addiction causes human resource depreciation and a huge loss to the economy. Its proceeds are used to further finance criminal activities. From a macro perspective, this appears to be a governmental issue. But on societal and individual levels, we can contribute by being aware of these issues and lending helping hands to those who need it. This is how a healthy society functions. It is ironic that people cite Gandhian values to condemn addiction, but fail to realise the Gandhian idea of hating the crime, not the criminal.
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