Measures to Reduce the Impact of Drug Addiction - Essay Example

Discussion Board Introduction: The effort to reduce the use of addictive drugs by declaring a war on it has not borne fruits and the rate of addiction is on the rise in almost all parts of the world. . New concepts of legalization, decriminalization and harm reduction as ways and means to cope with the menace of drug addiction have been brought into place in some countries and being seriously considered in many other countries. Controversies have arisen over the efficiency of each of these measures and as to which of these measures is best adopted in communities around the world. Irrespective of this, the consideration of alternatives to the drug on wars is to accept that the war on drugs over so many years has not yielded the desired results. An understanding of each of these measures provides a means of assessing the potential of these measures and addressing the shortcomings. Decriminalization of Drugs: Drug addiction has not really been accepted as a social problem in communities around the world. There is a tendency to ignore this growing social problem and the war on drugs has pushed the distribution of all kinds of drugs used into the hands of criminal elements of society. Decriminalization of drugs attempts to make drugs available through more legitimate channels with a degree of control and thereby remove distribution of drugs through the criminal elements. To understand the working of this measure an examination of its use in Holland would be useful. In Holland drugs have been classified into hard, which includes heroin, cocaine and ecstasy and soft, which is cannabis. In the case of cannabis the possession of small quantities for personal use is seldom held against the person having it, but more importantly it is the fact that cannabis has been made available through cafes and removes the criminal element from the distribution of cannabis. The problem with this measure is that the use of the soft drug cannabis could lead to the use of hard drugs and hard drugs are still clamped down heavily in Holland. A possible way out of this is to make the hard drugs available at chemists and sold through prescriptions under strict regulations so that the involvement of criminal elements is removed. Still this does not remove the issue of the move from a soft drug like cannabis to a hard drug like heroin or cocaine by a soft drug user. On top of this, tourists visiting the country would pick up either the habit or the drug and carry it across to their country. There is yet another significant problem, in that crimes related to drugs have not reduced in any significant manner despite the decriminalization of cannabis. That this measure is not as effective can be seen from the fact that the drug deaths in Holland still remains higher than that of the United Kingdom, which still maintains a hard policy on the availability of drugs. (Decriminalisation: Lets go Dutch?). Drug Maintenance and Harm Reduction: Drug maintenance and harm reduction go one step further than decriminalization of drugs. Under the measure of drug maintenance and harm reduction not only are drugs made available to maintain the users of hard and soft drugs, but also the means to administer the drugs like injection syringes are provided for. The rationale behind the measure is that by making all kinds of drugs available drug users can maintain themselves on the drugs that they are using without having to approach the criminal elements of society to maintain their addiction and the free availability of syringes reduces the impact of dreaded diseases like HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis, which could result from multiple use of the same syringe by those addicted to hard drugs. This measure does provide the benefit of decriminalization of drugs and an additional benefit in the reduction of the chances of contracting dreaded disease like HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis. The issue that really needs to be tackled which is the reduction of the use of drugs is hardly addressed by these measures. It is not that such measures are not available. They are and to neglect drug treatment strategies with methadone and buprenorphine is to look at the issue from just the side of reducing the criminal element participation of the and reducing the possible harm that comes from the means to administer these drugs and ignore the harm that society faces if the large use of drugs continues. (Sabet, Kevin. (2005). Why ‘harm reduction won’t work?). The use of drugs does come at a cost to both the user and the society. In case of the individual drugs do still cost money even if the means to administer them are provided free of cost and this money would be taken out from savings or from reduction in essential domestic expenses. This could have a negative effect in the social life of the individual. In case the earnings are not enough the individual is likely to turn to criminal activities to fund the drug use. The example of Holland and the lack of any reduction in drug related crime despite the easier availability of cannabis come in handy here. In addition there is the likelihood that the use of drugs is also likely to affect the productivity of the individual and this loss of productivity is a loss to the society in general. Moving further into the social impact of these measures without any attempts to reduce the habit of using drugs would only lead to more members of society and in particular the vulnerable young and weaker segments of society being attracted to its use with the greater availability. The perception that the use of drugs is an accepted norm in society like social drinking is likely to develop and once that happens, it would be very difficult to eradicate or reduce the use of drugs in any society as can be seen in the case of the use of alcohol, which has become very difficult to remove from society with the element of social drinking as an accepted norm of society. Alternative Measures: The benefit of decriminalization is the removal the criminal element from the distribution of drugs and the role that they play in it. The benefit from maintenance and harm reduction is the reduction in the possibility of drug users contracting diseases like HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis. The alternative measures need to address the deficiencies of the measures and that is in the lack of any kind of drug use reduction with these measures. The alternatives that are being suggested are thus to be used in conjunction with these measures. In the first place communities around the world need to accept that drug use is a social issue that needs immediate and adequate attention. Intense social education and social activity including publicity of the harm that the use of drugs brings about is a must and this may be considered on the lines of the activity against smoking. With this education against the harm of drug use it would be possible to wean away some of the users of drug users and also prevent the younger generation from considering the use of it. To assist the role of social education and social activity in weaning away drug users from the habit, it is necessary to popularize the drug treatment strategies and use it more effectively in the reduction of drug use. This could be again in the lines of drug treatment strategies to reduce the habit of smoking with nicotine patches. Some may argue that the cost of drug intervention strategies is high and especially if it is made available free of cost. The counter to that is, if society can make injection syringes freely available for a life time use of drugs to an individual addicted to drugs, this is a small cost to bear in the reduction of the growing number of individuals getting into the habit of using both soft and hard drugs. Conclusion: There are benefits and demerits in any of the measures that are considered to reduce the impact of drug addiction. The possible solution to this is to use the measures in conjunction, so that the merits of one set of measures make up the demerits of the other set of measures as the approach of using any single measure is likely to fail as has been seen in the war against drugs. Literary References Decriminalisation: Lets go Dutch? (2000). Retrieved December 20, 2005, from, BBC NEWS. Web site: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/693257.stm. Sabet, Kevin. (2005). Why ‘harm reduction won’t work? Vancouver Sun (British Columbia). Retrieved December 20, 2005, from Drug Prevention Network of the Americas. Web site: http://www.dpna.org/3harmreductionsabet.htm Read More