By Mattimi Passah
June 26 every year is observed as the International Drug Abuse Day and theme for this year ‘Share Facts on Drugs, Save Lives.’ Perhaps it is fitting to share some of the realities about drug use in our city. This article is based on a study titled ‘Patterns of drug addiction, its determinants and treatment compliance of patients conducted during the month of February to April, 2019 in selected drop-in centre in Shillong.
From the secondary data that were obtained from the records of both the centres of the last five years (2014-2018) of 714 registered clients, here are the some of the findings; 75% of the registered clients were initiated into drug use between the age of 16-25 years, 23% between the age of 26-35 years and 2% fall under the age group of 36-48 years. Majority of the registered clients were found to be unmarried at 77%, married 13%, separated 4% and divorced 3%. The educational status of the clients who registered in the centres is primary level 22%, upper primary level 24% and 22% secondary level which means that when they get into drugs they usually drop-out from school without completing matriculation. It was found that 41% of the registered clients are unemployed, 16% part-time employed, 11% full-time employed, 13% are students and 12% self-employed. 98% of the clients visit the centre through outreach workers’/peer educators and only two percent come on their own. The most commonly used drug is heroin and is used by 84% of the clients, followed by nitrazepam 10%, bhang and ganja 51%. Of the registered clients that relapsed, 39% dropped-out and 10% are on regular treatment.
The interviews were conducted with 24 clients who are on oral substitution therapy from both the centres of which 19 respondents were between 19-23 years of age, 3 were between 24-28 years and 2 above 48 years of age. 18 out of 24 respondents had more than 10 years of schooling, 2 completed higher secondary school and 1 was a graduate. 15 of 24 respondents were unemployed, 7 were full time employers and the other 2 are self-employed and part-time employed respectively.The types of drugs used by majority of the respondents were found to be heroin, some of them apart from heroin, use pharmaceutical drugs at some point or the other. They also used cocaine, weed, ganja and dendrite. 20 of the respondents started using drugs between the age of 15-20, 3 of them started between the age of 21-25 years and 1 respondent at the age of 45 years. 7 of the respondents sought help or come for treatment after 3-4 years of using drugs, 6 after 1-2 years, 5 after few months of drug use, 3 after using drugs for 5-6 years and 3 after using drugs for more than 10 years.
Reasons forinitiating drugs
Being with friends : The most common reason for initiation into drug use is peer pressure or being in the company of other drug using friends. Most of the respondents say they were initiated into drugs because they were influenced by their friends or boyfriend or husband. They see their husband or boyfriend taking drugs every day and even if they try to convince them to stop taking, they refuse, so they also start taking drugs. It’s a case of “If you cannot beat them, join them.” It was also found that they started using drugs because they have friends who are already using drugs or who are already addicted to drugs, so while hanging with those friends they were initiated into the habit. They initially resisted but later on when they see their friends taking drugs regularly, they also experimented and liked it.
“I started when I met friends. Initially I used to say that I hate drug users and didn’t even want to look at drugs. Then one day my cousin added it in a cigarette and I got to taste it and I enjoyed that trip” – Male, 19
Stress : The other reason why people get into drugs as mentioned by the respondents is stress, due to family pressure or because parents do not understand them. They are being judged by others; looked down by society, depression due to unemployment even after having graduated. Not getting proper care and love from the family, personal problems like getting divorced, tension, loneliness are some of the other reasons. One respondent also mentioned that he started taking drugs with a cousin and also because his dad had just passed away so he felt free and dared to do these things.
Some who are alcoholics and were fed up with life came to know about drugs from their friends. They were convinced that drug use would change them but once they started using, they unknowingly became addicted to it. But unlike alcohol in the case of drugs the suffering or withdrawals are worst.
“Initially I was an alcoholic. I was fed up with that life and wanted to change. Then I met a friend and shared my feelings with him. I told him frankly about what I felt and how I really wanted to quit alcohol. Then he told me that I should take heroin as he knew one other friend who had just start using heroin to get over alcoholism. It seems that when he started using heroin he no longer wanted to use alcohol.” – Male, 23
Recreation : The respondents were also initiated into drug use because they were curious to experiment with but later developed a liking for it after trying it once. Most of the respondents mentioned that they started volitionally for fun and enjoyment and to get a high.
“I wanted to try so I took up their offer once but after that one time I got hooked and since then I started using drugs every day and can’t live without them” – Male, 22
“She did not force me; I myself wanted to try out drugs. I wanted to know how it looked. My friend gave me a little to taste..And .from then on I started liking it”–Female, 21
Lack of awareness : Many of the respondents are not aware of the harmful effects of drugs so they started using them. If they had known the ill-effects of drugs, they wouldn’t even have touched it.
“When we started using drugs we still had money to buy them. The seller also would say that if we take drugs nothing would happen. It was only after three-four days that the body begins to crave for drugs” – Female, 21
“We did not know that it would become such a big problem. If we had known beforehand, we would not have used it, in the first place” – Male, 21
To build confidence : Some respondents also said that their confidence level increases after they use drugs and it makes them active and strong. They feel ready to do any kind of work and they don’t feel lazy. Often they will clean the house and sometimes feel so active they even wash clothes at 1am.
“When I started taking drugs, I developed confidence. Earlier I was a very shy person and didn’t talk much even in school. Also I’m very quiet but after taking drugs I started having confidence. I had the guts to talk and started making friends with other people” – Female, 43
From the study we can conclude that in order to prevent drug addiction more awareness about the ill-effects of drugs is needed for school going children. We ‘Need to catch them young’. Families should be open and accept the reality if their children are using drugs, and seek immediate help from service providers. On the other hand the community should be made aware so that there will be no discrimination and stigmatization against the users. The other finding of the study is that mostly drugs users were introduced to the service providers only by peer educators. It is important that parents, the community and teachers interact with service providers available near them to be able support drugs users in need of help.
(The writer works for the Centre for the Study of Complex Malaria in India, Indian Institute of Public Health Shillong and can be reached at [email protected])