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| Drug addiction impacts society, economy, public safety, women & children | | Kashmiri society no more a conservative society | | Jehangir Rashid
Early Times Report
srinagar, Nov 23: Kashmiri society is no more a conservative society and various ills associated with the modern life have virtually upset the social equilibrium that was intact for the past hundreds of years.
Over the years drug addiction has come up as a huge social problem in the Kashmir valley. The impact of drug addiction on the overall fabric of society can be felt at multiple levels. The drug addiction has assumed alarming proportions over the past few decades and there is immediate need to tide over the crisis.
The policy document for Drug De-addiction for Jammu & Kashmir has spelled out the various impacts of drug addiction. The impact can be classified into categories like impact on society, impact on economy, impact on public safety and impact on specific population. When it comes to the final category it may be further classified into impact on women and impact on children.
"Over the years, drug addiction has become an area of gross concern. Our society had remained free of this menace for many centuries. However, times have changed and so have social benchmarks, moral values and economic avenues," reads the policy document while touching upon the social impact of drug addiction.
The policy document further reads, "The disintegration of family norms, strains of living a reasonable life in a rapacious world, struggle for existence in a competitive society have all destroyed the basic supportive framework of the society. Drug abuse in the last few years has increased manifold and is fast proving malicious to the society by causing physical, psychological and intellectual decay."
It says that there has been increased morbidity and mortality, enhanced crime rates, decreased productivity and wastage of economic potential of young generation. The policy document spells out three areas under the economic impact of drug addiction can be classified.
"Economic effects can be broadly measured by the resources spent on law enforcement, drug policies and other efforts aimed at drug interdiction which are actually the resources not spent on education, healthcare, employment etc. It can also be measured by the cost of treatment and rehabilitation services including burden on acute emergence care," reads the policy document.
The policy document says that impact of drug addiction on economy can also be measured by the cost of drug itself to the individuals and families that go into debts. It can also be measured by the cost of lost human productivity from morbidity and pre-mature mortality caused by substance use.
"Driving in intoxicated state impairs perception, attention, cognition, coordination and increases reaction time that leads to accidents (risk to self and others). Drug addiction also leads to increase in crime rates and violence in the state," reads the policy document while touching upon the impact of drug addiction on public safety.
Touching upon the impact of drug addiction on specific population the policy document says, "Gender differences have been identified as huge determinants in the onset of addictive behaviors, including drug abuse. Women are acutely affected by particular consequences of drug abuse, such as sexually transmitted diseases and domestic violence, in addition to being more likely to be affected by drug facilitated crime."
It says that parents who abuse drugs are more likely to live in homes in which relatives', friends and strangers also use drugs thus exposing children to possible emotional and physical harm. Additionally, children that have to be removed from such environments are more likely to engage in crime, drug use and delinquency. |
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