Things to Know Before Cursing Drug Addicts

Things to Know Before Cursing Drug Addicts   

Drug addicts are seen to be destructive to all of us and a threat to any form of security. We usually see on televisions, hear on radios, and read in newspapers about a lot of accidents happen almost every day because of drug using and how it kills, destroys families and ruins everything every human being can have. Drug abuse is increasing every day, making it one of the biggest problems on earth, concerning almost all the aspects of human lives.    

I live in a place where narcotics are rampant that even our government is considered one of the local government units in the Philippines doing what is commonly called narco-politics. With this notion, almost every day we heard different stories of these drug addicts and here are some of them.     

Poverty causing depression and ending up taking illegal drugs as a coping mechanism.   

Poverty is a very serious social problem. In a Third World country like the Philippines, it is the master of all criminalities. While we do not totally blame poverty as itself the mastermind of drug addiction as it is also a consequence, on the part of the ordinary people, of some capital monopoly and control of the elite class in the social hierarchy.    

They take drugs commonly the methamphetamine (meth) or what is locally named "shabu," to conquer depression and to skip from meal due to financial problem. According to them, a single "shabu" intake can last up to four to five times of skipping meals.      

Getting away from the discomfort caused by being bullied.   

Bullying on their part comes from being inferior from the rest of the people in their environment who have the standard of living as well as the looks and good figures portrayed as a model when it comes to what is accepted by the norms. They use the drug to gain confidence over the feeling of intimidation to cope up with the day-to-day living around them.     

Stress Reliever.   

Social and job pressures cause every individual to get stressed. Some technological advancement may bring comfort and ease from such pressures, but obligations are getting heavier. Although there are already remedies calming down the stress, most of the working people still refer to the use of illegal drugs as they produce the outstanding amount of energy cells to the body, making everyone who takes them to boost confidence. However, these illegal drugs are also well-known to have side effects.      

Drugs as painkillers.   

This sentiment came from the victims of underpaid and overworked heavy labor. In connection to the gathered data, they are the ones who come to work hungry, and yet do heavy weight lifting later. To cope up with the struggle, they are usually tempted to take illegal drugs. According to them, they only take the prohibited drugs for just that single matter.     

Unable to move on from the bad experience in the past lead them to the use of drugs.   

These are victims of flooding caused by typhoons, of fire, of some traumatic event happened in their lives and people who have lost their loved ones. Children are seen to be most of the number of victims who are usually experiencing great trauma running into them until their adulthood. While Psychology has the answer to this problem still their best choice is the use of illegal drugs.     

No bad intention at all, just a feeling of being high to be happy.   

When asked why they keep on using the prohibited drugs, these people would only tell that it makes them comfortable and feel easy in everything they do. They can do household chores better than the normal state of their mental condition. For some professionals, they can finish a lot of paper works and report once they take the drugs before their job.   

Just because they feel best to all the things they do, they usually end up being regular drug users. Drug addiction comes next when they already make it as their medicine or some supplements, which need to be taken regularly. Their bodies are already dependent on it.    

Normal people do not usually pay attention to the reasons behind drug tolerance. They can barely understand the motivation of tolerance on drug using and, instead, keep on labeling such people as criminals, killers, thieves, and, at worst, the combination of them all as if drug addiction is merely equivalent to these criminal acts. The increasing pre-concluded bad thoughts spreading across the nation and peers pertaining drug addiction without critical analysis has just led me to write this article, and it is hoped that, somehow, we can then put our minds to the power of reason and deep understanding on how this phenomenon has boomed as fast as the development of technology nowadays.   

This issue is just one of the factors of the imbalance of the society in terms of economic distribution, political roles, and even of cultural orientations. For instance, if you happen to be a member of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community, and you live in a place where 3rd sex is not recognized; you will probably suffer certain problems. In order to face such challenges in life, one thing you can do, especially when access to illegal drugs is easy, is to take the drugs to hallucinate yourself that is not really physically true.    

All societies have their respective social structure that normals which consist of the culturally accepted means and ends are established for the people to conform for some harmony in living. When there is a difficulty in achieving social goals due to inability to access the means constructed, there will be some violations and one of it is the use of illegal drugs. The main point of this is to explain that it is not the people who choose themselves to be drug addicts but the society itself that dictates people to choose to be such, so the blame was not on them but on the social structure because it can be possible to have a society that is free from illegal drugs if all the people within it can have the total access to the means and ends imposed in it.