Writer: Md. Rashaduzzaman Razu
Drug abuse is a common incident in south Asian countries like Bangladesh. First, let us know what is Drug and Medicine? Because we have some misconception on the term of Drug and Medicine. The drug is any substance other than food that has a physiological effect when ingested or otherwise introduced into the body. Drugs are used for different purposes such as treating disease, relieving pain, recreation, and improving cognitive abilities. Drugs may have either positive or negative effects. On the other hand, Medicine refers to a substance that is used in treating a disease or relieving pain, and that is usually in the form of a pill or a liquid. Medicine usually has a positive effect on health. From the above discussion, we can understand that drugs and medicine are almost the same, the specific character that can differentiate drug and medicine is their Dose. Drugs don’t have any dose and medicine has a specific dose. We can also say that any Medicine that doesn’t follow any dose also can be considered as a Drug.
Drug abuse is now prevalent everywhere: in the house, streets, in the workplace, parks, slums, markets, and even in educational institutions both in rural and urban areas. The widespread abuse of drugs has become a human tragedy. In Bangladesh, about 80 percent of the drug addicts are adolescents and young men of 15 to 30 years of age. Young people abuse drugs due to complex social and peer groups influence, frustration, depression, a sub-cultural, and psychological environment that induce the youths to take drugs. Major risk factors responsible for drug abuse are family disorganization, parental neglect, parent-child conflict, loss of spouse strife, indiscipline, isolation, lack of emotional support, rejection of love, extramarital relation, overprotection, unemployment, repeated failure, and personality maladjustment, etc. Easy availability of drugs is also one of the major reason of the increased rate of Drug abuse.
The major drugs of abuse in Bangladesh are heroin, phensydyle, ganja, pethidine, tranquilizers, and polydrug abuse, especially by young and adolescents using inhalants or psychotropic substances in varying combination with or without alcohol. Some medicines are also used as drugs such as sleeping pills like Benzodiazepines, Clonazepam, and Barbiturates, etc. The most used medicine in Bangladesh is Paracetamol or Acetaminophen. People use paracetamol as puffed rice like for small pain or a slight increase of body heat or any slight inflammation they use paracetamol. This is not only bad for health but also decreases their body immunity.
The average cost of drugs per person was from 16tk to 265tk per day or from 60115 tk to 96505 tk per year. The economic impact of drug abuse included the cost of drug itself, health care expenditure, lost productivity, and other impacts on society such as crimes and accidents. The patterns and cost of drug abuse were investigated among 996 drug abusers some were admitted to a drug dependence treatment center in Dhaka, Bangladesh. [Medicine Today]
UNDCP, Bangladesh had organized a divisional workshop on drug demand reduction strategy in 1994-95 with the joint collaboration of the Department of Narcotics Control.
Physicians say weaning someone off drug addiction is difficult, but not impossible. Support from family and friends, professional help from doctors, and will power of the patient during inpatient or outpatient drug addiction treatment may help to end dependence on drugs.
Please don’t do drugs, if you do drugs you will go to prison, and Drugs are very expensive in prison!
Reference:
- Shazzad, Md & Abdal, Syed & Majumder, Muhammad & Sohel, Jahangir & Ali, Syed & Ahmed, Shamim. (2014). Drug Addiction in Bangladesh and its Effect. Medicine Today. 25. 10.3329/medtoday.v25i2.17927.
Writer: Md. Rashaduzzaman Razu
