By Alex Byanyiko
If God who created us gave us a free will, then there is something very important about freedom. The history of mankind is the history of wars for the sake of freedom. No matter how powerful an oppressor is, if he or she continues to trample on the freedom of others, one day such people will have no choice but to revolt.
The first problem I observe amongst drug addicts is the inevitable loss of their freedom. They can exercise their free will at anything else but their cravings for drugs. They are absolutely helpless when it comes to that. Some do not even realize when they are addicted to the substances they take. They imagine it is just a social habit or pleasure, but it is much more than that.
1 Corinthians 6: 16 says: ‘All things are lawful unto me, but not all things are expediant: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.’
Addiction is a power and an agent of bondage. It has both scientific and spiritual perspectives, but that is beyond the scope of this article.
I will like to discuss the dangers of drug addiction under four categories. This, by no means, is exhoustive. But it is just a few points to drive home my message which, by the way, most people are already aware of or have experienced it directly or indirectly.
SOCIAL RISK. Research has it that most people who start to take drugs in their young age are most vulnerable to addiction. This is because while growing up, the human brain is being developed. When exposed to substances at that stage, the brain grows so dependent on it that it becomes almost impossible for the affected person to quit thereby constituting a problem for the family and the society. Young people are mostly dependent on their parents or guardians. If they become addicted, it becomes a herculean task for their parents or guardians to raise them up properly.
Teenagers are suseptible to being influenced by their peer groups. So if these group of people become addicted, they are most likely going to persuade a lot more of their mates into using drugs and eventually becoming addicted. And since young people are usually adventuorous, drug addiction drives their adventure into sensless crime in the society that mostly lead to the destruction of their own destinies. Instead of becoming productive citizens or members of the society, they end up being a liabililty or dead.
Most substance dependent parents can be abusive to their partners and or their children, especially when under the influence of drugs. Sometimes, when they are not abusive to their loved ones, they are wont to abdicating their responsilities, because they often have to use their limited resources to assuage their cravings. Children who feel or are neglected usually suffer inferiority complex and that makes them susceptible to other forms of abuse or manipulation in the society.
FINANCIAL RISK is an obvious problem associated with drug addiction whether amongst working class individuals or dependent children and wards.
Drug addicts, especially the low-income earners, may always find themselves in financial crisis. No matter how pressing their other needs are, they always have to spend their money on drugs, before anything else. This reduces their purchasing power, leading to inability to meet their personal or family needs meaningfully. Sometimes some of them, especially the unemployed, are pushed into stealing not becouse they love stealing, but they are desperate to assuage their cravings.
In some situations, even when they were employees, some drug addicts lose their jobs becouse they pose a risk to their employers or their addiction leads them into some sharp practices.
CRIME FACTOR. Although connected to all the points raised above, drug addiction exposes addicts to crossing the wrong side of the law. In Nigeria, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) decree number 20 of 1984 provides for the imprisonment ranging from 15 to 25 years and sometimes life imprisonment for drug producers and traffickers. According to the act, “any organization that colludes with offenders to perpetrate a drug offence or to conceal proceeds from illicit drug trade is also liable on conviction to a term of 25 years imprisonment or two million naira fine.”
In addition, the NDLEA, in the amended decree number 33 of 1990, precribes a jail term of five years for persons caught abroad for trafficking as it brings “the name of this great nation to desrepute.”
The NDLEA has a wide range of powers which include investigating, arresting and prosecuting all offences connected to illicit traffic in narcotics and psychotropic substances.
One of the readers of my last article, a medical doctor, suggested this clause to me: ‘all drugs are poison, but not all poison are drugs’.
All drugs of addiction have serious medical or health risks. Common drugs include alcohol (which most people don’t know or believe that can be addictive), cigarrates (nicotine), marijuana (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, THC),cocaine, amphetamines, heroin, steroids, inhelants or solvents and other prescription medicines (in terms of drug abuse).
Because many drug users or abusers mix drugs, their health implications are often complicated. For instance, it is common to see alcoholics who are also addicted cigaratte or marijuana smokers. So, generally, illnesses associtiated with drugs of addiction include all cardiovascular diseases common among which are hypertension, heart attack, atherosclerosis, stroke and kidney failures. Various types of cancers, diabities and other reproductive diseases are also linked to certain drugs of addiction.
Even though it is common amongst mankind to fall sick or have certain health challenges, especially in their old age, drug addicts are at a greater risk of falling into life threatening health challenges.
As I earlier mentioned, there is much more than I will be able to cover in this article. But I have just simply attempted to point out the fact that using or abusing drugs have no sensible or meaningful benefits, but self-destructive consequences.
In the next article, which will be the last in this series, I shall attempt to make suggestions as to how we can prevent our loved ones from getting into drugs in the first place. This is the only effective and cheap way to fight this deadly monster called drug addiction.
Byanyiko is a scriptwriter, cinematographer and song writer. He writes from Abuja
