How drug addiction impacts individuals and society, and what we can do about it

International Drug Day is celebrated every year throughout the world on 26th June. This year, it was celebrated under the theme “The evidence is clear: Invest in Prevention.” It refers to any chemical substance that affects bodily functions, mood, perception, or consciousness. Overall, it affects the individual. In a sociological sense, if an individual is affected, it means society is affected because the individual is one of the functional prerequisites for society. In totality, it is harmful to both society and individuals. When anything affects individuals and society in a negative way, creating problems in social order, it becomes a social problem for society as a whole. In India, this problem is increasing at an alarming rate among the younger generation, leading to dangerous consequences for both families and society at large.
In 2018, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment conducted a “National Survey on the Extent and Pattern of Substance Use in India” in collaboration with AIIMS New Delhi. The survey findings are: alcohol is used by 14.6%, cannabis by 2.83%, and opioids by 2.1%. According to the World Drug Report 2022, India had the fourth-largest quantity of opium seized in 2020 at 5.2 tons and the third-highest amount of morphine seized in the same year. India created a unique record by destroying 10 lakh kg of drugs worth Rs 12,000 crore from June 2022 to January 2023. The main areas from which drugs are transferred to India are Vietnam, Thailand, and Myanmar, known as the Golden Triangle, and from Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan, known as the Golden Crescent. According to the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), 70% of total illegal drugs are smuggled through sea routes, specifically the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal, to India. At the national level, this also creates a security threat.
Every nation depends more on its youth population than on other segments of the population, like senior citizens and children. This social problem not only affects the younger generation but also children and senior citizens, who are dependent on the first segment of the population. This is also a root cause of many social problems in society, such as family breakdown, divorce, sexual harassment, poverty, elder abuse, child labour, child abuse, illiteracy, domestic violence, bonded labour, and various crimes.
These social problems arise because of this one social problem. When individuals take drugs, it affects their mental consciousness, leading them to violate societal norms and values, which sociologists call aberrant behaviour. This type of behaviour is most dangerous for society because it is not interested in improving social conditions or benefiting mankind. This kind of behaviour doesn’t think about any reform or social order. The most negative impact of this social problem is “stigma.” This social stigma is not only applied to the individual but also to the family members as a whole, and they are treated with this stigma over a very long period of time. According to Ram Ahuja, “India has about one million heroin addicts alone.” He further said in his book “Social Problems in India” that the illegal drug trade in India is estimated to generate between 10,000 to 20,000 crores annually.
A major concern for everyone in society, especially among intellectuals and scholars of social science, is: why is this social problem rising more and more in Indian society despite having a large number of laws like the Drug and Cosmetics Act of 1940, the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act of 1985, and the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (PITNDPS) of 1988, among others? Many factors are responsible for this social problem, but sociologists believe it is the circumstances or social environment that make people drug addicts. In totality, it is the culture of society that is more responsible for this social problem. In the light of sociology, one is not born drug addicted. So where do individuals learn these things? It is the culture that gives individuals everything. Individuals learn everything through socialization by culture. Overall, it is the surroundings of the individual that matter more than other aspects of society. That is why in the Kashmiri language, a myth is mostly used by our senior citizens and is commonly used in our society: “Choors Seeth Pakakh Choor Banakh, Peeras Seeth Pakakh, Peer Banakh.”
As criminologist Sutherland has said, drug taking is learned behaviour from other persons, principally in small intimate groups. But this is not the complete reality. There are some individuals in society who never meet with any drug addict and never face any drug culture in life, but later in life, they fall into this social problem either due to family pressure or feeling a huge gap between their expectations and achievements. That is why the younger generation mostly falls into this social problem. As individuals grow, their dreams also grow with time. If these dreams are not fulfilled, the individual feels extreme pressure from family and society, which finally creates alienation from family and society, leading them to drug addiction. This is what we call “aberrant behaviour.”
Strain theory suggests that intensive pressure on individuals causes them to deviate from internalized norms. In every aspect, society has created a level of culture, which one has to remain integrated with and strive to reach in order to survive. If individuals fail to cope with that level of culture, even their family is not ready to accept them fully. These individuals feel alienation at every step of life, which finally leads them towards the culture of drugs. One of the great sociologists, R.K. Merton, once said that those who fail to achieve their goals through legitimate means become so frustrated that they turn to the use of drugs and alcohol, and Merton calls them “retreatists.” These are those who reject both goals and means. They are double failures in the eyes of society. He included alcoholics and drug addicts in this category. This type of deviance is more dangerous than other types like ritualists and innovators. In this post-modern society, cultural values are changing, the poor class is suffering from economic hardships, while at the same time, there is a massive rise in the upper class. All this, combined with the dwindling support of family (due to increased workload and Western lifestyle), is leading to drug abuse and addiction.
Regarding its control, this social problem can be decreased at two levels: the structural level and the individual level. At the structural level, institutions of the political system are working more and more to decrease this social problem. In the last three to four years, the government has taken strict measures regarding its control. The present administration has even involved “numbardars” of villages to address this social problem. Currently, educational institutions are involved by the government in creating awareness among students through different seminars and programs at school, college, and university levels. The overall structure also tries to create awareness among students to stay away from this type of culture in society.
At the individual level, institutions of religion can also play a greater role in decreasing this social problem. Religion is an informal social control and more influential than formal social control. It is one of the most important sources of culture in every society. If the preachers of religion avoid personal conflicts for some years and shift their focus towards these social problems, it will definitely work for the betterment of society as a whole and help to decrease this social problem. Parents can play a better role through the socialization process. We need to integrate these values into our culture and transmit them through socialization to minimize this social problem.

The writer teaches sociology at the college level and can be reached at [email protected]

Adil Hussain Bhat