LETTER: Drug abuse, illicit trafficking remain a tragedy in SA
Did you know the government provides free programmes that could help people deal with their addiction, although most are not aware of these programmes.
• Puseletso Motsidi from the Gauteng Department of Social Development writes:
Drugs are substances that are unpredictable and dangerous, as they have the capacity to change a person’s mental and physical state. The scourge of drug abuse and illicit trafficking has found its toll in wreaking havoc on many lives and leaving families distraught, as they are prone to suffer as collateral damage of addiction.
Also read: LETTER: Women and child abuse and xenophobia – My message to all men
Sadly, the youth has fallen prey to these gruesome substances. Children as young as 12 and 17 years old are already on alcohol and substance consumption. Many would ask why? But the sad truth is that as much as we would want to blame it on “experimenting”, the root cause of substance abuse goes even deeper.
Drug users are in grave peril of scapegoating. They tend to use drugs as a coping mechanism. This could come after being under a lot of stress caused by friends, family, school/ work or circumstances in their lives. As young South Africans, we tend to find ourselves in tempting situations whereby we have a high rate of youth unemployment, we are being compared to other children, we want to live our best lives because of the influence on social media.
Resorting to substance consumption temporarily helps us to relieve this stress, little do we realise that we are creating a habit that is very costly and deadly. Drug and alcohol habits need to be maintained, however with the high rates of unemployment there is no income. Hence, the one viable option is resorting to heinous crimes in order to get that quick fix.
The government provides free programmes that could help people deal with their addiction, although most are not aware of these programmes.
The Department of Social Development has various programmes that target the youth with drug and substance abuse prevention programmes that aim to educate marginalised youth about the harmful effects of substance abuse and illicit trafficking. Such programmes also benefit the community as they are also at the verge of being affected.
The Ke Moja programme provides free 24/7 telephonic counselling. SANCA, an NPO funded by the Department of Social Development, also has programmes that assist in fighting the scourge of substance abuse in order to help rehabilitate and reintegrate substance users back into their communities. Addiction is an illness, so people who are recovering addicts and their families will always need continuous support from the NPOs, Social Development, healthcare professionals as well as the community at large because the impact of drug addiction does not only affect the user, but it extends much further.
In order to stop drug abuse parents should create strong bonds with their children where they openly talk about their daily struggles and how to deal with them, engage their children in faith-based organisations or extra-mural activities, have positive role models around them, implement alcohol and drug education programmes in schools and in societies, for example soul buddies and genuine parental love.
This will help prevent the issues from affecting the future generations from falling prey to drug and substance abuse.
