How do you treat drug addicts? (3 ways)

How do you treat drug addicts? (3 ways)

1. Legislation:

All the countries of the world have very strict regulations against smuggling and trafficking of the drugs. Both the addict and the trafficker (the seller of the drug) are severely punished. In fact the punish­ment is more for the trafficker than for the addict.

This is true because while an addict is a victim in himself a trafficker is a dangerous person who creates several victims. Some of the countries like Singapore and Malaysia have very stringent legislation so that a person caught having a certain quantity of drug are mandatorily given capital punishment.

2. Psychiatric counselling:

This is a very important step as it helps the victim to overcome the habit of drug taking. This procedure is a very slow one and has several dimensions. First the background of the individual has to be analysed which includes his social status, personality analysis, analysis of family background, his circle of friends, his social aspirations etc which are all needed to be studied in great detail by counselors before starting the actual treatment.

In this treatment it is very much necessary to involve the parents also if the addict happens to be a teenager or an young­ster. Many a time lack of parental attention and a feeling of not being wanted results in youngsters seeking solace elsewhere. The first step in a treatment actually includes a counselling to the parents and not to the ad­dict himself.

The addict has to be advised about the bad effects of the drag on the per­sonal life as well as the harmful influence it will bring to his surroundings. He should be told a drug addict not only spoils his life but of his family members also because the entire family is looked down upon. After pre­paring his mind, the process of deaddiction should start.

If an individual is taking drugs regularly he should not be asked to stop all of a sudden as there are several harmful withdrawal symptoms. The quantity of the drug taken and the duration of taking the doses should be gradually controlled until a stage conies when the victim himself feels that he does not need drugs. Deaddiction centres are established in almost all cities where medi­cal. as well as psychological counselling is provided. Advising the addict to develop healthy hobbies such as gardening, music, yoga, meditation or attending to religious discourses will have a salutary effect in the long run.

A deaddicted individual should take a nutritious food to counter the bad effects of the drug on the body.

3. General education of the population:

The population in general and the youngsters in particular should be educated about the harmful effects of drugs. This is a better method than curing the drug addict as prevention is always better than cure.

Use of mass media like newspapers, T. V, radio and conducting symposia and seminars on the bad effects of drugs will have a great influence on the young minds. As far as possible seminars etc., should be conducted in schools and colleges because it is here the youngsters are subjected to evil influences by bad company.