Drugs, an escape or a trap?

In a world where escape is often one pill away, drug addiction has silently become an epidemic threatening every corner of society. In recent years, in light of all the advancements being made in our world, the more understandable trend of drug use would be of reduction; however, it is astonishingly, the opposite.

 Let’s look at some of the factors that have led to this increase.

1. Social pressure

Often caused by guardians such as parents or siblings, social or peer pressure puts an individual in a depressed state of mind that leads them to resort to actions that they would under normal circumstances stay away from; An example of a potential action from this is drug use. It normally starts out as a one-time escape but anytime the person faces even a minor inconvenience, their first stop would be drugs which gradually turns into a habit that without professional help is extremely challenging to tackle.

Another form of peer pressure is from friends and the people we surround ourselves with. In today’s era where smoking, drugs and vaping are considered “COOL” and people who tend to stay away from them feel themselves to be isolated and left out, thus many fall victim to this injurious epidemic in an effort to stay in touch without considering the guaranteed consequences.

2. Political imbalance

The fight for power in Pakistan has prevailed since its birth and to this day, the people are suffering its consequences. Due to this long-standing political instability the government and concerned authorities continuously fail to introduce policies that could potentially help in the fight against drugs. This sort of incompetence allows for drug trade to flourish unchecked allowing ease of availability of drugs. Furthermore, corruption within law enforcement agencies does not help the cause of eradicating drugs from society either.

3.  Economic factors

With Pakistan in its current state, unemployment and inflation seem to be at an all time high and signs of any relief are invisible. In this state, the underprivileged who have nothing to their name suffer greatly and they tend to resort to drug abuse as an escape from reality, but how long can a person run from the inevitable. Such people adapt to drug abuse as a way of life, wasting themselves away until or unless helped.

 4. Lack of awareness 

An issue that is branched out to almost every modern problem is lack of information, be it the overuse of technology or any other harmful habit; Most of the people indulged in these habits are unaware of the harmful effects that they hold. Such is the case with drugs, illiteracy and limited availability of resources like the internet cause people to be ill-informed about the use of drugs and they learn about the consequences first-hand when it is already too late, and when they have already become addicted.

The best thing for us to do as individuals is play our part by spreading awareness about this heinous habit and get help to anyone already in the grasp of drug abuse so that we may eventually put an end to this epidemic.