Drug Addiction Among Youths In Bangladesh

Globally, drug addiction has appeared to play a role in weighing down the social and economical status of different nations. It has become a public health issue. Although it has been declared to be a disease by the American Medical Association, why does this remain so incurable unlike every other disease? In Bangladesh, most people can hardly forget the incident when an O-level student (an abuser of the drug “yaba”) brutally killed her parents. “How can this young generation be so inhumane? ” they would say. The bigger problem lies in our society where most of us are oblivious of the causes of proliferation of drug abuse.

According to the Daily Star, more than 6 million people in Bangladesh are drug addicts out of which about 53% are the adolescents of this country. Even though Bangladesh is not a drug producing country, one of the biggest factors contributing to the easy access of drugs is its geographical location. Bangladesh is a country surrounded by mostly rivers and mountains. Because of its porous borders, it is harder for law enforcement agencies to gain access to those areas and provide more secure borders. This allows easy access of drugs in and out of the country from surrounding countries like Myanmar and India which is also home to the biggest drug mafias.

As a result, our country falls vulnerable to drug cartels. So how does this play a role in youths falling victims of drug abuse? Although the per capita income of Bangladesh is increasing, it is simply not enough to judge the socioeconomic conditions of this country. Over the last two years, there has been an increase in poverty alleviation but at a very slow rate. Because of the existing economic pressures in the country, parents are compelled to take up full-time employment and are not always available to communicate properly and provide efficient support to their youths who might be dealing with excessive frustration from peer-group and academic pressure, failure in love affairs or from various mental disorders. The increasing social pressures among youths originate from the increase in individualism and materialism in the recent years. Curiosity, desire to get satisfied easily, an adverse environment and drug abuse within the family contribute to the primary causes of drug abuse. To find some relief from the mental agony and intolerable experiences, these youths turn to drugs remaining completely ignorant about the effects of its abuse. Can we really blame them? How did we, as a society, fail to prevent them from taking illegitimate drugs? Now, if we look at the science of addiction, adolescents are more vulnerable to addiction as the frontal regions (pre-frontal cortex) of the brain (which is responsible for our ability to think, make decisions, assess risks, solve problems, and exert self-control) are not fully developed. Our brain being the most complex organ in the body has these chemical messengers called neurotransmitters that send, receive and process signals between nerve cells or neurons. Drugs such as marijuana and heroin have structures similar to those of neurotransmitters which activate these neurons and send abnormal messages throughout the network in the brain while amphetamine (cocaine) can interfere with transporters in the brain disrupting the recycling of brain chemicals.

During the withdrawal process, it is harder to feel satisfaction from anything other than the drug because drugs weaken the sensitivity in the circuits of the basal ganglia region of the brain which accounts for the pleasurable effects that we feel when we eat, sleep, socialize etc. Drug users feel “high” (the feeling of euphoria) because of the increased release of endorphins (neurotransmitters) which are much greater than when they are produced naturally when we exercise, eat or listen to music. We still have not completely purged the idea of looking down on drug addicts. Most people from our society (still to this day) consider them as outcasts, discouraging them from seeking help and eventually forcing these drug abusers, especially youths, to remain confined in their toxic world. We need to create more awareness in our society in order to get rid of this stigma and let people know that they are humans just like you and me. When we think about the prevention and treatment of drug addiction, we need to consider not only the individual suffering from drugs but also their family members, close friends, neighbors, teachers, hospitals and clinics, NGOs and even the government to work together in a cycle during rehabilitation. Other than the medications, it is vital for the primary treatment to include behavioral therapies and family counseling.

The productive ways for youths to utilize their physical and mental energy here in this concrete jungle are limited and a bit more challenging. It should also be noted that drug addiction treatment is very expensive in private hospitals here in this country. The government can take steps to instill awareness and overcome this problem by providing funds to build adequate programs in schools and communities (which will contribute to the physical and mental education of youths) and hire specialists and counselors in these institutions so that an adolescent in need will always have somebody to talk to. With that being said, policy makers should keep in mind that if we fail to build a safer, stable and drug-free society, it will ultimately bring us down as a nation and endanger our existence.