Substance abuse is something that needs to be tackled by society

IN 1994, when Nelson Mandela signalled in his opening address to Parliament about substance abuse as a problem among social pathologies that needed to be combated, it was evidently swept under the rug.

Now, in 2020, almost 20% of South Africans are abusing mind-altering substances.

The drug epidemic is a toxic discourse that poses a danger as the country attests to the surging pandemic. Amid drug praxes, lies a craze of satiating drug cravings. The losing war is corroborated with reports which reveal SA’s drug usage is twice the world norm. The rapid modernisation has made our nation a fertile ground for importing drugs, resulting in a downward spiral of ravaging addictions and national turmoil.

Addiction is a disease that affects both the brain and behaviour. By releasing the neurotransmitter dopamine, our reward circuit is activated, and the brain notes that a special event is transpiring. As drugs stimulate the same circuit, they can release up to 10 times the amount of dopamine that natural rewards such as eating, and sex do.

The resulting effects on the brain’s pleasure circuit dwarf those produced by naturally rewarding behaviours, and a powerful reward strongly motivates people to take drugs again. Over time, once those pleasure receptors are extinguished, feelings of hopelessness and depression occur, and an even increased dosage will be needed to produce the same effect.

The latest report by the South African Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (SACENDU) showed that alcohol remained the most abused substance, while cannabis is the most common illicit drug used, and in the Western Cape, methamphetamine the most primary drug utilised.

Alcohol contributes to risky sexual behaviour, thiamine deficiency, haemorrhagic strokes and liver failure.

Cannabis users may experience poor attention span, memory and learning loss, poor performance, psychosis and respiratory infections.

Cocaine is a short-acting stimulant, which can lead users to take the drug many times in a single session. In other words, a binge. Snorting can cause infections and tissue death of the nasal linings and sinuses, psychological dependence may develop after a single usage. Amphetamines or Tik are commanding stimulants. A highly addictive synthetic psycho-stimulant, it knows no racial or cultural boundaries and permeates all facets of our society.

The tell-tale signs of meth uses are an increased attention and decreased fatigue, activity and wakefulness, talkativeness, loss of appetite, formication, dental caries, rapid respiration, irregular heartbeat, and in some cases, hypothermia.

Heroin continues to be a plague of both the poor and privileged. Kidney failure is not uncommon, as well as liver failure. Injection drug users are also at risk of collapsed veins and bacterial infections in the bloodstream or heart.

An interesting notion was a study between rats isolated in a cage with either normal drinking water or drug-infested water. The captivating response was when isolated, rats almost exclusively consumed the drug-infested water, overdosed and died.

On the other hand, they created a rat park, again with the two types of water and with cages, but this time, added cheeses and friends. Interestingly, the rats never consumed the drug-infested water, going from 100% overdose in isolation to zero when leading happier connected lives.

What if addiction is really about your cage and an adaptation to your environment? Humans have a natural innate need to bond. When we’re happy and healthy, we will bond and connect with each other. But if we traumatised, isolated or beaten down by life, we will bond with something that will give you some sense of relief.

As a society, we traded floor space for friends. We stress about individual recovery, but I think we need to focus on social recovery. We created a society where most of us look at life from inside the isolated cage and not the rat park.

Unless we undergo a “cultural renaissance” and all start living in a human version of the rat park we won’t be eradicating addiction any time soon.

You don’t go through addiction without hurting the people that love you the most. Families suffer when someone they love descends into the purgatory of addiction.

It starts with changing the way you think, the way you walk, the places you go to, the friends you hang with, and if you not ready, get ready for relapse. Reshape your thinking, reshape your acting, reshape your habits, reshape your character and reshape your future. Treatment is not the end. It’s the beginning.

Unless we undergo a cultural renaissance, as a society, we won’t be eradicating addiction any time soon