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What can Sociology reveal about drug abuse which has not been said already? A sociologist view drug abuse in a social context. While Psychological and Pharmacological theories try to explain drug use in a cause and effect scenario, the sociologist view is broader in scope. According to sociology, though drug abuse does depend on individual traits, the social relations and the attributes of the society of which the individual is a part, too have a major role to play in influencing his behavior.
Sociological factors that influence drug habits
Drug abuse is overdependence or heavy use of a single or host of drugs. There are various beliefs and values that contribute to the use and abuse of drugs among individuals. A sociological analysis of drug abuse is not only necessary for academic interests, but also to find out the causes and through that, arrive at a solution to the problem. Various sociological theories have been developed over the years, to understand and analyze drug addiction. Through these theories, Sociologists have tried to find out the cause for substance use and the relationship between various social factors that influence addiction to drugs.
The below given are a few of those factors
- Family influence: The practice of socialization always begins with one’s family. Family has a huge influence, in the beliefs and value formation of individuals. A child always assumes anything that take place at his home to be normal. So if the parents indulge in drug abuse, the child naturally assumes that it is an acceptable practice and he/she will use drug without any misgiving. Also if the parents are addicted to drugs, they lack the moral authority to reprove their children. So this is the primary sociological factor which influences drug abuse.
- Modern culture among youth: Unfortunately certain youth cultures promote drug abuse as a cool and exciting past time. When exposed to that culture young people tend to fear they would be considered boring or unsociable if they do not get into drugs. So the prevailing culture among youth is another determining factor of drug use.
- Delinquency: The Drift Hypothesis sociological theory developed by sociologist David Matza, states that young people tend to drift in and out of delinquency. While they lead a normal life adhering to social principles and codes, there are moments when they feel the urge to drift out of such normal behavior. According to Matza, they exhibit certain techniques of neutralization to escape the reality, such as denial of responsibility, denial that what they are doing is actually wrong, ignoring injury and condemning those who oppose their behavior. This need for drift urges the individual to do something out of the normal and encourages indulging in activities of enjoying oneself. Drug use is perceived by adolescents as a means to escape the normal routine and thus this theory throws some light on understanding drug abuse.
- Labeling: labeling is a theory developed by Howard Becker to elucidate the use of marijuana. He classifies marijuana users as novice, occasional and expert. A novice is a first time or a new user and occasional users are those who smoke marijuana rarely or after huge intervals. But experts are those people who not only use the drug for a long period, but they also take pride in training the novices on various ways like how to
- Procure marijuana
- Use it the proper way
- How to extract pleasure from it
- How to consume it secretively and
- How to deal with the aftermath (hangover, stigma etc)
So once a youngster becomes involved with such groups then he has a lot of chance of taking drugs and taking them on a regular basis.
- Gender: Earlier, particularly in developed and underdeveloped countries, alcohol or drug use was more prevalent in the male sex than their female counterpart. But nowadays drug use is on the rise among young women too. Most of them who indulge in such habits have husbands or boyfriends who use drugs. They believe that yesteryear’s deviance is today’s standard practice.
- Peer persuasion: According to Cesar Galvez and Rafael Escandon – Adolescence brings with it both hormonal changes and value crises. It is a stage where an individual indulge in intense relationships and adhering to group rules is a must to move in social circles. Peer pressure is stronger than ever before. A recent statistics show over 75% of drug users, do so while socializing with their peer group. Young people today choose their friends based on the likeness in their tastes, habits and lifestyles. Imitation of their friends and vulnerability to peer influence is how most drug habits initiate. In a close and cohesive social group, shared habits and practices tend to reinforce and grow stronger. It paves way for continuous and escalated drug use. Popularity is one of the most sought after trait in a social group and reinforcement and openly following popular culture, is one way of becoming socially famous.
- Coping with misery: Coping with pressures of the world is a strategy as old as mankind. Many individuals are not able to cope up with the challenges thrown at them by life and choose to drown their miseries using alcohol or drugs. Business problems, broken romance, trouble in the family – these are all common reasons given by drug addicts. They seek to escape from the world by indulging in such activities, which they think would shun their mind from the worries of their life. A person’s inability to tackle his problem and design a realistic solution is a primary reason for him taking refuge with drugs.
- Financial factors: Both having a regular job and unemployment influences a person’s drug habit. When a person has a regular job and has lot of money to spend, he, mostly by misguidance of his peers, chooses to spend them on drugs. But unemployment and the resultant financial pressure also tends to drive a person to indulge in such habits to escape reality.
Social effects of drug abuse
All these factors have varying level of influence on drug abuse, but whatever may be the cause, it is an evil that should be eradicated. Drug abuse causes rise of violence and other crimes and the abusers have an adverse effect on the community as a whole. The abusers display aggressive and incoherent behavior and this habit also have detrimental effect on their health. Furthermore his social life is ripped apart by this habit and causes tremendous trauma to his family and friends. It leads to the collapse of his professional life, academic grades and causes undue financial strain. Another alarming consequence of drug abuse is spread of AIDS (particularly in the African continent), which is transferred by way of sharing unsterilized injections. The practice of maternal drug abuse may result in children with depression diseases and sometimes even miscarriage. In short it results in a morally decadent, emotionally ruined and a shattered generation.
Identifying the social factors that leads to drug abuse paves way to work a solution to prevent this problem. Conclusively, I would like to reiterate that drug awareness should be a part of any educational curriculum and young minds should be bombarded with the ill effects of drug abuse.
References
Erich Goode. The Sociology of Drug Abuse. Retrieved from http://www.sagepub.com/oswmedia3e/study/chapters/handbooks/handbook6.2.pdf
Sandro Galea , Arijit Nandi and David Vlahov. (March 8, 2004). The Social Epidemiology of Substance Use. Retrieved from http://epirev.oxfordjournals.org/content/26/1/36.full
UNDCP. (March 12, 1995) The Social Effect of Drug Abuse. Retrieved from http://www.unodc.org/pdf/technical_series_1995-03-01_1.pdf
(April 23, 1997) The Sociological Implications Of Drug Abuse Among Nigerian Youth: Who is To Blame? Retrieved from http://www.uib.no/isf/people/campaign/drug.htm
