Author: Alexander Schatzberg
Every year, roughly 350,000 people die from illicit drug abuse. In 2010, roughly 5% of the world's adult population used illegal substances, and that number has done nothing but increase. The percentage of adults who used illicit substances has climbed to 5.5 percent in 2017. 35 million people have suffered from disorders that were caused by illicit drugs. Only 1 in 7 of these people get the help that they desperately require. This therapy is expensive (very little of it is paid by the government or insurance), and many of these people who have a problem with drug abuse lack the financial resources to pay for it. This lack of rehabilitation programs severely limits what these users are able to recover from. The families of these people are suffering because the addict(s) that they love is(are) unable to get help. This is a problem that can tear families apart, and leave people in debt, struggling to pay drug debts. The children of drug users are significantly more likely to abuse illicit substances than children who are not around this kind of behavior. There are two primary factors for this, and these two factors feed on each other. The first one is to escape. The children are trying to escape the life that their drug-addict parents handed them. The second is access. They are not stupid, and chances are that they know where their parents keep the drugs. Children (especially teenagers) are curious, and even if they know that something could have negative consequences, they are likely to try it. This applies to drugs as well. I don’t have as much as I usually do to say about this subject (compared to other topics), but that does not mean that it is less important or serious than any of the other topics that I have written about. Substance abuse is a serious issue and should be treated as such. Sources https://drugfree.org/learn/drug-and-alcohol-news/drug-abuse-kills-200000-people-each-year-un-report/ https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/frontpage/2019/June/world-drug-report-2019_-35-million-people-worldwide-suffer-from-drug-use-disorders-while-only-1-in-7-people-receive-treatment.html https://ourworldindata.org/drug-use
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