Cost of Addiction

The Cost of Addiction

You can never put a price on pain. For millions of families who have spent every waking hour dominated by worrying about the addiction of a family member or anyone whom they share a close bond with, the suffering of these families is not something one can measure or pay a price for. How would one calculate the value of wasted cocaine years, a burnt out alcoholic brain, or a young girl willing to sell her body for heroin?

Drug trafficking – global menace

Drug trafficking is illegal and is prohibited in all countries even if in certain countries a certain amount of drug usage is allowed, for medical purposes and in monitored and limited amounts. Trading of drugs is a highly organised and profitable industry, a huge mass market retail operation as well. One might wonder what drug dealers do with the money they make with all the drug dealing. This money is often ploughed back into more drugs – for personal use. Most drug dealers are addicts themselves, they trade to get more money to support their addiction. The world of drug trading is like being stuck in quicksand, once anyone gets sucked in, it gets difficult to get out, unless you learn to ‘let go’ and ‘surrender’ to the powerlessness you have over your drug.

Drugs are a multi-faceted problem

Drug abuse or dependence can damage many areas, such as:

Education – Drug addiction in school can cause loss of concentration, delinquency and encourages truancy. Drug using pupils can also be a constant disruptive influence in the class.

Drug related medical emergencies – Research indicates that more than half a million people in US alone visit hospitals due to drug related issues. Visits caused by heroin and cocaine have risen in the past few years. Amphetamine admissions have soared in the past five years as well.

Birth defects and infant mortality – One in twenty pregnant women use illegal drugs during pregnancy. Marijuana is used by 3% or 120,000, cocaine by 1% or 45,000.

Babies born to drug abusers can be drug dependent themselves at birth or could develop other problems. Pre-natal drug exposure has shown to affect development in the womb. Negligence of the babies by mothers who are addicted is very common.

Broken relationships – Addiction devastates families. A large number of divorces are drug and alcohol related. Addiction traumatizes children and causes life-long damage to their psyche.

Drug addiction is known to be one of the leading factors in health problems, unemployment, strained relationships, financial losses, mental disorders and most importantly death.

Research shows that the death rates due to addiction have increased to a substantial amount in the past few years. Knowing this, people still get entwined in the cycle of addiction and refuse to seek help. Making yourself aware of the effects of drugs and also learning way to help people with and addiction problem would be a step to a clean recovery.

There’s a way out!

At Hope Trust rehab in India, along with teaching and getting insight into your addiction, the 12 step programme emphasises the need to help fellow alcoholics or addicts to support your own recovery. The rehab has been helping individuals with alcoholism, drug abuse, gambling, dual diagnosis and eating disorders since it was established in 2002.