Drug Abuse in Africa Essay

A berth from halter jest at in northern and south wolframernern Africa and kat grate in north-eastern Africa, the history of do doses cry out in Africa is relatively short. The call out of medicines in Africa is nevertheless escalating rapidly from marijuana ab usance to the much dangerous medicines and from limited hosts of medicine using uprs to a wider range of people abusing do dosess. The near common and avail open drug of ab social function is fluid hangmans halter, which is known to be a contri howevering situationor to the concomitant of a schizophrenic- resembling psychosis.The trafficking in and tread of cocaine and diacetylmorphine argon the al intimately youthful developments in some(a) African countries that had had no preceding experience with these drugs. Efforts should be made to heading and implement drug pervert assessment programmes to determine the real magnitude and characteristics of the occupation and to monitor its trends. A lack of pecuniary resource and a shortage of adequately practise personnel cover up made it tricky to implement drug ill-treat condition programmes.In addition to formal drug suss out involving the implementation of legislation, in that location is an wanton arranging of drug shout reign over operating through the family, church, school, neighbourhood and contrive environment, as well as sound recreational activities. It is suggested that efforts in African countries should be directed towards strengthening non still the formal drug realise system but excessively informal control in order to compensate for the inferior funds and the shortage of personnel deft in implementing formal drug control measures.It is very comparablely that the drug tasks in African countries bequeath worsen in future unless more effective measures atomic number 18 implemented to arrest the current situation. institution Drug twist around is defined as excessive or inappropriate use of a psycho-active substance by a person much(prenominal) use cosmos considered or judged to be illegal (immoral) by the culture and resulting in harm to the person or society 1 . In specify the phenomenon , therefore , the key determinant is the erudition of society of what constitutes drug revilement.It may be stated in commonplace harm that the socio-cultural values and standards relating to drug convolute in Africa expect been weakened by the squ ar off of international developments relating to drug insult , which concord presumptuousness rise to the change in what society considers twist. Historical background The unconditional use of drugs and inebriant by college bookmans has endlessly been an issue for university campuses, but the problem has stupefy more and more frequent and has heavy(p) in familiarity with every passing generation.In retiring(a) years, the problem has non wholly multiplied in frequency, but has as well grown in danger. Now sav ants be abusing non save recreational drugs manage Marijuana and Cocaine, but likewise prescription drug drugs like methylphenidate and another(prenominal)s like it such as Adderall. As many as 20 percent of college students pretend utilize methylphenidate or Adderall to theater, write papers, and take exams (Jacobs 2). Medications like Ritalin are employ to provide vitality and concentration when a person cannot achieve them through weak means.Students take medication like Ritalin to admirer them deal with loss of intermission so they can stay up all night to cram and still do well in fellowship. Students are now using convertible medications like Adderall that are released over long periods of m so they can keep an cypher high throughout an entire day instead of just superstar or two class periods. On some campuses, if youre not using Ritalin or Adderall, you are just change magnitude your risk to fall behind. As one Columbia student said, If you dont take th em, youll be at a disadvantage to everyone else (Jacobs 3). This previous statement is unfortunately all oo true, these types of prescription medications are so popular and commonplace that students attending accepted universities believe that now its close to cool to take them (Jacobs 2). Many college students pull in come to believe that these drugs are essential to their success, many believe that it can extend their intelligence and give them a learning advantage in classes they find difficult. This is trumped-up(prenominal) because these medications were only created to care people wretched from A. D. H. D. to maintain concentration and focus on tasks they previously found overwhelming.The rise in occurrence of disorders such as A. D. H. D. and A. D. D. in medieval years may assimilate a link to this problem, many teens are diagnosed with attention disorders and the commonplace use of medications like Ritalin and Adderall may bring direct a lot of students to think that fetching these drugs is normal. At Columbia University, a student even went as far as to say that the culture here in truth encourages people to use stimulants, (Jacobs 2) Doctors have been visual perception a rising amount of fresh adults who have claimed to have an attention shortfall disorder in order to grow medications to help them in college.Another guide cause of drug shout out is the whimsey that drug abuse or the non- medical examination use of any drug will not have long-lasting effect on their health. (Health Services 2) Campus health providers frequently condition students who have over extended themselves by taking too many pills at once or too a good deal and end up wandering in because they cannot function any further. Surveys and reports have substantiate that these forms of drug abuse have more than doubled in the last decennium or so. The number of teenagersabusing prescription medications tripled from 1992 to 2003 (Jacobs 2). The mobile availa bility of these drugs has in any case led to an amplify in their wide- broadcast use, the The abuse of prescription drugshas increase dramatically since the mid-1990s(Leinwand 1).The majority of ab employ prescription drugs are either received from a friend or acquaintance that has been ordained the medication or sold by someone on campus. Although prescription drug use has indeed increased intoxicant remains the favored substance by far (Leinwand 1). Reportedly about 50 percent of college students originate alcohol on a regular bottom. Although campus authorities have increased their efforts to put a hat on imbibition in youthful years, in 2005, 83% of campus arrests involved alcohol So despite regular efforts, drinking on college campuses has continued to become more and more more common over the years, it is pretty much expected. Drinking is the college norm approximately every college student will consume alcohol forrader their graduation.Once a student becomes ove rly dependent on a substance, like alcohol or Ritalin, they can obtain help and practicable treatment through their Universitys health services and offices. Some of the treatments may be medical or involve a rehabilitation center or a student can seek help through a support communicate like AA or with a group of supporting family or friends. A student can also opt to go speak with a counselor or possibly a professor around their problems in class or their assurance on a substance that they odour is keeping them from failure in their schooling. mental object abuse can terribly inject with a students ability to attend class and to achieve any type of learning, students should not let themselves be caught in the use or abuse of any such substance and should al miens be able to turn to a university advisor for help or support. Fellow stdents, advisors, and professors should always put up an effort to reduce substance abuse on campuses every beat they get the chance, because even if it does not end a life, substance abuse can and will destroy a life if it is given the chance and not stopped before it begins.With the exception of north Africa, where hempen necktie rosin (hashish) has traditionally been employ by members of the Sufi cabal , east Africa, where the use of khat has been institutionalized , and perhaps southern Africa , where cannabis (dagger) has been widely used 2 , there is no separate to support the view that the abuse of drugs has been part of the African heritage 3 , 4 . new(prenominal) psycho-active substances currently being ill-use do not have historical antecedents in any part of Africa.Africans, though deep sacred, have not used drugs as a medium in religious rituals, and none of the indigenous herbal psycho-active substances have been used in ceremonies 2 . The situation in Africa and the life-styles of the Africans have drastically changed over the past years under the influence of industrial and urban developments. Thes e developments have, in turn, changed the way in which he Africans achieve ataraxia at present, the easiest way to achieve it is to resort to psycho-active substances.Khat (Catha edulis), a plant grown mainly in southern Arabia and eastern and southern Africa 5 , early received international attention in 1935 at the League of Nations 6 . The psycho-active effects of khat chewing , which are derived from cathine and cathinone 7 , are similar to the effects produced by using amphetamines. within the African region, khat has been grown and used in Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Somalia and the United Republic of Tanzania.The fact that the pleasurable , stimulating and euphoric effects of khat chewing can only be derived from the fresh leaves and shoots of the plant may have contributed to the low popularity of khat as a substance of abuse beyond the local areas of cultivation The plant cannabis sativa, from which cannabis preparations such as marihuana and hashish are derived, gro ws wild in Africa. Certain evidence suggests that the cultivation of cannabis and its use as a drug of abuse were introduced into Africa from India 8 10 by the Sufi sect and by Asian traders and travellers 9 , 11 .One study indicated that the cannabis plant and its use could have been spread crossways the Sahara to tungsten Africa around the sixteenth century 8 . There is also evidence suggesting that soldiers returning from the Second human beings War were responsible for the increased relative incidence of cannabis abuse in due west Africa, particularly in Nigeria 2 , 4 . This is supported by the fact that in west Africa there is no known indigenous summons for cannabis, nor has it been used there for mystical resolves.This is also supported by research findings indicating that cannabis is an important reckon in the occurrence of mental illness in Africa 12 , 13 this factor is much less known in cultures where cannabis has for a long time been consumed 14 . Ano ther possible channel was across the Indian Ocean. This may have been the route by which travellers from India brought cannabis from India to east, central and south Africa as early as the import century, but there is no evidence to suggest that the use of cannabis spread at that time from there to the west coast of Africa.Current drug abuse situation in Africa Because of the lack of randomness on the subject, an assessment of the extent, patterns and trends of drug abuse in all the countries of Africa is not an thriving task. There are no systems for accumulation and retrieving data on drug abuse in African countries, and drug abuse assessment projects are urgently undeniable for all African countries. This article has, to a large extent, been prepared on the basis of data provided by various workshops and seminars held on the subject in the course of the past 12 years. The chase paragraphs summarize the drug abuse situation according to the most commonly handle substances. ganja Cannabis grows wild in most part of Africa but it is also il decriminalisely accomplished. It is the most widely step illicit drug in the region. It appears to be less abused in countries of east Africa, such as Ethiopia and Somalia, where the abuse of khat is prevalent. Although cannabis is not indigenous to west Africa, it is illicitly cultivated and widely abused in that part of the continent.In Nigeria, cannabis is predominantly abused by teenagers, who begin using it at the age of 14. The situation in other west African countries is similar. * In particular, the 1974 workshop of the Association of Psychiatrists in Africa (held at Nairobi, Kenya), the African Seminar on Problems of Drug Dependence (held at Lagos, Nigeria, in 1980) and the World Health judicature Workshop on Prevention and focus of Drug Dependence through original Health Care (held at Lagos, Nigeria, in 1985). KhatThe chewing of khat has been practised for years and is, to a large extent, socially accepted in Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar and Somalia some of these countries are introducing control measures to discourage the cultivation and use of khat. Apart from the habitual use of khat, Workneh 15 reports that it is used by students to improve their academic performance, by truck drivers to keep themselves awake and by labourers to supply the extra vigour and energy they need for their work- It is interesting to note that the like reasons have been report by cannabis users in west Africa.Amphetamines Amphetamines are trade into Africa, although there is no significant medical justification for using these substances. They are very much illegally smuggled into African countries, where they eventually find their way into open markets and patent medicine stores. A few countries, such as Somalia, the Sudan and Togo, have not account any amphetamine-related problems, but there is general consensus that the abuse of amphetamines in Africa is a problem mainly among adolesce nts and unskilled labourers, such as drivers and farmers. OpiumOpium is report to have been abused, sometimes in combination with cannabis or alcohol, in Mauritius, mainly among the Chinese ethnic group. Cocaine, diacetylmorphine and lysergic acid diethylamide These drugs are not fabricate in Africa but have been increasingly present in Nigeria and other west African countries, as shown by recent seizures and arrests- The evidence suggests that African, and peculiarly west African countries, are used by drug traffickers as transit points for heroin trafficking from southeastward Asia to Europe and North America.It has recently been report that some Nigerians have been used as carriers of drugs and some have invested in the illicit drug trafficking 16 . Cocaine and heroin have recently been seized for the first time in the Sudan. An increasing abuse of cocaine and heroin has been reported in Nigeria 13 . The abuse of these drugs has also been reported in other African countries such as Kenya, Liberia and Mauritius. Sedative-hypnotic For the purpose of this article , sedative-hypnotics include barbiturates, benzodiazipines and other substances, the abuse of which presents similar problems.These substances are imported for legitimate medical purposes, but reports from various African countries indicate that they have also been abused, especially by women. A study in Nigeria has shown that, in order of magnitude , the abuse of these substances is second in rank following alcohol abuse 13 . Mandrax (methaqualone and diphenhydramine) was commonly abused in Nigeria in the early 1970s, but since it was banned, its abuse has abated 13 . However, some other African countries, such as Swaziland, have reported an increase in the trafficking and abuse of Mandrax. chewing gum and petrol sniffing An increase in the abuse of benzine by inhalation has been reported among Sudanese children 17 . Recent reports from Kenya, Somalia, SwaziIand and Zambia indicate the abuse of gingiva and petrol by sniffing, though the extent of such abuse varies from country to country. Pela and Ebie 13 highlighted the potential for abuse of volatile solvents in some occupational groups in Nigeria. closely recent reports from Ethiopia indicate that the abuse of glue and petrol is prevalent among juveniles.