Substance abuse doesn’t only affect the person using drugs or alcohol; it affects the whole community around them as well. Substance abuse is known to cause increases in family problems, violence and crime as well as healthcare issues in communities. While there may be treatment programs available to help those who abuse substances such as drugs and alcohol, these places come at a huge cost.
In this article, we’ll discuss the impact of substance abuse on a community.
Family Problems
The impact that substance abuse have on families in communities are damaging.
It may be responsible for causing problems in marriages, putting children under huge amounts of emotional and physical stress and consequently, affects their ability to learn.
In turn, kids may blame themselves for their parent’s behaviour and might even enable the substance abuse. Luckily, there are ways to address these issues, as family members will be able to learn new skills on how to communicate better with their abusive loved ones.
These skills include learning non-confrontational approaches as well as to depend on the help of professionals in the substance abuse field as well as other family members.
Violence and Crime
Studies have proven that there is a direct link between substance abuse and the increases of violence and crime in communities.
Because it is expensive, substance abusers may often become involved in dangerous and illegal activity such as stealing and prostitution to fund their habits.
However, people in the community often report these crimes to police, who make various amounts of drug-related arrests and remove these addictive substances from the streets.
One downside of this is because these drugs are expensive, the removal of it by the police forces dealers to push up their prices to make up for their losses and in turn, it causes people to commit more crimes to get hold of money.
Health Risks
People who abuse addictive substances are more prone to suffering health problems such as pregnancy issues, brain damage and more seriously, death.
Some drugs will require abusers to use needles, increasing the chances of picking up diseases such as HIV/AIDS.
One myth about substance abuse is that society often sees people different to themselves in culture and race to being more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol.
Substance abuse doesn’t have any preferences and it affects everyone, that’s why communities must make sure that they work towards making treatment available for all.
Substance Abuse Prevention Programs
While the debate continues on whether it has the same effect that treatment has, substance abuse prevention programs play an important role in helping people understand the dangers of using drugs and alcohol.
Prevention programs aim to minimise the risks of substance abuse by helping people build stronger and healthier relationships with others around them.
In families struggling with a substance abuse or addiction, children are often urged to attend these programs, which helps them make correct decisions and to ensure that they do not fall into the same trap.
Death
Substance abuse is one of the main causes of death each year around the world. Illegal activities such as drunken driving are responsible for countless amounts of lives lost.
Driving under the influence of alcohol and committing violence and crime puts everyone’s lives in danger.
Before things go too far, now is the best time to look for help.
If you or someone you know abuses drugs or alcohol, then its best to receive professional help.
We offer access to the best private drug and alcohol rehabilitation clinics all over South Africa, the United Kingdom and Thailand. For more information about it, call us now and let one of our qualified addiction counsellors assist you in finding the best treatment available.
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