Drug addiction in society and the role of stakeholders

By Ali Kassim

In today’s tough economic climate where austerity is paramount and where budgets for various public services are constantly being scrutinized in a bid to maximise their effectiveness, it is also imperative for government departments to adopt a concerted and holistic approach in tackling any issues at hand.

Apropos of drug addiction and associated crime in society, the government needs to look at the root causes of the aforementioned, examine if current interventions are effective and if not, devise policy to revamp existing systems.

A one size fits all policy cannot fix the complex problem of drug addiction and associated crime. When people are sent to prison, some inmates do well with the structure afforded there; however, others do not do as well as anticipated upon release into the community and their offending continues. This means there is a cycle of some people keep going in and out of prison via the same judicial system. This then begs the question, are our laws effective?

The courts need to properly consider offending history and the commitment of a person to recovery before sentences are awarded. If the case is that the judge believes that a person would do better by treatment in the community, then a stricter and more regimented approach needs to be deployed to ensure appropriate interventions are given and utilised in the community in tandem with the regular substitute prescription drugs to empower people to get off their illicit drug use.

All tools to re-integrate people into the mainstream should be employed with no room for complacency. Their progress should be monitored strictly and without fear of being labelled as ‘heavy handed’. This is because such interventions are needed at times, of course, depending on individual cases and associated criminal activities.

If the aforementioned does not work, then there should be no cowing down to pressure from quarters that are not in favour of over subscribing prisons, but effectiveness of a modality should be looked at when it comes to rehabilitation. Having said that, prisons should be more recovery focussed too and a lot more needs to be done than just prescribing.

If drug addiction is to be tackled, the government needs to look at the police budget, time, and associated costs of the court systems as well as other government expenditure when tackling these issues. It might be an idea to take decisions on rehabilitation after considering holistic total costs to individuals and society rather than isolated government department budgets when taking decisions on expenditure.