Drug and Substance Abuse situation

Drugs and Substance Abuse Situation

Drug and substance abuse is on the increasing in Africa, Europe and Asian.  In 2003 1,678,000 people were arrested due to drug abuse. In Africa, the prevalence among men is higher than women. In Kenya according to  NACADA  (2012),  5.8%  of  Kenyans  are abusing alcohol and another 5.5% are dependent on alcohol use 3.7% are abusing tobacco and 4.5% are dependent on tobacco use, 1.6% are abusing ‘Miraa’ and 1.5% are dependent on ‘Miraa’  and 0.4% are abusing bhang and another 0.4% are dependent on bhang use.

Effects of drugs 

·        aggression and crime( 86% homicide, 37% assault offenders, 60% sexual offenders, 20% marital violence, 13% child abuse (Roizon,1997))

·         Alcohol weakens brain impairing good judgement

·        School drop-outs

·        Difficulty in social interactions with people

·        Loss of employment

·         Kidney failure, cancer and eventually death

·        spread of communicable diseases like HIV and AIDS

·        drain on resources leading to poverty

·        food insecurity  as  drugs  and  other  substances  are  competing  for  the scarce land resources in the country

Legal approaches are used to addresses the harmful effects (including health, social, safety and economic consequences) of substance and drug abuse on individuals, families, and communities and check whether provisions exist in drug control laws. The addressed issues include; the substances, the status and levels of penalties and any levels of tolerance. The law should be enforceable and credible

There is concern over the effects of drug use on the general population and a wide public support that police should test for drugs at the same time as alcohol.  According to various studies, the prevalence of licit drug use (mainly benzodiazepines) is higher than for illicit drugs (mainly cannabis and opiates).

The new drugs phenomenon has provoked a range of innovative legal responses geared towards controlling the open sale of these substances. These include rapid interventions that have been put in place to allow countries time to design other responses or to fill the gap before drug law control can be enacted.

The rapid emergence of new drugs has prompted a variety of innovative legal responses, and the situation continues to evolve. countries have implemented some types of control measures and subsequently initiated others. Criminal sanctions are not uniform; the size of the criminal penalties and the potential harm that would trigger them vary widely.

The legal approaches should be supported by a broad group of stakeholders that include physicians and health practitioners, law enforcement representatives, government officials, and many more.