The reasons for drug use vary from individual to individual and have different social causes given situations and contexts. Understanding why a street child sniffs glue, smokes dagga or whoonga is different from why a middle-class suburban child uses ecstasy, cocaine or mandrax.
Given that, on some level, all drug use revolves around numbing or escaping from some sort of psychological issue or emotional pain. Drugs provide many functions. They give one a sense of confidence or a sense of protective isolation. They can elevate one’s mood and one’s self-esteem.
They can serve to aid relaxation to ease anxiety and even to aid with depression. They can provide a sense of belonging and acceptance (through a peer group), a rite of passage, a badge of honour. Just because these solutions are short term or illusionary does not make them less painful, especially to the adolescent who is looking for short term, immediate gratification and is prone to feeling immune to danger.
There are various causes for the increase in drug use. These include easier access to drugs, and increased demand. The first issue is beyond our scope. The second, in my opinion, reflects the demands placed on children today and our relationships, primarily as parents. Children these days have a huge demand placed on them – socially by the way we live.
We are saturated with choice, one more materially aspirant and also subsequently more easily frustrated in that regard. We seem to be more easily distracted, less able to delay gratification, more easily bored and are generally prone to feeling empty. Children today live in a more complicated world; overflowing with stimuli and often looking for something meaningful that can sustain them over time. Parents, too, are often less available to their children because of economic demands and general stress. I think it is essential to engage the world your children live in, to understand it and not fear it and to involve yourself as a consistent, respectful presence that can be used to help your child make sense of all the demands he/she has to negotiate.
By remaining distant, unengaged, disinterested or hostile we abandon our children. Drugs can become a convenient and attractive solution. The drug culture is an ever-changing market and with the increased use of technology and science, new chemical substances are created on a monthly basis. Designer drugs are on the increase and new recipes are created for different effects on the body. There are some myths related to the question, which asks where do teens find drugs?
Most parents assume that children are commonly offered these drugs by a stranger who first supplies them for free and lets them get hooked. The truth is that children sell drugs to children. It starts with the friendship circle, or with an older sibling or friend. It is a case of children not having to ‘look’ for drugs – they are right in front of them. Drugs are available at clubs, bars, garages, pharmacies, in your medicine cupboard in your home and a host of other places.
Money is also not a problem. Drugs have become cheaper and are more affordable. Children use their monthly allowances and their birthday money, they steal from their parents in different ways, they sell their own things, even household items and some start becoming involved in criminal activities.
It depends on what stage they’ve reached in the dependency process.
The main truth is that children sell drugs to children.
Surprise Elvin Basson
Weenen
