Affluence, poverty among factors behind drug addiction among youth: CSM

MULTAN, Jun 26 (APP): Cancer Society Multan (CSM) has revisited the factors behind the prevailing trend of drug addiction among youth, counting affluence and extreme poverty among a few of them that make them fall into the trap.
In a statement issued here on Wednesday, CSM patron Prof. Abrar Ahmad Javed and President Prof. Ahmad Ijaz Masood said, the day is being observed all over the world to sensitize people on the gravity of the problem and amass support from all sectors of life to address its causes including extreme poverty and affluence.
Other factors, they added, included bad company, betrayal by friends particularly from opposite gender, failure in achieving objectives, uneasiness and despair, parents’ lack of attention or domestic dispute between them, injustices are other factors that could cause a youngster to fall victim to the drug addiction for a temporary escape that unfortunately later becomes his or her addiction.
Quoting a United Nations’ report, they said, there were almost 270 million drug addicts who use the prohibited substances for temporary mental relief. They stressed on the need for a greater liaison between medical experts and different segments of society to effectively fight the menace.
Highlighting the negative medical and psychological impacts, they said, the use of drugs can cause cancer, Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs), impact heart and brain, online social media addiction and extraordinary participation in online relationships, online games and obscene content.
They said, all smoke emitting or smoke-less drug addictions including injections can lead the addict to medical and psychological complications and to cancer at some stage. They urged the people from all segments of society, organizations working against the drug addiction and law enforcement agencies and facilities for rehabilitation of addicts to combine their efforts into a chain of mechanisms to bring the addicts back to normal life activities.