Socio-economic Impact-hon. Mark Mwithaga

7/27/2019 Socio-economic Impact-hon. Mark Mwithaga

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ASSESSING THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF

ALCOHOL AND DRUG ABUSE ON THE YOUTH IN KENYA

BY

HON. MARK MWITHAGA, HSC

P.O. BOX 821-20100

NAKURU

(MOBILE: O721895369)

A CONFERENCE PAPER PRESENTED TO THE

2ND NACADA NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ALCOHOL ANDDRUG ABUSE (ADA)

AT MOI SPORTS CENTER KASARANI GYMNASIUM

JUNE, 2013


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INTRODUCTION

Drug abuse in Kenya among the youth is not a new problem

and in fact recent times have seen it snowball and manifest

itself in different facets in the socio-economic arena. As the

country moves towards a more devolved system it risks

losing its most valuable asset in this initiative, the youth,due to the attrition caused by among other things, substance

abuse. Furthermore, the habit impinges greatly on the

family income and at advanced stages causes increased

levels of tension and economic dependency leading to

poverty and loss of opportunities for growth and

advancement of both the victim and his/her family.


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STATEMENTOFTHE PROBLEM

By targeting the youth, it leads to increasing levels of

unemployability, health and educational challenges, loss of

productivity, insecurity and loss of investor confidence among

other things. However, more development efforts place

premium on economic factors and ignore the non-economic

factors. Problems such as alcohol and drug abuse are not fully

appreciated in terms of the cost they have on the socioeconomic

wellbeing of the country despite their growing threat and as

such majority of the stakeholders-the abusers included lack

vital information about the socioeconomic consequences of thehabit. This has led low levels of cooperation among them

whereas the drug problem needs nothing short of concerted

efforts by all concerned to contain it.


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OBJECTIVES

Therefore, the aim of this paper is to determine the social and

economic consequences of alcohol and drug abuse (ADA)

among the youth. Specifically, the objectives are

To assess the current levels of substance abuse among the

youth in the country

To determine the educational and health consequences of

the habit,

To establish its impact on the family income,

To determine the impact it has on the national income and

the international labor market and

To examine its influence on crime and youth unrest.


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ORIGINSOF ALCOHOLAND DRUG ABUSE

Drug addiction and drug abuse is the chronic or habitual use

of any chemical substance to alter states of body or mind for

other than medically warranted purposes (Mack et al., 2005).

Man has been known to ingest consciousness alter substances

since time immemorial. This has been always informed by

socio-cultural practices and also medical conditions (Smith,

2007).

However, since the middle of the 20th Century A.D., patterns of

drug consumption characterized by variety and levels of

addiction have emerged with often severe consequences on

those prone to unrestrained prolonged use or to dependency

(Normand et al., 2006).


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ALCOHOLAND DRUG ABUSEIN KENYA

ADA presents itself with many facets and varying degrees of

complexity across regions. For instance according to Karen

(2006) the abuse of hard drugs especially in the city of

Mombasa and particularly among men in their early 20s was

a major problem.

In Mombasa and Kilindini there are approximately 40

maskani (meaning location in Swahili) where drug abusers

habitually meet to share drugs. The traditional recreational

drug of choice here is Canabis but Heroin injection is

becoming increasingly popular. In a survey (Gatonya, 2009)

70 percent of recreational drug users said they were using

heroin.


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Designer drugs like Ecstasy and Methamphetamine are also

making their presence felt in the drug abuse circles in the

country.

However, by far and large alcohol abuse is perhaps the most

prevalent form of substance abuse in the country. In fact in

several pockets of the country the problem has hit runaway

proportions and as a consequence led to a myriad of

socioeconomic problems chief being the loss of productivity

and the deterioration of family and social life.


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CAUSESOF ALCOHOLAND DRUG ABUSE

Several causes have been linked to the behavior and while

credible, they vary in complexity depending on the region,

hence, making the legislation and enforcement of laws to

address the situation become more challenging especially

across international borders thus making the problem and

the actors involved difficult to apprehend or contain.

This follows from the fact that no universal classification of

what constitutes unhealthy use of substances exists. Many

classifications ignore the fact that alcohol and drug use is

an accepted part of life of many social sets and what is seen

as risky behavior by one group is accepted as normal by

another.


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However, it is agreeable that among the leading recruitment

factors in the drug trade is the allure of easy wealth that it

seldom requires capital concentration and is also not laborintensive both at production and retail levels.

In terms of abuse particularly among the youth peer

pressure, poor parent-child relationship, and curiosity and

the desire to work or study hard are notable causes leading

to this behavior with high cost of living as an added factor

observed among those living in urban areas.


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EFFECTSOF ALCOHOLAND DRUG ABUSE

Effect on Health and Education

The mode of action of the substances may vary depending on

the class like stimulants, depressants, inhalants, hallucinogens,

narcotics and designer drugs and dosage ingested or

administration and also level of abuse. The effects of substance

abuse are characteristically medical and socioeconomic and

can be felt on many different levels: on the individual, on

friends and family, on society, and on the entire nation. On the

Individual level, people who use drugs experience a wide array

of physical effects other than those expected

Anxiety, fatigue, depression, and an acute desire for more to

alleviate the feelings of the crash are associated with cocaine .

Marijuana and alcohol interfere with motor control and are

factors in many automobile accidents


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Sharing hypodermic needles used to inject some drugs dramatically

increases the risk of contracting AIDS and some types of hepatitis.

In addition, increased sexual activity among drug users, both in

prostitution and from the disinhibiting effect of some drugs, also

puts them at a higher risk of AIDS and other sexually transmitted

infections. Because the purity and dosage of illegal drugs are

uncontrolled, drug overdose is a constant risk.

Substance abuse is also vitiating the scholastic ability of the youth

in schools and subsequently the future leaders. It has been observed

that this habit inhibits the development of logical thinking processes

and a rational approach to problem solving. Drugs also damage the

physiological maturation of the young person's brain, even in theshort term. Experts have indicated that any drug that interferes

with alertness during working hours, or is used as a major way of

coping with stress slows down normal development.


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Effects on the Social Structure

These health and psychological problems Alcohol and drugabuse among the youth also affects the family. Drink and drugs

are often seriously expensive, so uncontrolled use can lead to

financial problems. It has been observed that tensions and

arguments within the family become frequent when incomerequired for the support of the family is spent on drug -related

problems. Pronounced use of drink or drugs also tends to

rigidly define social groups, it may limit ones circle of friends.

Continual or large scale use of alcohol also has a bad effect on

most people's sex-life.


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ADA definitely lowers people's ability to resist harming

themselves when they have problems and can lower people's

inhibitions against hurting others. Moreover, it greatly lessens

people's ability to say no to unwanted sexual encounters which

they would have definitely avoided had they been sober. Many

serious accidents are also drink and drugs related and have

serious impacts on the family income and also the national

economy.


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Effect on the Economy

While governments are preoccupied with increasing economic

growth and consequently concentrating most of their resources

in that direction, ironically, alcohol and drug abuse threaten to

erode those gains. A case in point is the US where the costs of

drug abuse were documented to have increased at an average

of 5.3 percent per year from 1992 through 2002 a figure that was

very slightly above the 5.1 percent annual growth in the gross

domestic product for the entire economy at the time. These

costs mainly result from the use of resources to address health

and crime consequences as well as the loss of potential

productivity from disability, death and withdrawal from the

legitimate workforce.


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With the recruitment rates both into the drug industry and abuse

habit currently outstripping the preventative and rehabilitative

efforts the costs even in the developing world like Kenya are likely

to follow if not outdo this trend especially in terms of costs incriminal justice efforts, particularly increased rates of

incarceration for drug offenses and drug-related offenses and

increased spending on law enforcement and adjudication. Costs

associated with health consequences and treatment and prevention

initiatives are also expected to increase (National Drug ControlPolicy, 2004).

Effective workplace initiatives to prevent drug abuse should begin

in the community and be directed at young persons who are

potential workers (Smith, 2007). However, this can only be

appreciated where there is sufficient information to warrant and

guide the intervention measures, meaning that more collaborative

effort which is currently lacking among the stake holders should be

encouraged.


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CONCLUSIONSAND RECOMMENDATIONS

There is need to evaluate our social structures and social

institutions to identify the factors that militate against their

smooth functioning. Improvement in all the social institutions will

help in our efforts to fight against drug abuse. In fact, the family

has to be strengthened to enable it perform its societal functions.

There is also need to motivate tutors in the educational institutions

so that they can pay enough attention to the plight of their pupilsor students. As such it is critical that issues such as class sizes be

addressed as teachers are not having effective interaction with

individual pupils/students and as a result the students are not

getting the desired counseling or advice .The Church has an

important role to play in the socialization process. The Church

should inculcate into the minds of the youth the harmful effects of

narcotic drugs and the like.


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The government also needs to show increased concern over this

menace and encourage vigilance among all the stakeholders.

This vigilance can only be meaningfully encouraged by arming

the stakeholders with vital and sufficient information as can be

drawn from the Biblical wisdom that says, My people perish

because of lack of knowledge. (Hos. 4:6, NIV). Therefore there

is need to unearth, avail and disseminate pertinent information

on the situation to all the stakeholders on a continual basis.


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REFERENCES

Butler B(1993), Alcohol and Drugs and the Workplace.Butterworths, Toronto.

Gatonya, G. (2009). New Scary Trend in Drug Abuse. Daily

Nation. Retrieved 16 February 2013.

Karen, A. (2006). Traffickers Drug Haven in Mombasa, Kenya :

BBC News. Retrieved 16 April 2013.

Mack, A. H., Frances, R. J. and Miller, S.I. (2005). Clinical

Textbook of Addictive Disorders, Third Edition. New

York: The Guilford Press. p. 207.

National Drug Control Policy (2004). The Economic Costs of

Drug Abuse in the United States 1992-2002. Washington,D.C. 20503. December 2004


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Newcomb M. D. (2004) Drug Use in the Workplace: Risk Factors

for Disruptive Substance Use Among Young Adults.

Auburn House, Dover, Massachusetts.

Ngesu, L. M., Ndiku J. and Masese, A. (2008) Drug Dependence

and Abuse in Kenyan Secondary Schools: Strategies

for Intervention. Educational Research and Review Vol.

3 (10), pp. 304-308, October 2008

Ohene-Konadu K. (2008) Drug Abuse Among the Youth. Center

for Social Policy Studies,University of Ghana Legon

Smith J. P. (2007) Alcohol and Drugs in the Workplace: Attitudes,

Policies and Programmes in the European Community,

Report of ILO in collaboration with the Health and Safety

Directorate, Commission of the European Communities,

Geneva, 2007.

Socio-economic Impact-hon. Mark Mwithaga

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