Do drugs really kill?

It is clear that certain addictive substances are dangerous... but... is it useful to focus on them?

"Drugs kill" is a phrase that has been used in numerous awareness and addiction prevention campaigns. and addiction prevention campaigns. However, this oft-heard and oft-repeated phrase hides aspects of substance use and obscures the perception of this problem. It is the way in which a person relates to drugs that makes him or her sick, deteriorates and can kill.

And when we talk about drugs we are not only referring to the so-called hard drugs, such as cocaine or cocaine base paste, and we are not even talking only about illegal drugs, because drugs are both marijuana, illegal, and alcoholic beverages, tobacco or psychotropic drugs, legal.

If we stop from the classification of substances between legal and illegal, from a legal model, the consumer remains in the place of a criminal, since buying and consuming something illegal implies committing a crime. From this perspective we leave aside the possibility of thinking of the consumer as someone who has a health problem, a desperate dependence on a substance.

Does the drug really kill?

The drug itself does nothing; it neither makes you sick, nor does it kill. It is a thing, inert, without life or entity, nor power. It is a necessary component in a substance abuse addiction.But it requires a person who chooses it, uses it, abuses it or depends on it.

In any case, it is worth clarifying that there are many drugs with a high addictive capacity.However, beyond this "power", which is necessary but not sufficient, certain conditions must be met in order for the person to enter into an addictive and dependent relationship with it.

The oft-repeated slogan "we must put an end to the scourge of drugs", demonizes it, gives it the capacity of being an active agent, which, like a virus, invades a person, understood as passive.

Two examples: the case of alcohol and psychotropic drugs.

If the drug is the one that generates dependence, just by tasting an alcoholic beverage, we would all become alcoholics.. However, this does not happen, because it is not the drug itself that will determine this, but the relationship between the person (with social, biological, psychological, cultural factors that are intertwined) and the drink.

Now let's talk about psychotropic drugs. In many occasions a psychopharmacological treatment is necessary, but with proper professional supervision to really work.but with the due professional supervision so that it really works. The great variety of psychotropic drugs for different functions opens the possibility of "solving" different concerns and problems with the simple fact of being medicated. Taking medication without treatment is like lowering a fever with a fever reducer and continuing as if nothing had happened, covering up what the body is announcing that something is not working properly.

Not being able to sleep, feeling uneasy, being restless when alone or surrounded by many people, being in a bad mood or acting impulsively, has a possible solution in a little pill. However, it will be much more productive and healthy not to simply cover up the symptoms, but to investigate why we cannot sleep, what happens or happened to us not to tolerate being alone, why we feel these nerves when we leave home... All of these answers will not be found in a compulsive consumption of pills without a treatment that interrogates and heals.

Conclusion

If we consider drugs as the protagonist and culprit of addictions, first of all, we disregard other addictions that are not substances, such as addiction to sex, shopping, food, or gambling, among many others.

Secondly, to think of drugs as a social, national and global scourge, leads us to view the addicted person as a passive victim and in this way we take away the responsibility for their actions and, therefore, the possibility that they have in their hands to build changes and recover.