Diaspora:Cause of drug addiction

Drug addiction or substance dependence as many my know, is fully depending on a drug or substance for human function(s).

Some can’t work, eat without smoking weed/bhang, others get sick if they don’t use alcohol or their drug, while others use their drugs before starting off their day.

Drugs such as Bhang or weed, cigarettes, cocaine, and others are commonly misused

One doesn’t realised they are addicted unless they experience a certain change in personality or behavior, shakes irritability, violence,rebellion and agitation.

The main cause of drug addiction known best by many is peer pressure.

Peer pressure is the influence of other members from the same age group or age set to do certain things of the same interest.

In this case, one can start using drugs because he/she has seen their peers use them. One gets introduced one step at a time, they start with a puff, gets the reaction and go back for another, before realising it, they start using the drug, slowly but surely becoming dependant.

Mwangi, who relocated to Nairobi opened up about his addiction, he was introduced to street drugs by his neighbour and he says it was the worst decision yet, at the time he wasn’t aware of the effects, all he wanted was to get high.

“I couldn’t have a shower before taking the drug, I exposed myself into so many risks, I contracted HIV/AIDs because we were sharing a needle to inject the drug into our systems, we were using it the four of us. Whenever cocaine was scarce, my neighbour would inject himself, extract blood from his body, and inject us with it, since cocaine was going straight into the blood streams. I misused my university school fees just for a shot of cocaine, I became addicted so much that I couldn’t eat before having a shot, I literally depended on the drug.”

Mwangi is now reformed, and has left rehab.

Another cause of drug abuse is Biological. Many young people in in Diaspora abuse drugs because it runs in their families, for instance, cigarette and alcohol abuse might be in many families, from the great-grandfather to the last child might be abusing drugs, no amount of rehab can change the abuse.

Maina says everybody in his family abuses alcohol, he was once picked from a trench in Kiambu , Kenya after he passed out from having too much alcohol, his father was also taken to rehab but it couldn’t help.

Environment an individual stays in can cause drug abuse, people who live near clubs and other drug selling joints tend to use and abuse the drug from a tender age.

Other causes may include but not limited to;