Addictions in the Era of Economical Destabilization - Coursework Example

ADDICTIONS IN THE ERA OF ECONOMICAL DESTABILIZATION Introduction Economic crises, or situations whereby a country’s economy is experiencing a sudden downturn caused by dismal financial performances, give rise to multiple problems and complications. These crises are indicated by drying up liquidity, inflation, deflation, and falling GDPs amongst others.Amongst the problems born out of such crises include increase in homicide, theft, and robbery according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime1. Concisely, it has been evidenced that an economic crisis is directly linked to increase in crime. In the recent past, Greece, which is currently undergoing a financial crisis, has become a topic of interest for economists in that apart from these mentioned crimes, drug consumption seems to be the biggest factor fuelled by the crisis. Drug consumption in this context refers to recurrent intake of illegal drugs. Drug consumption leads to addiction, which is drug dependency, meaning that the drug user cannot survive without consuming the drug. Greece’s central part, Athens, has been the hardest hit by this economic crisis cum drug consumption relationship. The twist in the matter lies in that while the country is suffering financially, how then does drug consumption, which is overly expensive, be on the rise? This research literature will discuss this problem with regards to recent studies conducted in Greece to determine how the crisis has led to drug consumption. Argentina, which is also undergoing a similar crisis, will be compared to Greece’s Athens in determining whether a connection exists between an economic crisis and drug consumption. The study’s methodology will be drawing information from existing studies and literatures regarding the status of drug use in Athens as has been researched by scholars and incorporating it into supporting the thesis. The economic crisis in Greece began to set in from 2009 and has been on the increase ever since. Greece, with a population of about 11 million, is hard hit by unemployment as about 4 million people remain unemployed today. Additionally, those who are working have been undergoing salary reduction from 2009 which amounts to about – 30%. As part of combating the ongoing crisis, the government reduced its expenditure on public health below 6% of its GDP (3% lower than the OECD’s recommended 9%. To make matters worse, the government slashed the expenditure on social programs and welfare by 40%2. Collectively, these matters exposed the dwellers of Greece to multiple problems such as poor access to healthcare and the now roaring drug consumption problem. According to a survey by the University Mental Health Research Institute, drug consumption in Greece has been on the increase. Cannabis is one of the most abused drugs in Greece, with about 8.6% of persons aged 12 to 64 years reported to be on lifetime use of the same3. Of all the persons aged 15 to 34 years, 10.8% reported lifetime prevalence of Cannabis. In 2003, 6% of high school students had tried Cannabis, in 2007; the number was the same, but as at 2011, 8% reported to have tried it. Opiate users mostly on Heroin use increased to 2.86 users per 1,000 people between 2009 and 2012. Similarly, injection drug users (IDUs) increased in the same period to about 1.07 users per 1,000 people4. HIV infections have also indicated an increase in drug consumers in that as from 2012, HIV infections increased significantly amongst IDUs even as other European Union nations experienced a decrease in the same. In addition, the increase in drug use and is said to have a character, meaning that it is restricted to one part of Greece, and that is its capital Athens5. As these findings show, before the crisis set in around 2009, drug abuse was under control but as is evident from 2012 onwards, more persons have been taking to the act. According to Gray6, the economic crisis that pushed the government into slashing its expenditure on “the safety net” has led to an increase in the number of addicts. When the crisis hit, the first effect felt was in employment as more people lost their jobs or had their salaries reduced. This occurrence which mostly affected young people pushed millions of them into drug use as a means of escaping reality. Having no jobs to do makes them turn to drug use either as resellers or consumers. Either way, they end up in the same net of addictions.What this means in short is that the economic crisis has affected drug addicts by creating more of them through lack and loss of jobs. The same occurrence was observed in Argentina’s Buenos Aires during the 2001/2002 economic crisis. In a study conducted by Rossi, et. al7 to determine the relationship between time use and Paco consumption showed that indeed, a connection existed. The study showed that during the crisis, most of the unemployed drug users spent most of their time looking for jobs and consuming drugs. However after the crisis, the time spent at work increased while the time spent consuming drugs with friends decreased significantly. In evaluation (for both Argentina and Greece), unemployment affects time usage where it is seen that when there is little or nothing to do, more time is dedicated to dismal activities such as consuming drugs. As such, the crisis has increased the number of addicts in Athens. Apart from increasing them, the economic crisis makes them reluctant to take up rehabilitation programs. This is evident in that the addicts have no answer as to what they are supposed to do after they get out of addiction. According to them, society is unfair to them in not providing them with employment. Therefore, they prefer to live in addiction than live without jobs. As earlier highlighted, the economic crisis in Greece led to slashing of the government’s expenditure on healthcare. Athens, even before the economic crisis, was a notorious place for drug sales and consumers. There were several support programs aimed at helping the addicts such as rehabilitation, condom supply, STI treatments, and needle exchange programs. These programs ensured some addicts could be helped out of their problems; others prevented STI infections while others ensured needles were not shared as a means of countering the spread of HIV/AIDS. These programs were affected in a big way as the slash affected them leading to provision of poor, less, or no services at all. About one third of these outreach programs stalled after the slash8. In Athens only, 85% of the addicts are not on rehabilitation programs and this means that they are vulnerable to lifelong drug use or the effects of long-term drug use. Prior to the crisis, medical practitioners took as their duty to not only provide support to addicts but also treat their STIs. However, the slash meant they no longer had the resources to provide the support, and this means they stopped providing the extra services. Collectively, these factors imply that the addicts are prone to more than just their addiction problems owing to the crisis. In Athens still, most of the drug users (due to lack of employment) remain unsecured. The lack of medical insurance means that they cannot access Greece’s Universal Healthcare System which allows insured persons to secure free or overly cheap medical attention. This means that since the healthcare systems cannot cater for them due to reduction of funding, and neither can they (due to lack of insurance), most of the addicts turn away from medical centers. This in turn endangers not only their addiction status but general health. As such, they are most disadvantaged health-wise. As is the cycle with drug addiction, the urge to have more increases as one’s dependency on drugs increases. This not only affects the individual but society at large. As has been seen in Athens, the crisis has turned the addicts into criminals who have in turn taken away the city’s reputation as one of the safest capitals in Europe.In 2007 before the crisis set in, Athens was experiencing historic lows in terms of armed robberies. Two years later as the depression came in, armed robberies doubled from 26,872 to about 47,607 by the close of 20099. Worse still, homicide increased as armed robberies increased. This phenomenon can be related to addicts in two ways; first of all, the lack of employment and other necessities has forced them to apply any means necessary to raise drug money. Homicide and armed robbery seems to be one of their preferred means. Second, the nature of the drugs they use such as cocaine, heroin and the fast-emerging shisha makes them overly violent and more inhumane. In Argentina’s case for instance, the use of Paco, a form of cocaine that is highly toxic, made the addicts very destructive and violent. They would sell every last thing they owned to buy it, and when they had nothing more to sell turned to violent robbery and multiple other crimes10. Athens is today recognized as a dangerous city where break-ins and cases of homicide are becoming an everyday norm. This realization has prompted the Athens County government to come up with a program entitled “Fresh Start”11. The program, aimed at reducing crime in Athens by helping addicts out of their habits acknowledges that addiction is the leading cause of crime in the region. In a nutshell, this move proves that the economic crisis not only affects the addicts but the society at large. Worse still, the nature of drugs being consumed means that even if the addicts access the drugs they need, crime will still exist since they take over their thinking and prompt them to commit felonious acts. There is a big similarity shown in Argentina and Greece’s addiction problems and that is the depression (economic crisis) led to the emergence of cheaper but highly addictive drugs. Concisely, the poverty caused by the crisis forced the addicts to find alternative drugs that would not require a lot of money. Prior to the 2000/2001 depression in Argentina, cocaine was the most abused substance amongst addicts. As the crisis increased in magnitude, the addicts could no longer afford cocaine and they came up with Paco. Paco, mostly common in Ciudad Oculta, is made by simply mixing raw coca paste with solvents such as kerosene and smoking it. However, it is highly toxic and addictive with effects similar or worse to cocaine. The difference was that cocaine was expensive, and Paco was cheap and readily available for the poverty-stricken addicts12. Similarly, the addicts in Greece have been salvaged of their expenses by the emergence of a new drug; crystal meth otherwise known as shisha. Shisha and the economic crisis in Greece seem to have grown at the same time. It is nicknamed “cocaine of the poor”, obviously indicating the similarity to cocaine, only differing in costs. As The Guardian13reveals, a “hit” of shisha (which is smoked, sniffed or injected) costs as low as 2 euros meaning it is readily available. As indicated earlier, it is similar to Paco in that it gives the user aggressiveness and casts them into outbursts of mindless violent behavior. It is unclear what its contents are, but shampoo, engine oil and battery acid are proven ingredients in its manufacture. Apart from taking over an addict’s normal brain function, shisha endangers their lives. This is because it can be homemade, and going by the nature of the ingredients used, shisha claims the lives of many addicts when small errors in its preparation are made14. Conclusively, Paco and Shisha present the similarity between Argentina and Greece in that they are both drugs invented or embraced by poor addicts suffering from the effects of an economic depression. The economic crisis is further exposing the addicts to HIV/AIDS risk factors. One way this is happening lies in the fact that shisha has been proven to give the user intense sexual drive15. This, when coupled with the mindlessness that comes with the drug’s effect means the addicts cannot make good judgments when it comes to the act. For instance, they will not consider using protection or avoiding sex overall. Apart from shisha, other drugs such as heroine and cannabis will also impair one’s judgment in the same line. Back to the issue of a slashed budget for the safety net, the addicts may have some hints about protected sex but with the support programs and bodies inability to provide their services, the addicts are left without any options. Closely related to unprotected sex is the sharing of needles used to inject the drugs; this is one of the fastest way through which HIV spreads amongst drug users. During Argentina’s economic crisis, the spread of HIV amongst IDUs increased, in fact, of the total infections reported in Argentina, about 34% was through injecting drugs into the body. This was the leading spread factor of HIV/AIDS between 1982 and 2004 in the country16. In a study conducted on 140 IDUs in Buenos, Argentina in 2006, 87.9% had lost relatives, acquaintances, or friends to AIDS. These deaths were connected to sharing of needles as well as lack of access to healthcare17. This connection extends to the economic crisis experienced in 2000/2001. The situation in Athens surpasses what was experienced in Buenos in that apart from sharing needles, making uninformed decisions, and lack of access to protection and healthcare, the addicts are turning to prostitution in order to survive. Prostitution is ranked second after robbery as the way through which addicts earn their drug money. Sex workers are common in Athens and they charge between 10 to 15 euros for their services18. While this may seem shocking enough, it is revealed that for a higher pay, they will have unprotected sex with their clients. As the effect of the tumbling economy bites, the addicts-turned-prostitutes have also upped their game by taking more risks in order to earn better. In this way, they are all exposed to contracting HIV and spreading it within themselves or to their clients. Due to their desperation for money, they have no other options but to give in to the demands of their clients and/or partners. Additionally, the closure of support programs and bodies means they have no access to condoms or medical attention, so apart from contracting the virus; they cannot control the disease once they acquire it. In 2012, the police in Athens rounded up prostitutes and tested them for HIV of which most of them tested positive. As if this was not enough, the HIV positive prostitutes were put up on national media as a way of warning the public against them. This occurrence presents yet another effect lashed out at the drug addicts and that is humiliation. The international guidelines of conduct regarding HIV/AIDS dictate that an individual’s HIV status remains confidential and is only revealed with the owner’s consent.Statistics were to later follow; that HIV infection had increased in drug users by a whopping 1,450% in Athens only19. Evidently, the economic crisis is to blame for the addictions that have led the addicts to prostitution which has in turn increased the HIV infection rates in Greece. Finally, and apart from HIV acquired through prostitution and sharing of sterile equipment, the addicts who cannot get reprieve from the little they “earn” have become so desperate that they get infected with HIV deliberately. Their idea is to be recognized as Persons Living with HIV/AIDS and gain access to monthly benefits amounting to about 890 dollars, drug substitution programs, and prescription of synthetic opioid drugs. For them, developing HIV/AIDS is a form of escaping the harshness caused by the ongoing economic crisis and they seem to have lost all hopes for the future that their lives are no longer priorities. Conclusion Terms such as economic depression may not be as weighty until one focuses on the implications that it may have on a nation. As this research literature indicates, a single society of Greece is suffering the massive effects of the ongoing economic crisis; drug addicts. In as much as they are branded as addicts, the information collected shows that some of them got into the habit due to unemployment caused by the economic downturn. After losing their jobs, young people suffer most as they have a lot of spare time but have nothing to do. In the ensuing desperation and no hopes of ever finding jobs in a collapsing economy, they turn to substance abuse for consolation. Once in the addiction zone, the economic crisis does not spare them but pushes them lower, causing disintegration in the social fiber. Addicts have been forced to use cheaper and more harmful drugs, turn to armed robbery for money, go into prostitution, avoid medical centers, lack needle-swap services, lack access to protection, get exposed to HIV risk factors, and endure police harassment. Further evidence shows that they turn to these actions out of desperation, and that they are the only tunnels available to survive the ongoing tough times. In conclusion, the comparison between Argentina and Greece shows a similar flow of events and collectively, they justify that economical destabilization has detrimental implications of drug addicts as drug-related problems increased during the peak of the financial depressions. 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