Policy Scope Project: Substance Abuse in India

This report is based on the policy scope project which is going to describe substance abuse in India. It covers the importance of the issue, research findings, experiences in other jurisdictions, and considerations for policy and program development.

Policy Scope Project

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
Why is this issue important?.......................................................................................................4
What does research tell us ? .......................................................................................................6
What is the experience in other jurisdictions?............................................................................7
National Drug Strategic Framework...........................................................................................7
Considerations for policy and program.......................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1
.........................................................................................................................................................2

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Substance abuse is refers to the hazardous and use of psychoactive substance that
includes illicit drug and alcohol. As it put significant affect on individual health and their mental
abilities as well. In India, it is major challenge or concern as people who use drug is become a
issue for them, families and communities as well. Mainly, substance of abuse may consider
various abuse such as alcohol, amphetamines, opiates, cocaine, over the counter drug abuse and
many more. This report is based on the policy scope project which is going to describe substance
abuse in India. In addition of this, consumption of substance is a major threat for people and over
their health, aspects of families, nation and communities. Basically, the prevalence of alcohol use
disorder is higher than the use of prevalence of disorder. As it driving and also increased risk in-
front of people who use of and dependence on tobacco, illicit substance, alcohol can be easily
prevented with the help of making the greater aware to individual, their families, societies
towards the use of effective public health action. This will assist in preventing them from
substance abuse.

INTRODUCTION
Substance abuse can be define as excessive utilization of substances such as drugs or
alcohol. When an individual take drugs which is illegal and use alcohol, prescribed medications
or legal substances in a wrong manner is consider as substance abuse. It is totally different from
addiction. Individuals who are facing substance abuse problems can quit or change their
behaviour (Moos, 2018). Addiction is often consider as disease which means individuals couldn't
stop it even if they are getting harm. Substance abuse can cause health problems such as Nausea
or abdominal pain and can also lead to cause changes in appetite and weight. The following
report is going to cover the importance of this particular issue. Furthermore it will focus on
research findings of the substance abuse. At last,it will focus on policies and programs of two or
more countries along with the implications regarding this particular matter.
MAIN BODY
Why is this issue important?
The substance abuse issue refers to the excessive use of any substance that it becomes an
addicted to the person. This issue is important because this can bring the changes in healthy life
and cause the health issues. It also cause the social issues, responsibilities failure, impaired
control. The substance abuse is an important issue because it brings the high risk of death and
hospitalization. The main effect of this issue is that the many patients are unaware of their
dependence on substance. These substances can be of various types such as drug, alcohol, etc.
Likewise, the use of drugs can cause long term, direct or indirect problems in the individuals life
(Mayes and Suchman, 2015). The addiction of drugs is highly impacted on cultural,
geographical, social, biological, economical and historical aspects. The drugs usage is increasing
rapidly in between the youth as they are facing many stress of modern life.
Basically, the drug abuse is mainly causes the brain disorder becomes some drugs can
change in the brain work. These brain changes can alter the pleasure in someone's life and the
person loss the ability to control stress. So, this is an important issue to bring among the
individuals. This issue affect the person' nutrition, risk of trauma, problem in sleeping habits,
problem in decision taking, violence, etc.
The negative health outcomes can be seen by this issue includes problems in relationship,
issues at education level and the involvement of criminal justice. The issue of substances abuse

in India is highly affected the individuals. The main cause of accidents, death and increment in
patients in India are occur due to the overuse of substances. Thus, this issue is highly important
issue among others.
The socio-economic profile is also the cause of the substances abuse. Like, when some
people belongs to a very high rich profile area then there is a possibility of them of taking drug
abuse. They become sensitized to their profile and just to maintain that profile they start taking
drugs or substances which later on become the addictive to them. So that's why this issue is
important as there are many background outputs from which this issue can developed. In the
economic profile, due to lack of money some people adapt this as a business and start selling in
to the addict-ors (Kandel and Kandel, 2015). As this type of business provide the people a higher
amount of money and then they also become addicted of drugs or substances. Some people trade
this business on a higher level to all type of people including students & other mentally and
addicted people. So, this issue is important to reduces the level of addict.
This issue is very important in violence and criminal aspects. As the costing of drugs is
much high that it becomes difficult to addict-ors to buy to calm their druggies. So these people
take some irrelevance violent steps which can effect them and also their surroundings. They can
harm any of the other person just to grip to dose of drugs. It is the considering issue because it
harms the people personally, mentally and socially.
The current policies in India are to make the less use of drugs by the people. In India, the
Narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances act was introduced. According to this policy, it is
illegal for a person to sell and buy any type of drugs. But this policy is not potential as some
people are selling and purchasing drugs on a large scale. The other policy in India is Narcotics
control bureau works on objective by limiting the use of import & export and production of
drugs (Jordan and Andersen, 2017). This is a potential policy as the government are rescuing the
import and export of drugs.
There are various potential implications can be occur due to not taking actions on the
drug abuse. If the supplier of drugs are not be arrested then they deliver higher amount of drugs
to higher number of people. This will cause the violence, increment of criminals as they become
addicted to it, mentally dis-balance and increases of accidents. Some of drug addicts faces
ignorance from socially which can also influence them to take more and more drugs.

What does research tell us ?
According to the findings of the report it can be observed that the issue of substance
abuse is essential because the consumption of such substances may bring drastic changes in a
normal life and may cause some health issues and problems. It also originate the ethnic issues,
duties, non accomplishment and broken control. It also displays problems that affect the person's
food eating capacity, balance in sleeping, decision making ability and problem solving skills.
The status of socio-economic influences the frequency of taking drugs.
It has been evidenced that the dependency of drug dose is extremely impacted on the
aspects like geographical, biological, cultural, social, historical and economical view. It has been
analysed in the findings that the deficiency of money in some people life may force them to start
selling family goods to satisfy the urges (Saloner and Karthikeyan, 2015). The use of acts like
Psychotropic Substance Drug and Narcotic Drugs Act in India which have been used for retrieval
the import as well as export of drugs. As per the findings all the factors have been covered, but
by analysing each and every aspect it may be stated that the effectiveness in applying the act
strictly is still missing. The government does not take any rigid actions regarding the users of
drugs. No hard-and-fast actions are taken against drug suppliers and not much research has been
conducted in this area.
The implications which need to be addressed for lowering the substance abuse have been
derived and are discussed below.
Support of family: The family should support the drug user and must interact with them
in order to make the individual feel safe and worth. The members of house must show trust into
them and should provide them adequate space to deal with their emotional imbalance (Tyler and
Melander, 2015). During the time of withdrawal, the parents or any other members should calm
the person down and must give them prescribed medications so as to prevent the relapse and
lower the level of anxiety and depression.
Professional assistance: The help of health and care provider can significantly lower the
use of drugs. The therapies like cognitive behavioural theory, which are provided by the
counsellor and deep conversations aids in lowering the stress as well as reduced the urges of
drugs to great extent. Such skilled practitioners aids in treating another mental related issue

which may indirectly leads to substance abuse. They may also conduct support groups and
virtual meetings in order to keep the recovery track.
Focus on behaviour: All the deadly and hazardous effects of the drugs should be
emphasized in front of the drug user so as to make them aware about the negative consequences
it plays on the health, social as well as economic aspects of their life. Their behaviour should be
considered more rather than their actions and the nature (Swensen, 2015). The broken
relationship should be repaired and more beneficial coping skills should be administered for
amending their behaviour in more positive manner so as to stabilise the mental state.
What is the experience in other jurisdictions?
Substance abuse is now become a major issue of concern in individuals. However, to
control this growing issue some of the policies has bee developed in many countries. Policy
framework for substance abuse in India is discussed below.
Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act 1985: It provide a framework for
control of drug abuse in country. The prior objective of this act is to prohibit the individuals to
manufacture, produce, posses, sell, purchase, store, transport or consume any sort of
Psychotropic or Narcotic Drugs. It was implemented to whole India and even citizens of India
who are staying in other countries.
NDPS Amendments, 2014: Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act has made
third time with the creation of new category of drugs which has been applied throughout the
country. This act include a penalty of death sentence for substance drug users involving with a
certain quantity of drugs (Butler, McNaughton and Black, 2015).
Outcomes of such acts was not totally positive. There are still many areas in country
where substance abuse is going on rapidly and drug suppliers are selling drugs openly.
Australia also has a wide range of policies and programs which has been developed over many
years. Policy for substance abuse in respective country is discussed here.
National Drug Strategic Framework
It is a national policy framework for reducing the harm caused by substance abuse. The
main objectives of this particular act is to aware the community for drug related harm. It prevent
the use and harm of the drugs. The act tends to provide training and professional education
programs to the individuals indulge in substance abuses. The program include the prevention

efforts for employ the utilization of social campaigns and distribution of information products. It
brings community development projects for the individuals of substance abuse. School based
education rltaed to drugs and peer educations programs are provided by to the youngsters and
adults who are indulge in such illegal activities. Efforts are being made by the member of this act
for ceasing the use of drugs and help the individuals to prevent harmful consequences of drug
abuse.
The outcome of this particular act was quite positive on the citizens of Australia as it
provide help to the individuals who are indulge in substance abuse (McDowell and Spitz, 2015).
The act provide education and training to the adults and other individuals to minimize the use of
drugs and alcohol and give them preventive measures.
Implications
Implications which can be drawn from both such policies and acts are that they try to help
individuals to overcome from substance abuse. They provide some standard guidelines that are
strictly need to be followed by the citizens of the country. The objective of this act is to ensure
that substances abuse in countries should be eliminated as it impact the health conditions of the
individuals and cause number of health problems. Using drugs and alcohol directly hit the mind
of a human being and thus, it is important to make strict rules and some policy frameworks for
restricting the utilization of such illegal substances.
Considerations for policy and program
In India, substance abuse is a major concern especially in young generations. As it has
appalling dimension that consist changing cultural values, dwindling supportive bonds,
increasing economic stress are the cause to initiation into substance use. In this regards,
Cannabis, heroin, pharmaceutical drugs produced in India are the frequently abused drugs in
India. Basically, drug use, abuse is also consider as a primarily because of nature of drug used,
individual personality, addict' s immediate environment (Sullivan, Messer and Quinlivan, 2015).
In this, the main cause of these abused is processes of industrialization, urbanization and along
with migration. All these are leads to loosening of the traditional methods of social control
rendering of a people vulnerable towards the stresses and strains of modern life. As substance
abuse prevention is also related to the drug abuse which is process that attempts to control the
onset of substance use or development of issue that associated with using psychoactive
substance. Mainly, prevention efforts may directly focus on the people and their surroundings

that support them in controlling the use of drugs in young generation. Apart from this, drug
abuse prevention is starts with parents as it includes learning about how to talk with their
children at the time of their difficult time or topic as well. For preventing over these abused
there are some recommendation that may help government authority, family friends and so on in
reducing its affect and impact. These can be understood by below mentioned recommendation:
 Family based prevention programs: It is consider as one of the effective way of
preventing from the substance abuses. In this, government authority needs to organise
prevention programs that can strengthen protective aspects among young children. For
this, parents needs to teaching better family communication skills, effective discipline
style. By this, parents providing various benefits such as consistent rules and discipline,
communicate or talking with children about the drugs, evaluating or monitoring their
activities, getting to know about their friends, effectively understand their problem and
concern as well. Along with this, parents needs to being involved in their learning that
directly contributes in maintaining parent-child relationship (Reed, Nugent and Cooper,
2015).
 Community prevention programs: It is also recommended that prevention programs also
work within the community level in which government organise to increase anti-drug
norms and pro-social behaviour. With the help of this, prevention efforts help in sending
message through media, religious institutions, school work and many more. As it directly
influence the society and community norms and at the same time also reduce the
consumption of substance abuse. In this regards,community based programs may
includes development of policies that directly related with enforcement of regulations,
community wide awareness programs, mass media efforts. All these are play their role in
decreasing the consequences of substance abuse in India. For establishment of safe
injection at a community level, social media sites help people by providing them a
hygienic space guidance through licensed healthcare professionals. As they also allow for
safe monitoring of individual that take participate and also provide them health education
with the aim to prevent overdose and abuse.
 Social influence model: For preventing substance, government authority use this type of
model in which they assumes that individual who use drug has lack resistance skills. For
example includes teaching skills to resist them to use drug. Along with this, focuses on

the actual consumption of drug and its results on the social environment. Thus, it is
crucial for individual friends, family, relatives to take initiative for influence them to
reduce their addiction to consume drug. With the help of this, they can easily prevent
them towards the substance abuse.
 Includes educational tools: In India, there are community leaders, school personnel
governmental agencies and many more are attempt to teach and guide children towards
the living a drug free life so that they can live healthy life. In this regards, most of this is
to consist to prevent teen drug abuse before they getting adulthood and go to the real
world. With the assistance of educational tools, people who are consume drug are avoid
to take it their life granted. It may also assist in changing their behaviour and make them
socialise. Furthermore, indicated educational programs are also geared people to show
their positive behaviours and make able or encourage to keep healthy and safe.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that, substance abuse is a habit of excessive
use of drugs which is noxious and deadly to the individuals and the family members associated
with them. The issues raised by fetching drugs on health have been discussed and the how the
issues like socio-economic profile and the need of money affects the frequency of taking drugs
have been explained. The policy framework and outcomes of India and Australia have been
discussed and all the possible implications of the research as well as suggestions on lowering the
substance abuse has been mentioned.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Moos, R.H., 2018. Evaluating treatment environments: The quality of psychiatric and substance
abuse programs. Routledge.
Mayes, L.C. and Suchman, N.E., 2015. Developmental pathways to substance abuse.
Developmental Psychopathology: Volume Three: Risk, Disorder, and Adaptation. pp.599-
619.
Kandel, D. and Kandel, E., 2015. The Gateway Hypothesis of substance abuse: developmental,
biological and societal perspectives. Acta Paediatrica. 104(2). pp.130-137.
Jordan, C.J. and Andersen, S.L., 2017. Sensitive periods of substance abuse: early risk for the
transition to dependence. Developmental cognitive neuroscience. 25. pp.29-44.
Saloner, B. and Karthikeyan, S., 2015. Changes in substance abuse treatment use among
individuals with opioid use disorders in the United States, 2004-2013. Jama. 314(14).
pp.1515-1517.
Tyler KA, Melander LA. Child abuse, street victimization, and substance use among homeless
young adults. Youth & Society. 2015 Jul;47(4):502-19.
Swensen, I.D., 2015. Substance-abuse treatment and mortality. Journal of Public Economics.
122, pp.13-30.
Butler, S.F., McNaughton, E.C. and Black, R.A., 2015. Tapentadol abuse potential: a
postmarketing evaluation using a sample of individuals evaluated for substance abuse
treatment. Pain Medicine. 16(1). pp.119-130.
McDowell, D. and Spitz, H.I., 2015. Substance Abuse: From Princeples to Practice. Routledge.
Sullivan, K.A., Messer, L.C. and Quinlivan, E.B., 2015. Substance abuse, violence, and
HIV/AIDS (SAVA) syndemic effects on viral suppression among HIV positive women of
color. AIDS patient care and STDs. 29(S1), pp.S42-S48.
Reed, K.P., Nugent, W. and Cooper, R.L., 2015. Testing a path model of relationships between
gender, age, and bullying victimization and violent behavior, substance abuse, depression,
suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts in adolescents. Children and youth services review.
55. pp.128-137.