You may already know about the dire physical effects of drug abuse on human health, but there is another dimension to drugs which often gets forgotten; the social dimension. As drugs affect the mental health of the user, it means that drugs also induce different behaviours in the user.
Using drugs also leads to many other social maladies, including isolation and damaged relationships. It then becomes a vicious cycle as drugs cause isolation and isolation leads to users taking more drugs.
Below are just seven of the major social consequences of drug abuse.
- Social isolation:
Contrary to popular belief among the drug addicts, drugs are not cool and they do not help in expanding your friends’ circle. In fact, you will end up losing friends because your old gang is not going to put up with you.
It is simply because while you are doing drugs, your friends will be more interested in doing other things. Therefore, your friend circle is going to shrink to drug addicts, and those too will be more interested to be in the company of drugs.
- Damaged relationships:
Social isolation is the result of damaged relationships because every healthy relationship revolves around responsibilities and expectations. Even if your partner or your family is helping you at the start of your addiction, they are not going to bear with you and keep loving you in the long term.
Drugs are expensive and often drug addicts are driven away from their families because they are neither able to pay for their rehabilitation or drugs which can be quite expensive.
- Impulsive behaviour:
It is reported that drug addicts exhibit impulsive behaviour more often because of their unstable mental condition. This behaviour can land them in a lot of trouble in relationships and with law authorities.
- Negative social development:
It is also statistically recorded that drug addicts are more likely to be involved in criminal activities like assault and vandalism. Furthermore, they often find themselves facing legal charges, such as in a DUI defense case.
They get busy making bad choices because of poor decision-making skills, and waver far away from the world of academia and go deeper into the world of crime and delinquency.
- Increase in community vices:
The negative social development mentioned above causes an increase in community vices, and the people around these users potentially face criminal threats.
6. Violence and Crime:
Drug addiction causes an increase in violence and crime because it boosts impulsive behaviour. A short on cash drug addict will attempt even criminal activities like burglary and stealing to quench their thirst for drugs.
7. Lack of Public Safety:
This impulsive and criminal behaviour becomes a matter of public safety because no one is more dangerous than an addict going through withdrawal.
Now that we know the negative consequences of drug abuse, we must refrain from taking drugs even occasionally. Because slowly and steadily, they start to make us dependent on them and take us into the darkest realms of hallucinations and delusions.
