Area of Social Work Practice In Drug Abuse and Alcoholism and, Employment

Drug Abuse and Alcoholism

Use of alcohol and Cannabis were common in the ancient history of Nepal among Indio Aryan and Tibet-Mongoloid races, which were

influenced by legend, tradition, and religious culture. However, drug use began to be seen in the country for the first time in the mid -1970s with the influx of hippies. Till then drug abuse in Nepal was not considered a serious concern. The hippies found cannabis readily and cheaply available in Nepal and used it freely outside any system of social control. Gradually the use of heroin grew into an epidemic in Nepal from the 1980s onwards. In the early 1990s, psychotropic drugs were widely used by the drug users in Nepal. Rapid Assessment Survey conducted in 1996 found arampant use of codeine cough syrups (phensidyl), opiates (Natrazen/Diazen), burprenorphine (Tidijestic) among drugs used in Nepal (Lohar & shrestha, 2002, p.2).

Drug Abuse

The definition of a drug is different regarding professional perspective. Medical professionals accept ‘drug’ as healing agents but general people think ‘drug’ as a social problem. Psychologists believe that the use of the substance without prescription of physicians which has physical or psychological effects are drugs. Police and lawyer think ‘drug’ as illegal chemical properties against the law.

As a social worker, one should know the different between drug abuse and dependency, since these words use interchangeably but have the different meaning. Drug abuse simply means misusing or illegally using the drugs in a risky manner but drug dependency is a process where a user needs to use the drug for his/her normal functioning. Drug dependents cannot stop taking drugs by oneself in spite of their physiological withdrawal symptoms and carving psychologically but a drug user can stop drugs easily. Drug dependency is a self-uncontrolled state of life when a person cannot stop taking drugs knowingly its bad consequences; the doses of drugs and the duration (interval) of taking drugs increase along with the suffering period (Dhital 2006 p.16).

According to Dhital (2006), following are the major causes of drug use/abuse:

• Peer pressure: a symbol of unity.
• Pleasure: try to escape from frustration, anxiety, conflict, fun.
• Drug subculture: living with drug/alcohol using family or high- risk zone.
• To increase the self -confidence and physical performance.
• Prior addition: relapse.

Drug addiction is a terminal disease. It leads towards other fatal disease like cancer, liver cirrhosis, heart disease, brain disease and HIV. If drug addiction is not completely stopped, medical treatment does not work and finally takes into death. Moreover, if addiction does not stop, alevel of day to day crisis increase. Finally, they have to die in the street, gang fight or in jail (Dhital 2006 p.58).

Alcoholism

Alcohol is a type of drug, It is a depressant drug through it is also called as ‘moral panic’. It is because many illegal activities, vehicle

accident, violence, home disruption, injuries, health problem, heart disease are responsible for alcohol abuse.

Initially, the drunker use alcohol to reduce fatigue, seeking pleasure, feeling of inadequacy or boredom but the effect of alcohol in the central system cause impaired judgment, inappropriate reasoning, loss of responsibility, primitive emotional responses, motor and muscular in co-ordination, low self-esteem and negligence towards family responsibility as well as society. The frequent desire of using alcohol and seeking patterns of pleasure leads towards the alcoholism. Sign of alcoholism of an individual depends on the genetically effect as well as socio-cultural patterns.

Jellinek (1960) proposed that alcoholism is a biological illness. He studied about the alcoholics and found different stages of alcoholics. According to Jellinek, development of alcohol dependency is follows (as cited from Dhital 2006, p.32).

1. Pre-alcoholic Stage

Individual starts to drink as a social drinker, for example, ceremony, festivals. In this phase, he neither feels physiological dependency nor the problems in a social setting but unconsciously intends to use alcohol for his confidence.

2. Prodromal Stage

This stage is the initial stage of a problematic situation and drinking crisis. The alcoholic starts to drink alone in the gathering. In many cases, he may avoid alcohol for some days due to the hangover or uncontrolled drinking of previous days but again he drinks more than that. Due to unlimited drinking pattern of an alcoholic; intoxication starts to spread throughout the biochemical function of the body. The person who realizes the problems of drinking discontinuous reduces the drinking discontinuous, reduces the drinking ratio and manages to drink as a social, occasional drinker. The person who cannot control self and misjudges self of having no problem. Steps toward the third phase.

3. Crucial Stage

This stage starts with uncertainty and unmanageability of life. The drinking pattern becomes such that the persons get physically intoxicated to an extent which is socially unaccepted. The person starts to accuse others of his wrong doings. The person who cannot stop drinking at any condition creates family problems, economic problems, and problems in the job. He starts to store the drinks for the next day. The physical dependency of an alcoholic always compels for next drinks. Physical condition memory and judgmental process become very poor. An alcoholic partially loses his sexual capacity on this stage but blames his sex partner. He exaggerates everything and cannot sleep without drinking and loses appetite too.

4. Chronic Stage

Chronic alcoholic performs the maladaptive behavior. The occurrence of obsessive compulsive behavior and impairment of long-term memory are the symptoms of a chronic alcoholic. Psychomotor function of a drunker becomes very weak that he cannot handle himself. If he stops drinking forcefully he becomes ill due to withdrawal symptoms. He cannot think properly, has different types of hallucination and illusions.

In Nepalese context, a study shows that of the total population 25 percent of the people in Terai, 46 percent of the hill and 75 percent of mountain region drink alcohol. In average 49 percent of Nepalese people drink alcohol in Nepal (Dhital 2006, p.5). The statistic also reveals that alcoholism is a serious problem in Nepal which is further backed up by social and cultural aspects.

Legal Frames on Drug and Alcohol

The Government of Nepal has ratified the two UN conventions related to narcotic drugs, namely, the Single Convention on Narcotics Drugs. 1961 (as amended by the 1972 protocol) and the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotics drugs and Psychotropic Substances, 1988. Nepal is still not a party to the 1971 Convention.

In Nepal, the Narcotic Drugs Control Act, 2033 (1976) is the legal framework for drug control issues. Section 3(a) stipulates narcotic as: cannabis, medicinal cannabis, opium, processed opium, plants and leaves of coca, any substance prepared with mixing opium, coca extract which include mixtures or salts, any natural or synthetic narcotic drug or psychotropic substance and their salts and other substance as may be specified by the Nepal Gazette notification (UNODC, 2012).

Any person violating that is act shall be punished by up to life imprisonment and a fine. While the non-physician-prescribed consumption of narcotics drugs is a criminal offense. The act makes provision for the prevention and treatment of drug users.

There are two specific laws related to substance abuse. In Nepal. One related to drugs is. The Narcotic drug (control) Act 2033 BS. The other related to alcohol are, Alcohol Act (2031 BS), Alcohol Rules (2033) Hotel Regulation and scale and Distribution Act (2023), National Broad Casting Acts (2049 BS) Vehicle and Transportation Regulation Act (2049 BS) (Lohar & Shrestha, 2002, p.2).

Employment

In general, employment means work, occupation or service According to the NESAC (1998, p. 98), human societies have historically been

While discussing on employment, a social worker has to understand the difference between unemployment and underemployment. According to NESAC (1998), a person 10 years of age or above who is not at work at least one day in a year or one hour in a week but is seeking work or is available for work and who is not student or household worker or physically unable to work is defined as unemployed, similarly, a person is treated as underemployed if he/she does not work for 40 hours a week or 8 months a year structured to value work as well. A person, or a group, to a large extent, finds his/her worth and self-respect during and through work. Work enhances capabilities especially knowledge and skills. Therefore, work is closely associated with the process of human development.

The Interim Constitution of Nepal has stated right to work as fundamental rights of the citizen. Hence, the government is promoting sustainable economic development based on work and employment. To deal with employment issues, National Three Year Plan has stated various policies and plans to promote an environment for investment and employment opportunity. Some important strategies are:

• Identification of programs in economic areas that increase job opportunity focusing on areas and communities that have been lagged behind in relation to employment.
• Encouraging production based employment, self-employment and micro-entrepreneurship by promoting vocational training, appropriate technology, and market.
• Increasing job opportunities for creating employment friendly environment.
• Producing eligible and qualified labor force by enhancing the quality of training programs and training institute.
• Improving foreign employment making it more safe and reliable.

Problem and challenges related to employment are:

• Illiteracy.
• Poverty.
• Lack of access to skill, capital, technology.
• Lack of environment for investment.
• Lack of new job opportunities.

Reference-

Shrestha, S. K. (2013). the concept of social work. Kathmandu: Taleju Prakashan.