Addiction: Choice, Disease, or Something Deeper?

As humans, health is very important to us because as they say, if your enemies would be happy, it would be when you are sick. Our world today has evolved from the days when we used to take our drugs as herbs to today where we have the honor of having synthetic drugs for our various illnesses. Scientifically, a drug is knows as a chemical substance present in a medical product used for diagnosis, prevention and treatment of a disease or condition.

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We have all taken drugs in the course of our life because we have all fallen sick before. Not all of us like drugs and that’s okay, but at some point, when we are very ill, we have no choice than to take in drugs that have been prescribed to us. As much as we have to take in drugs to cure our illnesses, drugs can also be used the wrong way.

We have people who take hard drugs for the purpose of being high. Drugs such as tramadol and even cocaine are mostly taken by the youth to keep them in a trance for various reason. However, there are also situations where people get addicted to drugs that are given to them for the purpose of curing illnesses. Let’s take pethidine or tramadol as examples. Most people who are administered such drugs end up getting addicted to these drugs.

As much as these drugs are very effective, they are also addictive. And addiction is a disease if you ask me. Most of the youth today are addicted to drugs which end up ruining their lives. As someone in the health sector, we see many of such cases on the daily basis. Just a few days ago, a colleague of mine who is a captain told us of how his immediate boss has been addicted to pethidine to the extent that he swaps the drugs meant for patients with water so he can use these drugs for himself. Eventually, he got caught and was stripped off his position.

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Through is discussion, I thought about how such a person was being stripped off his duties at work just because of his addiction but rather not being sent to rehab so he could get better. Someone in this situation would get worse if he is made to sit at home with no help because as they say, the devil finds work for the idle. Drug addiction happens just like the way we get addicted to our favorite foods or fizzy drinks. The one involved see it to be normal but it isn’t and that is what they need help. To tackle the issue of drug addiction in the world today, I believe every government should make rehabilitation a must of all addicts. This is the first step to helping our friends and loved ones come out of the prison of addiction. Addiction is a disease and without help, one is on his way to ruin. Lets be there for each other and help such individuals get back on their feet again.

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