Time and again we see in films and on television the problem as one to be tackled by the authorities of the state, especially those concerned with repression. The reality is that the drug abuse scenario is a broad and complex one, in which we are all actors with significant parts to play.
Drug abuse is first and foremost an individual tragedy.
And it destroys relations with family, friends and employer. But that is only part of the story. They are a disease which infects the institutions of the state, spawning corruption and instability, funding terrorism and subversion and trafficking in arms. Criminal trafficking groups have so many resources that even governments are hard pressed to match them. Yet trafficking is fuelled by demand.