Hello friends,
Man! It goes so quickly; I am on article one and then before we know it, I’m on the last one. This topic has been on my mind for a long time and only today I feel like I have some really good statistics and substance to be able to let you see this topic clearly or so that you can sum it up yourself.
You know when we first went on lockdown worldwide last March 2020, I was setting the table for dinner when I saw a glimpse of the news on the television. I stopped setting the table and went closer to just see if I saw right. I then listened properly to what was going on in the news. What shocked me was the long, very very long queue of people in poor villages in India waiting to buy alcohol when alcohol sale reopened after a temporary lockdown. It hit me then, “Man, these people are really poor how come alcohol is so important for them that they will come either really early to be first or stand in a long queue in the heat?” This really hit me.
Then I decided to look closer, and that’s just about the same time when I started writing about the alcohol sale in South Africa too. When the alcohol sale was going to be a “No” during the lockdown in South Africa, I heard casual conversations everywhere of how people were getting ready to stock up. That’s when people started going to the supermarkets and taking everything off the shelves. Christmas was repeating itself only this time in March 2020. I remember when people said how children’s dreams came true, no school, and how people were excited initially to get a break. We were pretty excited to stay home for all the wrong reasons, that it took many conversations and views of the number of people being hit by the virus, then we started seeing the damage on the global economy.
According to The World Health Organization
“Recurring economic and political crises in various parts of the world, serious environmental problems, and widespread insecurity about the future” (W1) have increased the gap between rich and poor, between countries and also within countries. “
I agree when I look at South Africa and whether I was here 19 years ago, I was still at an age where I was educated enough to be able to understand social and political issues to some extent. Then going around the world, not knowing that I would end up going to see so many destinations and returning to South Africa I can clearly see, not only in South Africa but even in first world countries that most of the consistent habits or going for a drink, maybe even additions come from those with the middle class and below mindset (not to say that the wealthy aren’t dealing with this issue too), yes more the mentality. So, poverty, unemployment, stress, low education, deprivation, violence, reduced social support puts people’s mental health at risk increasing addiction.
I must say, I am surprised that 77% of Brazilian street children drink heavily and that in developing countries 0-16% have a disability adjusted life as a result of tobacco and alcohol. These are the statistics according to WHO on the link above.
However, both the WHO and on the link below it states that developing countries don’t often have the use of illicit drugs.
The article below written sometime in 2014 states that heroin is typically used in East Africa, while cocaine is used more in West and South Africa. South-East Asia and the Middle East increase in synthetic drugs. Have a read, it’s pretty interesting what you may uncover.
Drug use in developing countries
Then in 2019, it seems, from the research I’ve been doing that illicit drug use in Africa, South America, South-East Asia and the Middle East are on the rise. What’s interesting is that drugs are produced in developing countries then sold to wealthy nations, however until COVID I’d argue that those who chose the path of addictions would still buy it especially if it is affordable. It is the underprivileged nations where the highest additions in alcohol and drug use is predominant because of the social and economic challenges.
According to Drug and addictions (updated 2019), it cites the United Nations (UNODC – United Nations Office of Drug and Crime) notes that synthetic drugs bring more than $65 billion worldwide with hardly anything going into the public and welfare system. Gang violence and violence between law enforcement increase because these groups manufacture, transport and distribute these drugs. Other sorts of diseases and addictions result from drug addictions.
When I lived in Switzerland, I discovered that certain amounts of grams of cocaine is almost legal, I knew someone whose was raised mainly by their mom, the family went from low to a middle-class life, however, his brother was lost to drugs and was dependent on the welfare system for medication for life because he contracted AIDS through drug addiction. 47% of people die from drug use in developing countries and so roughly 350 000 people die each year from alcohol and drug use. This number can be found also in the link below under direct deaths.
My findings, addictions are taking away dreams especially as the majority in low and middle-class societies have massive social issues here, where the education system fails in teaching people, engraining the youngest individuals with self-belief, confidence, self-worth, hope, strength and force where they don’t find themselves giving up, selling their dreams, living the illusion in drug, alcohol and other addictions.
According to https://ourworldindata.org/drug-use, substance abuse takes away 11.8 million lives globally, i.e., more than most cancers. Alcohol and drug addiction are more common in men.
Further data from 2017, the United Nations can also be found here https://www.unodc.org/.
This one is pretty good; I will leave the link below. This is the first-ever report made by an Australian researcher in 2015. His findings are as follows:
- 240 million people around the world are dependent on alcohol.
- More than 1 billion people smoke.
- 15 million people use injection drugs such as heroin.
- People dependent on alcohol not only die younger but also have poor health over a longer period. Alcohol affects their work and relationships and reduces their quality of life.
- People in Eastern Europe smoke and drink more than anyone else in the world, while Asians drink the least. “One thing that stands out is countries that are predominantly Muslim have a much lower rate of alcohol consumption,” Gowing said. Alcohol consumption is also lower in the least developed countries; the report found.
- In many countries, the smoking rate is much higher among men. Drinking is more common among men in some countries, but not in Western nations, the report found.
Australian researchers release the first report of worldwide addiction statistics
This article below is pretty intriguing, something I suspected all along, and that it’s about rich and poor all around the world, this article confirms in my opinion that poor, middle-class and some wealthy people seem to fall into addictions not just in developing countries but in first world countries too.
Drug abuse is more common in wealthier nations
Yours sincerely,
T. Dench Patel
Thank you for the comments and support. Thank you for offering to donate if there was a donate button on here. I prefer not to take donations. You can support by purchasing my books (Paperback or Kindle), The South African: True Colours, The South African: Roamer or my children’s book Light. These books can be found on Amazon mainly and other sites in your country.
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Note: Do keep referring back to this site as much as possible, as I grow, a more profound perspective may form and so I will always come back to each of these articles to re-evaluate them
