Social perception of drug users

Abstract

In general, there is talk, research, analysis and action in various other categories of vulnerable groups (poor, elderly, institutionalized, etc.), ignoring the fact that drug addicts are also part of this category and that they are, in turn, excluded and stigmatized. Addressing this topic has helped me to study the social perception of this category of vulnerable, socially excluded population, namely that of drug addicts. The dynamics, dimensions and characteristics of drug use in Romania are aspects that underlie the governmental policy in this field. That is why the intervention of society must focus on at least four dimensions: social, economic, political and, last but not least, moral. Drug addiction is an increasingly visible phenomenon, with wide and sometimes serious consequences at individual and community level, and in this capacity highlights a series of hypotheses and perspectives concerning both the substances and the situations against which they are it creates addiction, but also the types and ways of consumption. It can be said about the drug problem in Romania that the period has passed, romantic in fact, in which there were several voices claiming that drug addiction would be a minor problem, that we are more of a transit chain to the western market, that there is a such external constraints on the individual, of which the economic one would be the most effective in keeping him away from expensive drugs. Unfortunately, this desirable situation has been somewhat transgressed and now we are in a stalemate that is not yet manifested in its "fullness": the subject of drug use is increasingly present in the social space, the institutions capable of social control are (statistics show a fabulous increase (1200% in the period 2000-2004, so in four years, of illicit drug users and addicts), the intervention network is insufficient and consists of several hospitalization centers / services set up next to psychiatry, the specialists of the intervention are still in training regarding the professional experience, the specialized literature is deficient and mainly theoretical, the researches and scientific studies on the field are hardly projected for the Romanian reality.