Socioeconomic Status of Young Drug Addicts in Sylhet City, Bangladesh

Drug addiction is an alarming problem in Bangladesh. A number of studies carried out in our country showed that a large segment of young people of Bangladesh are getting involved in drug addiction, which is jeopardizing their own health and safety, while creating various difficulties for their families. The present study was investigated the socio-economic status of young drug addicts and the principle drugs consumed by them with the help of primary data, collected from 42 drug addicts through purposive sampling technique by using structured questionnaire, interview schedule and observation. The key findings of the study depicts that out of 42 drug addicts, highest 14 were unemployed aged from 18-37. Most of them were studied up to primary (30.81%) and secondary (39.34%) level of education. The study revealed highest number of drug addicts (21) lived in their own house and 9 drug addicts lived in rental house. Highest 66.66% of them were the member of extended type family. Study also showed that highest 57.14% drug addicts were unmarried and 40.48% respondents said that their head of the family was their father during the time of their addiction. Most of them buy drugs through collecting money from their family members and criminal activities. About 95.24% drug addicts were addicted in cannabis and 61.90% addicted in yaba. Areas and context specific data are important to identify the causes of drug addiction and also for future policies and effective surveillance initiatives.