Intersection of COVID-19 and Substance Abuse: Social Work Perspective

Abstract

Just before the emergence and stepping in of COVID-19 Virus in India, A report released by an Institute of national importance in India claimed that around sixty lakh people in our country have been inflicted with the addiction of heroin, About fifty lakh are addicted to cannabis to drugs and another forty lakh population are consuming Bhang. These statistics reflects the problem of addiction excluding those persons who are habitual to the problem of drinking and other related and associated problems. These numbers are enough to show the prevalence and magnitude of problem of drug abuse in India. Now the important question that comes into our mind is that how the Covid-19 pandemic and Drug abuse are inter-related. On First glance these two diseases might seems to be separate entities. But if we go through a miniature analysis, it can be concluded that since the emergence of disease India has witnessed nearly too around three crore cases and with systematic interventions, India has been able to achieve a Good Recovery rate. Similarly and of equal importance the problem of drug abuse is also rising on an alarming rate. The Covid-19 virus has forced the worldwide authorities to design new normal coupled with the buzzwords of Lockdown, Isolation, and restriction of movements. Handling with the new routine the entire population of the world including India has to undergo various set of problems on social, economical and psychological front leading to the problems pertaining to Stress and Anxiety. Among them one such category of population comprised of the person who abuse drugs who needs special attention in terms of prevention and much desired treatment. The Present article throws a light on the problem of substance abuse in the Pretext of Covid-19 and also documenting the role of Social workers.