The Elusive recovery from drug addiction in Pemba: How addicted Persons and their Families cope

Abstract

This article elucidates on how addiction affects family and how the latter copes while living withan addict. The article is based on a study whose objectives were to explore the factors influencingpeople to start using drugs and to learn the impacts of drug addiction on family members. Itwas found that many addicts started using drugs during their young ages mainly before the ageof 30. Most of them started taking drugs due to curiosity, misconception, ignorance, or simplyimitation of others under peer pressure. Exposure to certain social milieu such as availabilityof drugs or/and people using drug at the family and community level is one of the contributoryfactors. Different opinions with regard to the trend of people who abuse drugs are considered. Itis shown that formal rehabilitation measures such as sober house were effective in rehabilitatingdrug addicts though many addicts opted to use these services as a last resort. We recommend thatthe public should be informed about the availability of sober houses and should be encouragedto use their services to deal with drug addiction problems.