The proliferation of new drugs and their social and cultural background

Date :2009-06-29 Author: Xia-US Source: Wen Wei Po
 
                       
 
     Xia Mei
    
     In contemporary society, the prevalence of drugs not only with a particular social class or group of closely related, but also social, political, and economic environment, in particular the impact of social and cultural trends of thought are closely related. Today, we have referred to as the "disease of Western society," the various phenomena associated with globalization has become a common phenomenon in general. Therefore, we need to learn from the experiences and lessons of developed countries, the law of human development from a profound understanding of the phenomenon of the proliferation of new drugs
    
     June 26 is the first International Day against Drug Abuse 23. The last 50 years, the scope of the spread of drugs has been extended to more than 200 countries on five continents and regions, to become a global problem. United Nations drug control program to the information provided by the 50s of last century, the global number of drug addicts is about 9.1 million, and is now 200 million people, including young adults 17-35 years of age accounted for 78%. From the popular trend, with ice, ecstasy and ketamine (K powder), represented by synthetic drugs (new drugs) are being progressively replaced by heroin, cocaine and other traditional drugs, to become the world's 21 most widely abused drug.
    
New type of drug abuse is becoming an increasingly serious social problem, and in different sectors of a rapid expansion of population trends
    
     China has been subjected to the most serious drug hazard country. The mid-19th century Western colonialists forced the importation of opium to the Chinese, the Chinese people suffered. After the founding of new China, People's Government launched a massive campaign to ban drug, created a world-acknowledged miracle drug-free. However, after 30 years, China has begun to face the new challenges of a more serious drugs. China in 1991 registered drug addicts in the number of 148,000 in 2000 and 860,000 by 2008 had reached 1,127,000 people. If the dominant drug addicts behind each of at least four of the international practice of hidden drug users, the home may be the actual drug users more than 4.5 million people. Although since 2006, the Chinese traditional drug abuse of heroin number of people began to become more stable, but the proliferation of new drugs ferocious momentum. At present, areas such as the Golden Triangle opium poppy cultivation and opium production has dropped, but the region is a sharp rise in methamphetamine production and large-scale infiltration of the mainland of China. From the public security organs across the country seized the situation, seized the number of new drugs continue to rise rapidly, some areas have begun to more than heroin.
    
     Artificial chemical synthesis, a direct role in the human central nervous system of the new drugs, with a high degree of psychological dependence (addiction) is characterized. New type of drug abuse, not only will cause the brain and other vital organs of serious harm to life, due to excessive use of the death of lead poisoning, but will also cause mental disorders, caused by acts of violence out of control, injury and other illegal and criminal acts or extreme self-mutilation, suicide行为. In recent years, due to abuse of the new drug law and order caused by a vicious case of many large and medium-sized cities in the country occur from time to time, and a large number of new type of drug abuse and other incidents of suicide press coverage, ice and even referred to as "suicide drive." It should be noted that the role of excitatory and hallucinogenic drugs will trigger a new type of sexual abuse against women, resulting in the spread of AIDS, the risk of infection or the rapid escalation of China's efforts to contain AIDS and pose a serious threat to public health.
    
     There is every indication that, in China, the abuse of new drugs is becoming an increasingly serious social problem, and among different sectors of the rapid expansion of a trend. First of all, the new drug in the West is also known as "club drugs" or "party drugs", a "recreational use" of the distinctive characteristics, which often help to stimulate the group scenes, the illusion of the human spirit will continue to enlarge, with a very induced psychological and deceptive, the spread extremely fast. Secondly, as a result of new drugs and strong there is no obvious physical withdrawal symptoms, so easy mistake to underestimate the public use of such drugs on the human body, as well as damage caused by the corresponding public health and health risks, "not addictive", "not illegal" is the abuse of Misunderstandings are common. Third, the new drug as a Western import, was affixed with the popular and avant-garde fashion label, personalized for advocating unassuming, family and social rebellion, the pursuit of pleasure in life there are some very attractive young people.
    
Nurturing the spirit of universal creation, or to become a vassal of human depravity has become the field of culture must face an important choice
    
     In contemporary society, the prevalence of drugs not only with a particular social class or group of closely related, but also social, political, and economic environment, in particular the impact of social and cultural trends of thought are closely related. Today, we have referred to as the "Western social disease" phenomena, is no longer a regional phenomenon with globalization become a common phenomenon in general. Therefore, we need to learn from the experiences and lessons of developed countries, the law of human development from a profound understanding of the phenomenon of the proliferation of new drugs.
    
     To the world's largest victim of the drug as an example the United States. Despite the proliferation of drugs in American society led to the complex and varied reasons, but the bottom trace, or with the United States is closely related to the socio-cultural. After the Second World War, rapid economic growth and prosperity of the United States, the rapid growth of social wealth. With the per-capita material standard of living of the general improvement in the value-oriented American society began to tilt. Real estate, automotive, tourism, Hollywood movies, parties, shopping section, the business community has created a wonderful and seemingly endless possibilities of the world, as if everything is ready here, just waiting for you to spend money to enjoy. However, a spin-off of biological thinking and creativity will inevitably fall into emptiness, easily meets the rich enjoyment of inertia, the pursuit of leisure activities to stimulate the gradual replacement of the ideal created by the meaning of life. Thus, the need to constantly filled with the joy of life, only from the stimulus were met in escalating, the result is the formation of the whole community of "out-of-control individualism," and the "new narcissism complex" the tendency of the material hedonism, extreme mental the culture of the United States empty symbols associated with this, it is young people for "secular values for all fed up with" the escape and drug abuse.
    
     Always with the understanding of human development of the practice of deepening. In the case of economic backwardness, poverty, affluence is a universal desire. However, once the realization of the rich from the poor to the transformation, by an adequate level of leisure and consumption over the birth of the values of hedonism and the resulting widespread social disease, it will become a threat to human health significance of the development and survival challenge. Therefore, a new round of anti-drug war, will be a human self-defeat of the war of civilizations. Among them, nurturing the spirit of universal depravity of human nature to create or to become a vassal, the field of culture has become an important choice to be faced.
    
     (The author is Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Human Health and Social Development Research Center, Executive Director, researchers, members of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of Experts on the anti-drug)