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| Tuesday, 2 March 2004 |
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Alcoholism's effects on crime by Miran Perera Most of us are perturbed over the several incidents of crime and violence in our country. We see frequent vendettas and free for alls, committed mostly by our youth. The authorities seem to be passing the buck and also seem to be turning a blind eye to what is happening. We often hear society being blamed for all this and we also are made to believe that this society is a faceless entity. Some even attempt to market this situation by saying that all this rot started during the last several months or even during a previous regime. How many of us even try to see the root causes for this rapidly increasing crime rate and try to find out whether we are to some extent responsible as members of this easy to blame society? It is the belief of the writer of this article that hard stimulants such as alcohol and tobacco could be directly or indirectly the cause of rising crime everywhere. No doubt Sri Lanka is one among countries with highest consumption of alcohol. We could guess that the per capita consumption of alcohol in Sri Lanka amount to about 37 litres per annum. Then the data reveals that 70 per cent of the individuals among the adult male population of the country are constituted of frequent consumers of alcohol while about 40 per cent of them have been categorised as alcoholics. As some healthcare specialists have pointed out the consumption of alcohol in Sri Lanka is reaching epidemic levels. It is growing and spreading fast, the percentage share of the people who are becoming addicted to alcohol keeps increasing at the same time as, the penchant for tasting alcohol among the teenagers is rising. In this paradise isle of compassion, love and hospitality violence still prevails. For a number of reasons including its poisonous and addictive character, moonshine has emerged as a beverage with wide ramifications both for its consumer, his family as well as for the wider society. Over the past many decades since moonshine became popular in the country, the number of people who have died due to moonshine poisoning which includes minor and grave crime or other related offences, illnesses, and accidents are extremely large. The most important causes of premature deaths among the male population of the age between 25 and 60 is alcohol and related illnesses, and crime inflicted injuries received and conveyed by the consumer of alcohol. As long as there is a demand for drugs, the supply will take place. Then where demand and supply congregate the market will prevail. Not even all the kings horses and all the kings men will be successful in eradicating that market. Where it is not possible out in the open, people will resort to clandestine practices. Our aim should be to survey some of the social issues that pertain to drug addiction in Sri Lanka and discuss some policy programmes for action. The fact of the matter is that drug addiction has developed to such a menace and a social evil that one cannot wink at it any longer. Despite that many have tried it would be folly to bury our heads in the sand and regard that drug addiction is not a major problem and that it can be managed within the framework of: (1) The existing legal framework (2) Religious activity (3) Rehabilitation/therapy - curative (4) Family organisation / support groups. The fact is that the number of the people who have become addicted to drugs continues to grow. This is despite the personal family and social consequences of the habit. The largest majority of people who have surrendered to drug addiction grossly neglect their responsibilities towards themselves, their families and the society and spend whatever they have to obtain hard drugs. In sequence of their social effects and consequences hard drugs, alcohol and tobacco takes precedence. The consumption of prohibited drugs and alcohol have adverse repercussions such as increasing the social crime rate, and tobacco taken excessively like others could be a dangerous health hazard. What we should question ourselves is: who are the greater criminals, those who sell hard drugs, alcohol or tobacco which are the instruments of death or those who buy them and use them? |
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