The Social Impact of Substance Abuse on Males livelihood in Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

Substance abuse is a dependence on a legal or illegal drug or medication. Substance abuse is a worldwide growing problematic situation and one of the major problems affecting male livelihood. During the phase of addiction, a person is unable to control his drug intakes and usually continues to use drugs regardless of the harm it causes. This study was designed to explore the impacts of substance use on male’s livelihood. This study has carried out in two districts of Punjab. A sample of 400 respondents was drawn to explore the study goals using a conducive sampling technique. In order to evaluate the research sample, descriptive (frequency distribution) and inferential (chi-square) statistics were enforced. The research discovered that 38.0 percent of the substance abusers were up to 25 years of age while 40.5 percent of addicts were nuclear family members. Approximately 49.5 % and 48.8 % were unmarried and married respectively. Various factors such as nuclear family structure, bigger family size and low level of education play a significant role in drug abusers’ lives. The study concluded that drug use leads to domestic violence, the alliance between drug use, unemployment and poverty is also clear; drug users’ family members said that 60 percent of consumers who were employed before drugs had afterwards lost their jobs. Furthermore, almost 50 percent of the family members interviewed said that they had been forced by drug consumers to borrow money as a result of drug and almost 70 percent said that they had confronted financial complications as a result of that drug use. It is suggested that peer groups and family behaviors affected the livelihood of substance abusers.