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 with
an addict. The article is based on a study whose objectives were to explore the factors influencing
people to start using drugs and to learn the impacts of drug addiction on family members. It
was found that many addicts started using drugs during their young ages mainly before the age
of 30. Most of them started taking drugs due to curiosity, misconception, ignorance, or simply
imitation of others under peer pressure. Exposure to certain social milieu such as availability
of drugs or/and people using drug at the family and community level is one of the contributory
factors. Different opinions with regard to the trend of people who abuse drugs are considered. It
is shown that formal rehabilitation measures such as sober house were effective in rehabilitating
drug addicts though many addicts opted to use these services as a last resort. We recommend that
the public should be informed about the availability of sober houses and should be encouraged
to use their services to deal with drug addiction problems.