Drug addiction is one of the biggest problems we face in South Africa today. It is rampant amongst our teenagers and ever smaller children. Peer pressure is a reality and the cause of many teens becoming addicted to substances as they want to fit in with their friends and because they have a fear of being an outsider or ridiculed. Sometimes teens and even adults become bored with their lives and they start experimenting with drugs. Even just trying it once can cause a person to become addicted for life.
Drugs are freely available in South Africa. People have this notion of thinking that the Nigerian community operate exclusively in secluded areas . While it is true that they are a big part of it, it is a myth that they are the only ones doing it. There are widespread networks of criminals that distribute drugs al over South Africa making it freely available on the streets and even at schools. There have been many drug busts all over the country at several schools, every primary schools.
The big driving force behind people becoming so addicted to drugs is money. As soon as the criminals who distribute these drugs have people that are addicted to them, they will start using these people to sell it to others. The payment? More drugs! This is a vicious cycle that just carries on and on. In South Africa the drug usage amongst people has become very alarming since household cleaning materials are now also being used to manufacture drugs. This is called TIK and has become a huge problem especially in Cape Town.
There has also been a scary trend happening in South Africa lately. The kingpins of the drug distribution rings are using South African people to smuggle various drugs overseas. Sometimes these people don’t know that the parcels they are “exporting” overseas contain drugs. When they get caught (which they inevitably do) they could get the death sentence. This is a reality and a similar incident had been broadcast on the news not very long ago.