By Warren Whitfield
According to the latest United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime stats:
The point has been made that South Africa is the “addiction capital of the world” and that we are experiencing a drug crisis. As true as this is, the most frightening crisis we actually face is this: you may or may not be aware that addiction prevention and treatment in South Africa receives no funding from corporate social responsibility programmes and philanthropies.
Addiction as a national issue is today where HIV/Aids was 20 years ago, misunderstood, under-financed and threatening to destroy our country. But 20 years ago there were 400 people in SA living with HIV, according to the latest stats more than 6.75 million South Africans are “problem drug users”. A far more desperate place to be considering the lack of awareness and funding available.
The biggest challenge we face is that addiction isn’t very popular. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes and philanthropic foundations haven’t identified addiction as a problem that needs funding. And the government perceives addiction merely as related to substances. The Prevention of and Treatment for Substance Abuse Bill is limited in scope, it does not treat behaviours such as gambling, sex, pornography, over-spending and the internet as addictions. Another common misperception is that addiction relates only to illegal drugs so public awareness needs to be raised.
Given that they are not identified as addictions, no provision is made for them in the Bill and therefore no provision is made for tax spending on harm reduction. Oh boy, I brought up taxes. Well, this is a touchy subject because South Africa is addicted to income derived from addictive products and services. What I mean is that we depend on the taxes collected from tobacco, alcohol and gambling. Actually most South African’s only think of the “sin” taxes generated but there’s also VAT and company tax on every beer that’s consumed, every cigarette that’s smoked and every rand that’s gambled.
“You’re mad! They’ll never give up the taxes,” someone told me. Perhaps so, but shouldn’t we try to at least be less dependent on income derived from suffering? We’ve overcome oppression and apartheid only to find ourselves enslaved to addiction and the money we make from it. Something’s gotta give or should I say, someone needs to.
Addiction is also one of the main causes of the spread of HIV. It is not commonly known that HIV-positive people who take anti-retrovirals and abuse substances do not metabolise anti-retrovirals correctly. Alcohol is increasingly recognised as a major inhibiting factor in HIV prevention. So how does one drive a public-awareness campaign without funding from CSRs and philanthropies — even the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the largest philanthropic foundations in the world, does not fund addiction prevention?
The addiction epidemic needs to be seen as a human-rights violation. Why, because 95% of all South Africans have no access to addiction treatment because English is not their first language or treatment is simply unaffordable. The terrifying truth is that even if we could afford to send someone from a disadvantaged community to rehab at a cost of about R45 000, they simply would not cope with the culture of the programme or the language. The consequence for most addicts is jail, institution and death.
If a man were lying in the street helpless to defend himself and someone came along and took his wallet it would be considered theft wouldn’t it? Yet we allowed casinos to make more than R5.5 billion last year from 5% of their gamblers. This 5% is the problem gamblers ie the ones who are helpless because they cannot control themselves. And how much did they give back? Less than R35 million to harm reduction initiatives that helped mainly English-speaking people. By the way, the other 95% brought in about R10.6 billion, which means problem gamblers contribute more than 30% of the total revenue for the industry.
Knock, knock!: “Who’s there?”
Answer: “The Addiction Action Campaign.”
Response: ”Sorry, we have no budget but you guys are doing a great job! Keep it up!”
And don’t assume we earn nice salaries either because so far it’s all been for love. The Addiction Action Campaign has real solutions for South Africa but they require REAL funding. As it stands right now, we, just like the one or two other NGOs dealing with this issue, face closure. We have just about enough money in the bank to pay our debit orders this month.
But don’t worry, see, we’ll “keep it up!”. Oh, and one final thought I have to offer, we have been trying to alert the media with these statistics for over a year now, long before the super dooper United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime confirmed our measurements.
Warren Whitfield is the chairperson of The Addiction Action Campaign.
Prohibition does not work. It cannot. All it does is enrich the most violent elements of society by providing them with a monopoly, criminalise activities which should be beyond the purview of the state, tie up law enforcement, nurtures contempt for that same law enforcement and prevents addicts from seeking help.
The first step to handling our addiction problem is to decriminalise drugs (like Portugal did in 2001, with great success) and prostitution (eg Netherlands, New Zealand, etc).
Yes, there will be tragedies, but far fewer than before. Criminal organizations won’t be enriched, jails won’t be overcrowded, the list goes on.
Put it all in the light of day and provide assistance to those who need help. Let’s be adults about this.
Mr. Whitfield,
If your fledgling NGO is providing a service which is so needed and provides such cost benefit, why are people unwilling to voluntarily fund it ?
Why do you seek ‘public’ funding, or do you believe people are unable to decide what is best for them and require a visionary to come along with some bureaucratic scheme to save them from themselves?
If they won’t contribute to such a worthy cause, then they must be coerced.
Has it ever occurred to you that the philanthropic agencies regard a decision to drink and gamble ones life away as bearing an individual , and not a social responsibility?
Incidentally, irresponsible (and criminal) sexual behaviour is the main cause of the spread of HIV, for which the consequential costs have already been ‘socialised’
Exactly who’s human rights are being violated when individuals exercise choices which result in negative consequences for their life?
The only rights abuse emanates from those who would seek to deny freedom of the individual to do with his life whatever he wishes, applying public funding in the process.
There are already too many snouts in the public trough, and many more jostling for a piece of the action.
To : Perry Curling-Dope
On average, 16 innocent people suffer emotionally, physically and financially because of the so called “Self inflicted” decision one misuser makes and is why innocent babies (111 out of every 1000) in the Northern Cape have foetal alcohol syndrome, and 50% of the deaths on our roads (innocents) caused by drunkenness.
This type of attitude you’ve displayed is typical ignorance that kept HIV so well ignored for many years and caused the death of millions of people. Its also partly why S.A. is now the “Addiction Capital of the world”. You’re more concerned about noses in troughs that about innocent people dying.
Innocent people are suffering because of addiction. Its time for solutions not ignorance.
People are unwilling to fund the AAC because addicts are perceived as voluntarily self-destructive. The other misconception is that addicts harm only themselves. The truth is that addicts are enticed into their addiction with promises of pleasure, enjoyment, status, style, social acceptance, elegance or whatever and discover only too late that they are hooked and cannot stop, they no longer have a choice. The other aspect of addiction which is ignored is that there are many secondary victims of addiction who never have any choice at all regarding their involvement. Think of the spouse and children of the gambling addict who are now homeless and destitute because a casino promised big winnings. Think of the elderly lady knocked down and mugged for the price of a fix, or the pointsmen knocked down and killed by a driver with an excessive BAC on their way to control traffic at the 702 Walk the Talk. Yes, the secondary victims’ human rights are being violated. There is nobody who is not affected by addiction in one way or another.
The sad thing is that we as a country allow the manufacturers, suppliers and distributors of addictive products and services to get rich at the expense both of those who cannot help themselves and the innocent secondary victims; and our government derives huge revenue from their misery without adequate spending to alleviate or prevent the harm caused. You and I, we all benefit from the suffering of innocent children. Is that right?
I often listen to these talks, as do most addicts in recovery, with fascination as to how little people understand about the disease. The reason why addiction is not going away, is because people dont understand what drives the disease. It is both a medical condition and a spiritual (or lack thereof) programme. This is why antibooze and medical treatments dont work. Unless an addict makes the personal decision to stop using drugs and to begin to address their emotional and spiritual issues, recovery will not happen.
I have no idea why people do not talk about one of the few addiction treatment programmes to enjoy long term sustainable success in keeping people clean. This would be the 12 step programmes. You can legalise drugs, tattoo users, throw them in prison and even threaten them with execution – but this will not stop an addict who has not made the decision to stop using.
Warren is right in so far as one of the major interventions one could take is to make treatment readily available to all members of the public. The SMART programme has some innovations there.
I have seen many people from all income and language groups walk in off the streets and into 12 step fellowship meetings and stay clean. The programme is free. It is supported by its members.
If you want to help a really powerful programme, help them to distribute their message – that they can help people who want to recover from drugs.
12 step programmes are wonderful and I for wholeheartedly support them. Both my parents were alcoholics; they met at an AA meeting and I never knew either of them to touch a drop of booze. Both of them were heavy smokers and both quit that too.
But 12 step programmes have some severe limitations. In SA we have (so far) eleven official languages. How many groups run in the indigenous languages? Keep in mind that the majority of our population have indigenous languages as their first language; is it reasonable to expect those people to benefit optimally from a group run e.g. in English? How many AA meetings are there outside of urban areas? Poor people in rural areas do not have transport available to them to attend meetings in the cities.
But the biggest problem I have with 12 step programmes is that they aim only at helping those who have already been hooked, who have already lost their jobs, homes, families, cars and their self-respect. The next biggest problem I have with 12 step programmes is that they are considered successful if the addict then stays clean – but what about his reintegration into society, getting back his job, home, family, car and self-respect he lost? Let us rather look toward prevention and act to keep people from becoming addicted. And let those who profit from the exploitation of addicts fund the effort, the addicts cannot. But we all and our children will benefit from beating addiction.
Excellent positive contribution Alexis, thank you!
Yes 12 step groups like AA & NA work, but they aren’t available in rural areas and in all 11 official languages.They only benefit people who have access to them.
We are trying to promote radio programmes that will service this purpose. But we need funding to do this.
As for SMART, the program you’re referring to is the MATRIX Model for recovery. May I also mention that SMART are doing a great job, but they need to stop advising government that behaviours like gambling addiction, sex & love and pornography, and internet are not addictions. They are.
As long as they are not recognized, they are not properly catered for. Every rehab & program in the world including S.A. sees these behaviours as addictions. Except SMART & The Dept. of Soc. Dev.
I hear you with regards to the diversity of locale of groups. I don’t know much about AA’s group locations, but I do know that NA has mushroomed significantly and now covers places like Delft, Athlone, Mitchell’s Plain, Belhar etc and is starting to spread into former township areas. Meetings have already been started in Soweto and surrounding areas in Jozi. In my experience, what happens is that once a meeting is established in one area, members then go on to establish meetings closer to their homes in neighbouring suburbs. This can be a short or a long progress depending on the support and clean time o.
More and more, many addicts enter the programme without having accrued the sort of damage you mention. we are seeing a growing amount of young addicts – 16 – 21 yrs – entering the programmes. This is encouraging, as it suggests that there is a growing awareness of what the disease is all about, and what sort of help is available.
NA Western Cape is currently in the process of translating literature into Afrikaans and isiXhosa. They work as fast as there is financial support and committed membership. Its an issue of critical mass – the more members join, the more pressure and advocacy there is for the provision of literature in one’s language. In this sense, it is a sustainable organisation, as it is fully funded by its members, and is not dependent on handouts. The more members, the people find recovery.
HOLA MPENTJE!! Booze.. a multi generation problem, especially in African household and poor old winos everywhere. In the days of Apartheid, every train station had a Bottle store next to it, our uncles, fathers and mothers became extremely addicted to it. Verwoerd facilitated that! Stockvels, Braais, Parties, After Tears, all provide or the participants provide their own liquor stored in Cooler boxes in the boots; they even bring their on chair with glass holders. Booze is glorified to the extent it’s not unusual to see youth walking very drunk and intoxicated. Mandrax and Crack are ripping the core of our society; gambling, casinos, lottos, ‘Mchina and so forth leave families bankrupt and destitute. Drinking and driving is one of the major killers of alcoholics; People, musicians form lyrics, philosophies extolling the virtues of liquor and drunkenness. These vicissitudes and mayhem brought to bear onto the people and the country, need a different and new approach. There is no more sports for kids, no tournaments, poor facilities, loose morals and incoherent social programs that are not designed to uplift the public. These leaders in parliament and so forth use liquor to court favors and corrupt their very hungry and down-trodden bretheren. We need a new approach, a new society, new programs, more sports, less porno on TV, social sensitive and progressive; we need local drug rehabs and more than ever, social engineering that promotes self-respect, cultural cohesion and action, good morals and extensive and intelligent social interaction today… Bojalwa…
Of course …
Having been financially trapped in this unwashed armpit for 35 years, I feel entitled to describe it as a morally and intellectually bankrupt society – first under the Boere gangsters
‘Lovely oountry Squire, pity about the people’
addition to last post:
It’s enough to drive any thinking person to drink or drugs – problem is, it don’t work. I know