According to the Israeli Anti-Drug Authority, there are over “300 thousand people in Israel who use drugs”, and as OSAC’s 2014 report declares, “there is prevalent use of heroin in Israel along with recreational drugs such as cocaine, marijuana, ecstasy, and synthetic cannabis.”

Now, this is not to say that all drug use is necessarily of the same level of harm, or that every drug user is precisely the same. Indeed, there are some statistical differences in drug and alcohol abuse based on social background, as the Times of Israel points out that in the Arab Israeli community, 9 percent of young Israeli Arabs aged between 12-18 used hard drugs, compared to “4% among Jews aged 12-18”. While this sort of breakdown can help target effective strategies for at-risk youths, it is important not to try to excessively compartmentalize off different sections of the community affected by the use of hard drugs. Regardless of where it infects the Israeli youth, the abuse of hard drugs ends up harming all of Israeli society. Clearly, some drug use is much more harmful to society than other forms, but it must be agreed that a large portion of those using drugs most closely associated with crime and violence, such as heroin, will ultimately have a very negative impact on the social fabric.

Youth at Risk

The issue of debilitating drug addictionis especially problematic in Israel because it tends to be found among those who are young, adversely affecting the development of these users at an age when they are particularly vulnerable.

The control of the production and importation of illegal drugs is a herculean task, yet even in an Israel where this stream of risk was completely stemmed, this would not mean an end to drug abuse amongst the young. There will always be an abundance of legal substances that can be converted to a destructive high for those young people desperate enough to make use of more accessible forms of drug abuse like glue sniffing. To truly tackle this problem, not only would the drug trade need to be much more tightly restricted and policed, but a thorough system of reaching, educating, and effectively rehabilitating addicts must continue to be developed, and more importantly, to spread wherever it may be needed. The best defense for the youth of Israel is to find effective ways to teach them the risks of drug use and to help them see how badly they risk harming themselves and those around them through addiction to hard drugs. That said, this is no easy matter – controlling crime is a difficult, but mostly a physical process; winning over the youth of Israel to a defensive perspective on drugs involves the much more tricky process of changing minds.

Defending Against Drug Addiction

The Road to a Cure

In the case of addicts lucky enough to have family and friends who care about them, they have a chance of escaping from addiction with the support of their own community. It is essential for these communities of friends and relatives to keep an eye out for the warning signs of addiction so that support and assistance can be given as quickly as possible. For those who become addicted to hard drugs, their entire world contracts to become about nothing more than maintaining their supplies to the exclusion of everything else in their lives. As Drugabuse.com indicates, addicts “show signs of drug abuse in every aspect of their lives. It’s common for an addict to miss work, neglect family obligations and have financial problems.” When an addict’s behavior is patently harmful to those around them, it is essential not to try to ignore this addiction, to try and sweep it under the carpet as something that is too hard to deal with or is somebody’s else’s problem to fix.

It is in the very nature of addiction that the substance abuser is both physically and psychologically dependent on regular effects of their drugs of choice, as the National Institute of Drug Abuse puts it, the addict’s behaviour is  “characterized by uncontrollable drug-seeking no matter the consequences”. In such a state, addicts are rarely capable of thinking beyond their need for drugs, and only the influence of those in their immediate community can help break through this blinkered perception of the world in order to get them the help they need. At the same time, it is just as important that those of us in a position to help also avoid taking a blinkered look at drug addiction education and treatment. What hurts part of our nation will eventually harm all of us, and it is only together that we can help manage this suffering.