Culture, drug abuse and some reflections on the family

The authors recently completed a set of monographs on culture and drug use and abuse in a tribal district in Gujarat in western India where changes have occurred in alcohol consumption, two districts in Karnataka in south India where widespread use of cannabis is prevalent, six districts of Gujarat where extensive opium drinking is common, and also on the drug abuse situation in Goa, Delhi and Bombay. On the basis of those studies, the authors call for decentralized planning and a review of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, and they critique some of the dominant practices in contemporary prevention and rehabilitation of addicts. The role of the family is examined as a socialization institution for transmittal of culture. The limits posed by patriarchy on the extent to which the family can be an agent of primary or secondary prevention of drug use and abuse are indicated.