Acceso usuarios
U. Khant
Opium and to a certain extent canna bis were the only drugs of abuse in Burma until the early 1970s when heroin addiction spread rapidly among young people, reaching epidemic proportions. Heroin addiction has caused serious social and health problems that prompted the authorities to adopt new legislation in 1974, the Narcotic and Dangerous Drugs Law, which provided for compulsory treatment and severe penalties for drug-related infractions, including the death sentence for certain categories of d rug trafficking. The authorities in Burma consider that legislation , drug-law enforcement, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation, and community measures are important and interrelated strategies in combating drug abuse among young people.
Various forms of drug-abuse preventive programmes are carried out for such groups as youths, parents, community leaders and professionals dealing with the problems of the young. Preventive school programmes include lectures and discussions; exhibitions; essay writing and other forms of competition for students ; in-service training for teachers ; healthy alternatives to drug use ; a scheme for talented students ; and participation in a national mass movement for literacy. Young people are also encouraged to take active part in various community programmes such as the "Red Cross" and voluntary fire brigades as well as in specially designed programmes that are carried out at the local level to prevent and reduce drug abuse. As the extended family still prevails in Burma, with parents and elders being respected by the young, this important resource is utilized in coping with drug abuse among young people. Compulsory registration as well as treatment and rehabilitation of d rug-addicted persons is carried out in specially assigned town hospitals. Community measures support after-care and social reintegration of young d rug addicts who have undergone treatment. Recent hospital statistics indicate that there is a slowing down in the rates of increase of new cases of heroin addiction , but concurrently the rates of abuse of psychotropic substances, such as benzodiazepines, methaqualone and barbiturates, as well as multiple drug abuse, are increasing.
