Melari Shisha Nongrum, Carinthia Balabet Nengnong, Mattimi Passah, Bethabara Decruse, Wilson Dohling, Safeeda G Warjri
{"title":"Understanding Drug Use in Meghalaya: A Drug Users' Perspective.","authors":"Melari Shisha Nongrum, Carinthia Balabet Nengnong, Mattimi Passah, Bethabara Decruse, Wilson Dohling, Safeeda G Warjri","doi":"10.4103/ijph.ijph_664_24","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Despite being considered a low prevalence state for illicit drug use in 2005, presently Meghalaya faces heightened vulnerability to drug use. The absence of updated data in Meghalaya underscores the necessity for this study to profile drug users. A qualitative descriptive approach was adopted; 128 opioid substitution therapy clients and 17 service providers from three districts of Meghalaya were interviewed. Drug users were generally males with low educational attainment and 80% working in the unorganized sector. A quarter started drug use during their school years. The reasons for drug initiation are curiosity and experimentation, family problems, peer pressure, and de-stressing. Heroin, the most injected drug, accounted for a daily average expenditure of '500-'2000. The age of initiation of drugs is lower than in other states, thus warranting the need for enhanced sensitization about drug risks among school adolescents, youth, and the unorganized employment sector.</p>","PeriodicalId":13298,"journal":{"name":"Indian journal of public health","volume":"69 2","pages":"224-226"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7000,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Indian journal of public health","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.4103/ijph.ijph_664_24","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/6/30 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Despite being considered a low prevalence state for illicit drug use in 2005, presently Meghalaya faces heightened vulnerability to drug use. The absence of updated data in Meghalaya underscores the necessity for this study to profile drug users. A qualitative descriptive approach was adopted; 128 opioid substitution therapy clients and 17 service providers from three districts of Meghalaya were interviewed. Drug users were generally males with low educational attainment and 80% working in the unorganized sector. A quarter started drug use during their school years. The reasons for drug initiation are curiosity and experimentation, family problems, peer pressure, and de-stressing. Heroin, the most injected drug, accounted for a daily average expenditure of '500-'2000. The age of initiation of drugs is lower than in other states, thus warranting the need for enhanced sensitization about drug risks among school adolescents, youth, and the unorganized employment sector.
期刊介绍：
Indian Journal of Public Health is a peer-reviewed international journal published Quarterly by the Indian Public Health Association. It is indexed / abstracted by the major international indexing systems like Index Medicus/MEDLINE, SCOPUS, PUBMED, etc. The journal allows free access (Open Access) to its contents and permits authors to self-archive final accepted version of the articles. The Indian Journal of Public Health publishes articles of authors from India and abroad with special emphasis on original research findings that are relevant for developing country perspectives including India. The journal considers publication of articles as original article, review article, special article, brief research article, CME / Education forum, commentary, letters to editor, case series reports, etc. The journal covers population based studies, impact assessment, monitoring and evaluation, systematic review, meta-analysis, clinic-social studies etc., related to any domain and discipline of public health, specially relevant to national priorities, including ethical and social issues. Articles aligned with national health issues and policy implications are prefered.
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