Drug Abuse in India: Grounding Research in Ecological Risk and Resilience Theory

Abstract

As drug trends change globally, risks affecting individuals and families from diverse backgrounds become more complex. To critically examine the contexts that foster drug abuse, the authors developed a conceptual model that identifies factors that predispose toward or protect individuals from drug use and abuse. The model utilizes an ecological risk and resilience framework for understanding drug problems in India. There are risk factors that increase the likelihood of drug use, abuse, dependence, and secondary problems. Alternatively, effective protective (resilience) factors at all levels of the system have the potential to reduce risk for drug dependence and its repercussions. The authors posit that this model can help guide research, evaluation, and program planning related to drug abuse and other social issues. The model can be replicated to address impacts on individuals, families, and communities in other cultures and cross‐cultural comparisons can be made.

Is there room for resilience? A scoping review and critique of substance use literature and its utilization of the concept of resilience

“…Resilience here is understood as the capacity to avoid or withstand using drugs, and consequently PWUD are depicted as non-resilient, again giving rise to problematic dichotomies. It is interesting that some researchers do not clarify whether they are concerned with the absence of any level of substance ‘use’, or if the emphasis is more specifically on ‘problem’ drug use or abuse (e.g., [ 71 , 100 ]). Given that among youth some level of drug experimentation is normal during this period of development, and that desistance in drug use often occurs by a natural process of ‘ageing out’ [ 159 – 161 ], studies that classify drug using youth as lacking resilience are setting a detrimental precedent.…”