JNSS 2015, 6(3-4):123-129 | DOI: 10.32725/jnss.2015.013

Social exclusion among problem drug users

Nikola Brandová^*, Alena Kajanová

University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Faculty of Health and Social Studies, Department of Social Work, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

The survey report presents a summary of the acquired knowledge about social exclusion in the context of problematic drug users. The data are based on a secondary data analysis, in which scientific articles were searched for regarding the period between 2003 and 2014 in databases EBSCO, Scopus and PubMed. We used the following key words: drug users - social exclusion - addiction. We also used information obtained from printed expert sources and monographs. In the literature, there are two views on the connection of substance abuse and the phenomenon of social exclusion. The first one is devoted to social exclusion as a consequence of problematic drug use. Drug addiction enters into various aspects of the life of individuals; the problems emerging in the social sphere can lead the user to the margins of the society and social exclusion. The second view is focused on the opposite sequence of those phenomena - thinking about social exclusion as a cause of problematic use of addictive substances. Problematic drug users often come from poor and socially excluded communities. They have a restricted scope of choices and experience disadvantages. Socially excluded individuals rush to the use of hard drugs due to the feeling of detachment, alienation and hopelessness that they experience. The negative effects of drugs on users coming from socially excluded environment are more severe than from other users, because they usually have fewer resources which could help them cope with problems related to drug use. Both of the above views are closely linked, and in practice are connected.

Keywords: social exclusion; drug users; consequences of drug using; disadvantage

Grants and funding:

The article is an output of the project GAJU 003/2014/S, entitled Social exclusion as a determinant of health among methamphetamine users.

Received: March 4, 2015; Accepted: May 5, 2015; Published: September 1, 2015  Show citation