A major threat

It is impossible for a government that has built all its election campaigns and political rhetoric over the last decade on a security-oriented language not to see that drugs are a fundamental security issue. Yes, drugs are a security issue for societies. Since the end of the Cold War, the security of states has been linked not only to many different elements but also to international drug policy. Security is not an objective state. It can rather be defined as a result of existential threats and vulnerabilities. It is a phenomenon that emerges when the self is threatened by the other. The self here can be a person, an institution, states, or the world... With the spread of the discourse of "drugs as an existential threat" since the first half of the 20th century, drugs have become a security issue in the eyes of the countries of the world (Crick, 2012: 2). In other words, the self is the world, and the other threat is drugs.

While states view drugs as a security threat, the signals of the catastrophe that has befallen Turkey were clearly revealed in the "2021 World Drug Report," which shared data from 2019. According to the report released by the United Nations, Iran, Turkey, and Pakistan combined accounted for 48% of the global market in 2019 as the countries where the most heroin was seized. In 2019, 76% of morphine and heroin substances worldwide were seized in Asia. While Iran ranked first with a 52% share, it was followed by Turkey with 10%, Pakistan with 9%, the USA with 4%, and China and Afghanistan with 3%. It was determined that the cannabis resin seized in Iran in 2019 was intended to be directed to the domestic markets of most countries, to Caucasus countries, to Turkey, and to a lesser extent to the European Union (World Drug Report 2021 Booklet 3: 18).

The picture of the disaster is clear. Today, we are beginning to see and hear the reflections of this widespread threat on society through brutal murders. Who knows what other dramas we do not know or see...

Research shows that reasons pushing young people toward drugs can include social anxiety, stress, curiosity, peer pressure, biological factors, depression, hopelessness, childhood abuse, parental drug use, conflict between parents, and mental health disorders. However, studies have shown that even the desire to be perceived as popular among friends is a reason in itself. Of course, accessibility and availability create the opportunity to try it "just once," which can turn into addiction (Siyez, Gürçay and Yüncü, 2012; Atlam and Yüncü, 2017; Öztürk, 2023).

Drugs are also a separate topic as the hidden culprit behind the increasing number of femicides in Turkey in recent days. The rising trend of materialism on social media, easy money, flashy lives, and the great disappointments experienced by young people who are constantly exposed to these but cannot reach them... The bloody internet games, movies, and the engineering of evil they are exposed to via the deep web for a generation born into technology have also laid the groundwork for social collapse. The government's approach to young people on this issue, which has made spirituality a cliché and instrumentalized it for politics but has failed to be a good example, remained didactic and created the opposite effect. Now, just as every individual in society has a share in this social collapse, the highest share certainly belongs to those who have been governing the country for over twenty years.

Drugging and neutralizing societies can be seen as the chemical weapon of the new age. It is a major threat. While writing these lines, I am reminded of what philosopher-sociologist Dr. Zeliha Bürtek said in a street interview that hit us like a slap in the face: "The world has seen many economic crises and has always recovered. Capital does not destroy itself. But you cannot fix social decay. There is currently social decay in Turkey, and it is very difficult to fix this..."

References

Atlam, D. H., & Yüncü, Z. (2017). The relationship between smoking, alcohol, substance use disorder and familial substance use in university students. Klinik Psikiyatri, 20(3), 161-170.

Crick, E. (2012). Drugs as an existential threat: An analysis of the international securitization of drugs. International Journal of Drug Policy, 23(5), 407-414.

Öztürk, F. C. (2023). Substance addiction and examination of substance use in Turkey. Journal of Faculty of Pharmacy of Ankara University, 47(3), 1071-1083.

Siyez, D. M., Gezginci Gürçay, E., & Yüncü, Z. (2012). Perceptions of adolescents with and without substance use disorder regarding their childhood family experiences. Anatolian Journal of Psychiatry/Anadolu Psikiyatri Dergisi, 13(4).

https://www.unodc.org/res/wdr2021/field/WDR21_Booklet_3.pdf