Name- ADITYA PRATAP SINGH

Topic- Drug abuse among the youth of Punjab – A sociological study on the formation of self and Media
analysis of the issue

Introduction
Punjab, a state that is known as “granary of India”, where fitness of youth is set up as an example
for the rest of the states, whose culture embraces everyone from anywhere, a state that
historically has produced great warriors is today grappling with the worst form of drug abuse
among the youth. It has reached epic proportions where the data compiled by Social security
department of Punjab revealed that 67% of rural youth has at least one addict in the family.
Although Punjab is no new to drugs as even during medieval times we traded out with China
opium and during colonial rule was given to farm workers to work faster but it turned as an
epidemic when it percolated to the young guns of Punjab who now not only take Natural drugs
like opium but have turned towards hard synthetic drugs 1 But why is that youth find it so
attractive to get addicted to this phenomena when they are very well aware of the consequence
that it can have on their lives. More and more teenagers look to get addicted to various types of
drugs that are available to them- Tobacco, Cannabis, Inhalants, Heroin and other injectable
substances. This epidemic has assumed alarming dimensions in this state where recently we saw
it being the centerpiece of debate between two political parties. Changing norms and values,
pressure from economic angle, lack of support from family could be highlighted as major
reasons why younger generation find it attractive to go and join the ranks of substance abusers.
But from the outset Punjab doesn’t seem to be afflicted by any of these problems as it is counted
as one of the better off states in terms of GDP and Punjabis by nature are very supportive of one
another even during the harshest of circumstances. So why 4 out of every 10 Men are addicted to
drugs in Punjab(Hindustan Times) when it is being set as an example in front of rest of the states
and is equated with world on various denominators. And the situation is more worse because the
epidemic has included a large number of females within its rank. What is that which is missing in
this culture’s ingredient that the youth has to form its own subculture? A nation that takes pride
in its women being more grounded and sticking to the traditions is seeing one of its well off state
being consumed up by drugs.

1
Phillip A.J., ‘Breaking out of despair,’ The Tribune, April 28, 2007.
Name- ADITYA PRATAP SINGH
Topic- Drug abuse among the youth of Punjab – A sociological study on the formation of self and Media
analysis of the issue

OBJECTIVES
Rationale for Study
This study is needed for various reasons. Firstly as Durkheim noted in his Suicide that for an
individual committing the Suicide, that is the most personal of act, Society has a role to play in
it. I assume that in the similar fashion a youth opting for Drug as his purpose of recreation or an
object in which he could find solace could not be the individual act alone and Society and in this
case- Culture, Religion, State must have either a direct or an indirect role in his seeking the help
of Drug and then becoming a dependent to it.

I will be moving away from earlier writings on this subject which has looked upon this issue
from a micro analysis that seeks to establish cause and effect relation between dependent and
independent variable, like poor decision making is the cause for person chosing drug or lack of
will power of the person involved is the sole reason for this epidemic and will be looking to give
a Sociological dimension to the study and look at abstract concepts like inequality, poverty
,culture even if causality is not established, for this my study objectives are as under;

 To examine the pattern of drug consumption among the young boys of Punjab; mainly
from a Sociological perspective.
 To look at the process of formation of ‘self’ of drug addicted youth
 To examine the notion that drug abuse is a physical manifestation of dwindling effect of
“PUNJABI” culture.
 To examine the attributes of youth who abuse drugs, why do they indulge in it, what can
be done for it and how are they different from non drug abusers
 To analyze the issue as presented by media.
 To provide a new body of knowledge with the hope of developing new perspectives and
approaches in dealing with this social problem

Through my research work I would like to check into the details myself about the extra
psychological and social elements as well that today play a far more important role, like
involvement of larger interests of groups including politicians and drug lords doing out their
business in this nation sitting far away from it. Organised Syndicate of criminal networks, Drug
Name- ADITYA PRATAP SINGH
Topic- Drug abuse among the youth of Punjab – A sociological study on the formation of self and Media
analysis of the issue

Traffickers and Terrorists work side by side to destabilize the country2. I would like to put my
effort to find out that why the borders surrounding Punjab are held so loose that it is easy for so-
called Golden Crescent( Iran, Afghnistan and Pakistan) to transit their drugs in this land.

My chief objective would be to find out different factors that are responsible for youth's
attraction towards drugs and in this process formation of “Self”, the concept of self identity, how
it is formed and the role played by various agencies in this process- Role of Western culture in
the context of modernity, Family history, their tradition, values, rebel attitude of Punjabis etc.
How media looks at this whole thing is pertinent to look after because this issue of “drug
addiction” was always there but in the recent years as it has become a debate between two
national level parties, different forms of media try to outdo one another in giving it an extensive
coverage rather than looking at the ground reality that exists in the state and analyzing the issue
from the addict’s viewpoint.

Believing that Social, Political ,economical factors responsible and playing a major part in the
proliferation of Punjab as deathbed I have hypothesized few questions which are as under.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The most important and most valid question that this study aims to answer is the reason behind
youth being an easy prey to drugs. How it happened that Punjabi tradition, culture of which they
take pride of has now taken a backseat and has allowed this contraculture that slowly
transcended to subculture and now is the dominant culture. There are debates regarding alcohol
being classified under the category of drug or not but most of the clinical studies suggest that the
ii works as a stimulant and if taken in larger doses can be fatal in itself. Although it can be
inhaled but mainly consumed as beverage principal ingredient of which is Ethyl Alcohol3. But in
my study I will treat the main psychotropic substances in the category of Drugs- like Cocaine,
Morphine, Heroin, etc.

Other relevant questions that I would be focusing upon in my work would be:

 The age group that is most prone to substance abuse;

 Any past history or the cases in which their parents, Spouse, friends being the inducement
or show the youth the way in this field;
 Institution that is failing to play its role- Kinship, Economic, Political;
 How does the youth of Amritsar relate with themselves and Society in comparison to the
youth of Tarn Taran;

2
Pushpita Das, “ Drug Trafficking in India: A case for border security”. IDSA occasional paper no. 24
3
Charles E. Dodgen & W. Michael Shea “ Substance Use disorders”
Name- ADITYA PRATAP SINGH
Topic- Drug abuse among the youth of Punjab – A sociological study on the formation of self and Media
analysis of the issue

 Geographical proximity with the golden crescent and to check the India’s stance as a soft
state tolerating any amount of illegal incursion;
 Their own perception of themselves post trauma of Drug abuse that is the effect on their
self esteem after they develop a tolerance level to it;
 The relation with the immediate neighbours, relatives and the group in which the person
participates and their views about the person affected and how it affects the formation of
“SELF” of punjabi youth ;
 Any effort put on the part of individual and his family members to enroll him in any
rehabilitation centres and the role of rehabilitation centres in actively pursuing the case of
individuals affected;
 Media portrayal of the whole drug issue and the change in its perception and magnitude
since green revolution;
 Role of NGOs in taking up this issue and working against those who are actively
involved in this trade and their effort in rehabilitation of the persons affected
 The actual data of Females addicted to drugs and the reasons for their addiction;
 Pressure on Family in terms of economy when a working member gets this Shauk or
Nasha;
 Abnormal behavior from the addict- like getting violent and causing physical harm to
family and friends

These are some of the basic questions around which I would like to centre my research
work on. I hope to add many more question as I start my work and basing the reality that is out
there in Punjab in 2015 in my work. Around late 80s there were almost 50% of people who were
directly affected by this epidemic4 but the recent situation is worse than ever because of nexus of
interest groups.

Literature Review:
There have been various theories that describe the drug issue from its own standpoint. Among
the macro theories – Functional and Conflict deal the issue in a general sense of deviance. The
Structural functional theory views that components of Society work for the maintenance of
whole and the focus is on integration. So any form of deviance like drug abuse disrupts the
integration process. They view that alienation and as a result deviance can become a cause of
disintegration in the society. While conflict theorist view Society as an arena of Inequality &
Conflict. They view that Society is run by those having “capital” at their disposal. This capital
enables them to rise to the position of power. This line of thought sees deviance as a response to
the alienation that the weaker group suffers from the hands of those having resources in their

4
Mohan, D, Sundaram, K R, and Sharma, H K, 1986, A study of drug abuse in rural areas of Punjab (India), Drug and
Alcohol Dependence
Name- ADITYA PRATAP SINGH
Topic- Drug abuse among the youth of Punjab – A sociological study on the formation of self and Media
analysis of the issue

hand. So the dominated group either tries to change the system or they resist the status quo. For
eg. There are people who challenge the criminalization of consumption of Marijauna in favour of
individual’s right to consume it and there are gang members who claim they sell it for the
welfare of their family members because they are left aside from the development process. Like,
in Grenada5 a community has members that say they are addicted toward drug because of
unemployment and Inequality that persist in their society. So to avoid the reality they opt this
lifestyle. When they are not able to conform to the society’s aspirations then they look to find
solace somewhere else even if that means contravening the society’s norms. Though these
theories have not spoken directly about the drug issue per se but from these grand theories other
Sociological theories like Labelling, Strain, Stigma, Cultural theory have taken a leaf from their
understanding of the Society in general. LABELLING theory says that once the person is
labelled as deviant he starts behaving as such or he adopts the role that is appropriate to that
position so believing them a person labeled as drug abuser will continue to act in the same way
because he has internalized the negative traits associated with it. Whereas Interactionists say that
Society and reality are what people make them. They believe that deviance is what is so labeled
and does not exist naturally or independently. For them drug abuse is inherently not wrong but
the people’s reaction is what makes it wrong in the eyes of the public. Cultural Identity theory
says that people born in lower class subculture start feeling negative about themselves in
comparison to youth from upper class subculture. To resolve their identity crisis they alter their
lifestyle to adopt the culture that can make them feel better and drugs make them feel good and
helps them to form new identity around it.

Alfred Lindesmith6 mentions that not merely to avoid the state of emotional distress or difficulty
of life people take drugs but they do to avoid the symptoms of withdrawl. Whereas Psychiatrists
say users take opiates to escape from life Lindesmith asks that why repeated opiates sometimes
followed by addiction and sometimes not. He says it is because of the situation and context that
one is in and so it would be wrong to straightaway label them as Psychopaths. And it is very
much right in the sense that researchers’ work that I have come across have all blamed either the
state or the sharing of borders with the Golden crescent or if not anything then CULTURAL
IMPERIALISM.

A new dimension is needed in the study of magnitude of drug problem that can understand the
relation of Self with the object. And it is to be explained that how this self is formed in this
whole process and that mediator, the ‘S’ubject that links self with the object has to be probed

5
Douglas, Claude. A Sociological analysis of use and abuse of marijuana among young people of Grenada
6
Lindesmith Alfred. A Sociological theory of drug addiction. American journal of Sociology. Vol.43.No.4 (Jan.1938)
593-613
Name- ADITYA PRATAP SINGH
Topic- Drug abuse among the youth of Punjab – A sociological study on the formation of self and Media
analysis of the issue

Sociologically. Here we have whole village (Maqboolpura) being consumed up by drugs 7 that
today is called as ‘village of widows’ but the explanation remains Psychological or Political.

How this another ‘self’ is formed that treats itself as belonging to special group and assumes a
different identity? This self is the source of consciousness, it is responsible for thoughts and
actions that appear in his subjective mind. Another way by which this self can be understood is
the struggle that he has to undergo, the dilemma he is in once he assumes the identity of the drug
addict. Like, Cox and Abramson believe that once the self forms a prejudice against certain
group and later becomes the part of same group then he gets into depression. Society is always in
a flux and a drug addict has to adjust himself, evolve himself according to the pattern of society.

In this case Punjabi Culture too is passing through a change, that change can be noticed in their
dressing sense, eating pattern as highlighted by Nitish Handa in his paper that the folk songs,
dances for which Punjab was known is lost somewhere and there is a need to recover that glory.

Authors like Pushpita das and ravneet gulati have blamed insecurity in international borders and
easy availability of drugs across the state but the relation of Punjabi culture and the youth being a
addict is what is missing in all those studies and I will be looking to cover the details on this
issue.

It is pertinent to highlight the role that Media plays in the portrayal of this issue in front of
general public. Media( print, television, radio) has highlighted this issue for the general public
and all of us including me have come to know about the reach and quality of the youth culture in
Punjab through this source. It either forms public opinion or present the reality before us 8. Many
authors like R. S. Sandhu believe that Green revolution has made the youth dependent on the
labour of workers from different states but 60s was the transitional period9 when international
order was undergoing a humongous change. Neo colonialism, Computerization foraying of mass
media, hippie culture all that played and continues to play a role in the lives of many. I will be
looking in my research about the role that the media plays in disseminating the consequence of
drug abuse for which I haven’t seen any Indian work that can establish any positive or negative
link of media with the drug addiction. Regarding this Gerrard Hannman believes that Media,
either, print or electronic can play a much important role in correcting the perception of drugs
among the abusers.

7
Phillip A. J. “ Breaking out of despair”. The Tribune. April 28, 2007
8
Macnamara, Jim. Media content Analysis: Its uses, benefits and practice methodology.
9
Jameson Frederic . Post modernism and consumer society.
Name- ADITYA PRATAP SINGH
Topic- Drug abuse among the youth of Punjab – A sociological study on the formation of self and Media
analysis of the issue

Research Methodology:
Research Design

It will be Exploratrory research as the issue has not been probed from the angle of self’s
interplay with culture and its formation, secondly how the media portrays the issue has not been
analyzed as well.

SAMPLING:

I will be dividing my respondents into various classes. Like, students( under the category of
Student Male and female), Parents, close relatives, friends of youth those are addicted, BSF
officers, officials from Punjab Drug Prevention Control Board, Doctors from de-addiction
centres, etc. That is in a broader view it will be a Stratified sampling first of all.

Then under Stratified sampling it will further be divided according to respondents. Like during
my visit to rehabilitation centre I will be aware that all the respondents are addicted so there is
fair representation of all in the questions asked to them and I can make use of Purposive
sampling.

PRIMARY DATA:
To know the details about shift in consumption pattern and to establish a cause and effect
relation between the factors, Interview method of Qualitative Analysis would be the most
feasible technique because in this way I can also observe the gestures and emotions of the person
involved and it will help me to establish the veracity of the fact. There will be few questions that
will come in a structured format but my overall interview pattern will be Semi-structured as the
issue and questions related to it would be of such nature that every query will lead to another one
so I will be keeping it Open ended & Semistructured.

Among the literate section like college youth, Doctors, Parents among others
QUESTIONNAIRE would be more feasible as well as time saving for me.

Type of Questionnaire: It will be a mixed one, i.e. combination of closed and open as the
questions which need subjectivity of the person can’t be answered in a yes/no format. Like a
person’s perception of himself – a person who is a victim of drug abuse, so until the person
writes the journey of himself in his own words encapsulating it via the words that symbolize his
pain a researcher in a true sense cannot know this in closed question format.

As there are lesser chances of Questionnaire being returned by the respondent I will be relying
more on Interview process, plus, higher authorities, border force, Doctors will have least time to
Name- ADITYA PRATAP SINGH
Topic- Drug abuse among the youth of Punjab – A sociological study on the formation of self and Media
analysis of the issue

write answers to the queries, therefore I will be using Questionnaire as an appendage to the
Interview method. The aim of this research work is to unearth the details on drug abuse
becoming an epidemic in Punjab and newer ways by which youngster are lured into it, the
responsible persons for this and similar other questions that require the personal presence of the
researcher on the field,i.e. more or less a major portion of it will be covered by fieldwork and
will not be relying much on the facts given, theories written about the issue.

Newer ways of preventing people from drug abuse are devised by the government. Like few days
back government banned sale and purchase of Nicotine in Chandigarh bringing it under the
category of poison via poison act 1915 and poison(possession and sales) rules 2015. So, is it just
the knee-jerk reaction to the protest from the people, like Arun jaitley losing out his seat from
Amritsar during general elections 2014, a constituency among the worst affected states of Punjab
and to notice the recent anger combined with awareness of people on this issue will require an
intensive interaction with the people concerned.

Secondary Data
The role of secondary data can’t be ignored while doing a detailed analysis on the subject where
it will help to ascertain theories and facts which are unknown to the person and will also help to
know more about the issue via the past study conducted by the researchers and the facts and data
which are already collected by the researchers need not to be explored again by researchers.

Both the personal document and Public document can be helpful as finished goods in case where
I am supposed to save time and rather work on the unknown aspect of the problem so books
published by sociologists, social scientists on this issue can help to know the problem from
different angles and then to probe according to my hypothesis.

Punjabi culture can be best understood by the books written by historians and culturalists on it.
Like Patricia Adler’s study10 on drug dealers and abusers in South west California tells that what
length the researcher is supposed to traverse to get the details on his respondent. She did
participant observation while becoming a member of drug dealers and smugglers in the county.
To know more about them and to gain their trust how she had to participate in the daily activities
of dealers, how it was risky for her to know the detailed activities as fear of police was always
there. Such studies help the researcher in multiple was, firstly, the way in which the problem has
to be conceptualized, dangers involved, statistics, sources through which data can be collected,

10
Patricia adler,” Construction of deviance: Social power, Context and Interaction”
Name- ADITYA PRATAP SINGH
Topic- Drug abuse among the youth of Punjab – A sociological study on the formation of self and Media
analysis of the issue

etc.. Then case studies, reports , international documents on the issue will also make a mark
in my research as it is necessary to include different perspective and articles from different
organizations on the current state of problem. My entire field study will be a mix of both the
primary data as well as Secondary data but I will make use of observation and interview more
than any other method as this is what the nature of study demands.

Content analysis: It will be used to know the extent of the problem that is actually displayed by
media.

Two forms of Content analysis will be used by me:

Thematic Content analysis- To understand how the message is encoded and the intentions that lie
behind it. For this how the issue is represented in the national and local dailies of Punjab and
how different it is from television reporting of the phenomena will be studied by me

Audience analysis- To understand the effect of such reporting on the public of two districts. This
part will be done after the thematic analysis

ASSUMPTIONS: In my research, I will be treating Punjabis as those residing permanently in

the state and Punjabi culture includes the eating habits, dressing style, customs, ceremonies,
beliefs of Punjabis.

FIELD: In my fieldwork I have selected two of the most affected districts of Punjab; one is
developed Amritsar and the other is Tarn Taran to make a comparative study of the patterns of
drug habits and use and then to make an audience research with the selected samples after doing
the content analysis.
Name- ADITYA PRATAP SINGH
Topic- Drug abuse among the youth of Punjab – A sociological study on the formation of self and Media
analysis of the issue

REFERENCES:

Pushpita Das, “ Drug Trafficking in India: A case for border security”. IDSA occasional paper no. 24

Charles E. dodgen amd Michael Shea, “ Substance Use disorders”

Mohan, D, Sundaram, K R, and Sharma, H K, , 1986, A study of drug abuse in rural areas of Punjab
(India), Drug and Alcohol Dependence

Singh, P, “Farm Labour and teenager worst hit by drug abuse” from The Tribune News Services.

Kaur, Ravinder & Gulati Jatinder, Drug Abuse: Trends and Uses.

Hadden & Lester, 1973.The Social Creation of a Social Problem. Unpublished dissertation .Department
of Sociology,Washington State University, Pullman, Wash

Hannman Gerrard, Communicating Drug abuse information among college students,

The Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 37, No. 2 (Summer, 1973), pp. 171-191

Adler, Patricia, ” Construction of deviance: Social power, Context and Interaction”

Berger, peter. The Social construction of reality.

Jamson Frederic. Post modernism and consumer society

Macnamara, Jim. Media Content Analysis: Its uses, benefits and practice methodology

Lindesmith, Alfred. A Sociological theory of drug addiction American journal of sociology. Vol.43,
journal 4 (593- 613)

Handa, Nitish Kumar. Punjab culture and present scenario.

http://www.tehelka.com/breaking-bad-drug-problem-in-punjab/#.VWD-3E_BzGf