Brown Sugar Addiction - Treatment, Symptoms and Causes
Last Updated: Jun 24, 2023
What is Brown Sugar Addiction?
When we think of brown sugar , the usual thing that comes to our mind is the normal sugar brown in colour. But no, here when we are talking about brown sugar addiction, this sugar is far different from the normal sugar. The brown sugar is an adulterated form of heroine , it consists of 20%heroine. The peddler community call it with other names as smack, H, junk, horse,black tar , sounds cool , isn’t it ?Pure heroin accounts for only 20% of the brown sugar drug, rest 80% comes in the form of chalk powder, zinc oxide and even iodex. Since the original brown sugar is very costly, the impurities make it cheaper.The consumer usually in place of brown sugar is consuming poison, which would kill inch by inch. Brown sugar can be snorted in its pure form ,but since the majority of people get the impure form, and it burns at lower temperature they prefer smoking it to intake this drug.Apart from smoking and snorting people also prefer injecting it with the help of a syringe, it is dangerous as the impurities do not dissolve completely.Brown sugar doesn’t mix in water , so it is dissolved in any citric acid component and then injected. When we talk about its usage in India,brown sugar is seeing a rapid increase.Brown sugar starts affecting within a minute of consume, it directly attacks the metabolism of the user, lasting for around 4-5 hrs.
Uses in India:
Brown sugar is an adulterated form of heroin, derived in the form of semi-synthetic opioids. Commonly known as smack, it is obtained from the morphine extracted from the poppy plants.
Brown sugar is formed of a highly toxic combination of heroin, chalk powder, zinc oxide, and strychnine. A combination is an impure form of heroin, making it more dangerous and addictive. It is taken via smoking which is the most preferred and efficient way of its consumption.
Besides this, it is also inhaled as fumes after burning the powder on a tin-foil or may also be injected. Brown sugar is a highly addictive form of drug in India. Our country witnessed the highest level of heroin abuse than any other country in Southern Asia.
According to the data, it has been found that around one million heroin addicts are registered officially and 5 million unofficially in the country. This is quite concerning as it has eroded the potential of a larger population of youngsters, posing a major challenge for our society.
Summary: India is facing a major challenge in the form of the highest number of heroin abusers among Southern-Asian countries. It is affecting the economy of our country as well as eroding the potential of the young population, posing major challenges against development.
Causes of Brown Sugar Addiction.
When anyone is addicted to something, they don’t have any control over what they are doing.And continued use may prove things to be very harmful. Some take drugs for medicinal purposes and some take it for enjoyment. Beside getting addicted to brown sugar they are many factors such as physical factors, surrounding factors, environmental factors, and more or less family and emotional factors. If a child in a family is seeing things from beginning that , taking brown sugar or drug may relieve stress easily then there are more chances that when he is grown up, he would prefer that way which he had seen earlier. In the process of turning a habit into addiction , the brain plays an important role here. The repetitive usage of the drugs makes mind comfortable with that drug and it responses to it as the normal chemical secretions.The society, the environment where a person is residing or frequently in contact into plays a major role in turning a habit , a less frequent habit into addiction.And when the voluntary control is lost it becomes an addiction.
What is the symptoms of Brown Sugar Addiction?
The signs and symptoms of brown sugar depends on how much, how long and how often it had been abused. The symptoms may be immediate symptoms, short term and long term symptoms.These can be easily noticed by moods, behavioral and physical changes. Anyone consuming brown sugar for the first time, he is infrequent to its use would definitely get immediate symptoms like vomiting, nausea, headache,itching, redness of skin and frequent dry mouth. After the consumption of brown sugar starts like when body is getting habitual to it i, it would signal like foggy mental state, slowed breathing, getting tired within short intervals of work,feeling drowsy and sleepy.And when its abuse is reaching its peak day by day then long term symptoms come into picture like, frequent drug stealing, lying,aggression, collapsed veins, skin problems and disease in liver, kidney and heart also.
Withdrawal symptoms:
Brown sugar consumption is a threat to the whole world, posing dangers to the life of the young population. Its effects are analogous to that of heroin. It has been found that brown sugar abusers develop a sense of dependency on the drug. This leads to the development of withdrawal symptoms in the following even a few hours of its use.
Withdrawal symptoms are associated with attempts in order to quit the habit. It is followed by certain life-threatening consequences which may include the following:
- Violent and aggressive behavior of the abuser
- Unexpected weight loss
- Loss of appetite
- Insomnia
- Depression
- Frustration
- Lack of concentration and irritability
- Watering of nose
Summary: Brown sugar abuse has become a threat to the young population all over the world. It is followed by a strong sense of dependency on the drug, resulting in withdrawal symptoms such as depression, anxiety, loss of appetite and weight, irritability, insomnia, etc.
Treatment of Brown Sugar Addiction.
Brown sugar is really very harmful when one develops a dependency to it.Once the user is addicted, my God, nothing can save him, he would go to an extent of even risking his job,stealing, damaging relationship with loved ones and many more.The treatment of brown sugar addiction depends on the severity of its use.Less the usage more the chances of the victim getting recovered easily.The treatment programs here offer options like residential inpatient treatment, short stay treatments, detoxification,motivational interviewing,lectures, rehabilitation workshops and many more.All this processes mainly revolve around three steps such as:- withdrawal, therapy and maintenance.Withdrawal is also called as detox, under this the body is allowed in effect of certain medicines . These medicines detox or reduce the constituent of heroine from our body.After detox the victim is engaged in various outdoor activities for fun and to make him feel comfortable. Under this proper counseling, support meetings, get togethers etc are held.And the last is maintenance, once the victim returns home,the medication continues for few months .Narcotics meetings and counseling sessions go on here also.
Prevention to avoid Brown Sugar Addiction.
While it is practically impossible to prevent anyone and everyone from using drugs, there are things that we can do to prevent drug addiction.While prevention step, the major is to remove your attention from that drug.For that one can involve in activities that provide meaning to your life.Few ways to prevent brown sugar addiction are :-.
- Effectively deal with peer and life pressure.
- Seek help for mental illness
- Examine risk factors
- Get involved in your community and strengthen self esteem
- Look after your goals, be determined to achieve them
Other preventive measures include, increasing taxes to reduce consumption,reducing availability of excess prescription medications, restricting advertising of addictive substances.
Withdrawal symptoms of Brown Sugar Addiction.
Continuous use of brown sugar interferes with motivation and resulting in its craving and dependence.Withdrawal symptoms of brown sugar depends on how long it had been used .Continuously snorting and injection of brown sugar is definitely going to get longer withdrawal periods, with potentially more symptoms. The common withdrawal symptoms which people acknowledge are.
The withdrawal symptoms lock the person in a cycle of medication and then forcing to use it again because of the pain.Here counseling sessions and motivation helps a lot.
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