Substance Use and Family Factors Affecting Substance Addiction in Van

Abstract

As well as all over the world, substance use and addiction affects more people in Turkey every day and causes dreams to fade, families break up and young people lose their lives. Even though some legal measures and severe penal sanctions at the international and national level have been imposed to eliminate this problem which stands out both with its individual and social extent, the trade constantly increases as drug trade has become a global industrial market and it is used as a financial resource for money laundering and illegal human trafficking of some large companies and cartels. This problem, which is sometimes reflected in the media but often ignored by a large part of the society, has a much more impact on human and public health, especially young people. From this fact, the present article generally addresses the substance use and prevalence in Turkey and the family structures, characteristics and reasons for substance use in Van where it is easy to access narcotics as it is a border city. The main reason for conducting the study in Van is its being one of the primary cities where substance abuse, addiction and trafficking are mostly performed in Turkey.