Spirituality, drugs, and alcohol: a philosophical analysis

The Pat Jasan drug eradication social movement in northern Myanmar, part two: Deep culture & cultural psychology

Pat Jasan emerged as a largescale popular social movement in the Kachin region of northern Myanmar in 2014, with the objective of eradicating illicit drug production and consumption from the region. It has since been heavily criticized for its methods and opposition to harm reduction initiatives. The purpose of this paper is to understand better the cultural and psychological response to worsening drug issues that underpin the rise of Pat Jasan as a mass social movement. The paper contextualises two ways in which Pat Jasan frames the local drugs crisis: first, the sense of existential threat posed by drug related social harms; and second, the belief that 'all' Kachin households are negatively impacted by these harms. We outline the underpinning ideological beliefs upon which these frames rest. We discuss how even though non-Christian beliefs and practices have largely disappeared, they remain layered within the deep culture of attitudes towards drug use and how best to deal with the community-level harms that are believed to be created by such behaviours. Critically, the paper also draws attention to the largely unrecognized involvement of women as mobilizing forces of the Pat Jasan movement and how the movement leveraged popular feeling at a critical moment in the region's political history.

Spirituality, Religiosity and Addiction Recovery: Current Perspectives

Substance use disorders are an important public health problem with a multifactorial etiology and limited effective treatment options. Within this context, spirituality-based approaches may provide interesting and useful options in managing substance use disorders. This kind of intervention can have positive effects in alleviating some core symptoms associated with substance use, such as aggressiveness. Improvement in cessation rates for alcohol, cocaine and opioid use disorders have also been described in some clinical studies. However, spirituality may not play a beneficial role in some subgroups, such as among individuals with crack cocaine and cannabis use disorders. A widely available intervention for alcohol use disorders is Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), which can be seen as a spirituality-based intervention. Spirituality also seems to be especially beneficial for minorities such as Latinos, African-Americans and Native-Americans. Moreover, spiritual-based interventions are also helpful alternatives in many rural environments where conventional healthcare for substance use disorders may not be easily available. However, spiritual-based interventions may be considered as a possible adjunctive therapeutic option to conventional treatments. There is a need for prospective studies outside U.S., especially where spiritual-based approaches are available. It may be difficult to carry out randomized controlled trials because of the nature of the spiritual/ religious dimensions. However, prospective studies that evaluate mediation effect of spirituality and religiosity on recovery would be helpful. Qualitative studies combined with quantitative design offer excellent options to evaluate the recovery process, especially among special populations.