Substance use and addiction represent one of the most complex, multifaceted public health challenges in India today. For decades, our society has viewed addiction predominantly through a moral or criminal lens—a personal failing or a character flaw. However, a closer look at the fabric of our communities reveals a deeply intertwined biopsychosocial phenomenon. At the Tripta Foundation, we have always believed in addressing the root causes of behavioral and psychological challenges, and recently, our research team lead by our clinical psychologist, Ruth Dutta, published a groundbreaking research paper in the International Journal of Neurolinguistics & Gestalt Psychology that does exactly that.
Her qualitative study, titled “An Explanatory Analysis of the Normalization of Substance Use and its Role in Addiction in India,“ interviewed 16 males in recovery to explore how cultural and social systems actually pave the pathways toward addiction. The findings of this paper offer a profound, necessary shift in how we understand substance dependence, arguing that addiction is not merely a function of the individual, but often an outcome of broader cultural scripts.
As we expand our wellness initiatives across the country, understanding these cultural scripts is vital. Below is a comprehensive look into the frameworks of normalization, gender disparities, familial influence, and the conditional stigma that define substance use in our society, drawn directly from Dutta’s illuminating research.
The Scale of the Challenge
To understand the cultural mechanisms at play, we must first look at the sheer scale of substance use in India. The statistics reflect an urgent need for context-sensitive interventions:
- Approximately 14.6% of the Indian population between the ages of 10 and 75 has reported alcohol use.
- Around 2.8% of the population utilizes cannabis.
- Within the cannabis-using demographic, 40 lakh people use bhang and 50 lakh use ganja and charas.
- Furthermore, 2.1% of Indians utilize opium or substances obtained from poppy seeds, commonly known as Doda or Fukki.
- Heroin is used by 63 lakh Indians, and there are 10.7 lakh cocaine users nationwide, with Maharashtra reporting the highest number of users.
Despite these staggering numbers, access to treatment remains severely limited, with a treatment gap of nearly 73% for substance use disorders. This gap is not just a failure of infrastructure; it is heavily influenced by societal stigma, gender norms, and regional differences that hinder policy implementation and treatment access.
The Hierarchy of Substances and the Conditional “Normal”
One of the most striking organizational frameworks revealed in Dutta’s research is the implicit “hierarchy of acceptability” regarding substances. Across individuals and communities, alcohol consumption is largely viewed as a normal, expected part of social life. It acts as a catalyst, encouraging bonding and lowering inhibitions.
Conversely, drug use is highly stigmatized, associated with illegality, and driven by social fear. Even within illicit substances, society draws lines: “softer” substances like weed are sometimes brushed off as party drugs or common among peers, whereas users of “hard” drugs like heroin are instantly marginalized as “junkies”. This hierarchy allows alcohol and soft drug users to employ downward social comparison, minimizing their own hazardous use by contrasting it with the imagined ‘other’—the dysfunctional drug addict.
However, the social acceptance of alcohol is strictly conditional. Society permits consumption provided it is moderated, confined to social occasions, and crucially, does not lead to violent, aggressive, or anti-social behavior. The acceptance of substance use is contingent upon the user maintaining their social status, financial stability, and productivity. As long as a person fulfills their social and professional roles, their consumption—even if internally destructive—is functionally defined as moderate.
Ritualistic Embedding: Tradition as a Catalyst
Substance use is not just passively accepted in India; it is actively intertwined with our most sacred rituals and social calendars. The study highlights how specific occasions—weddings, festivals, and religious rites—serve as socially sanctioned spaces for consumption.
- Festivals and Temporal Logic: Dutta’s interviews reveal a nuanced embedding where substances are selectively integrated into the ritual calendar. For example, during Diwali, families might perform an evening pooja and burst crackers, transitioning afterward into a social phase where sitting together, having a drink, and playing cards is expected. This temporal logic grants a form of ritual permission, transforming consumption into a socially sanctioned marker of adulthood.
- Ritual Containment: Some substances, viewed with general suspicion, are granted temporary permission through “ritual containment”. Cannabis, particularly bhang, has historical roots spanning over two millennia in Ayurvedic traditions and Hindu religious rituals. Its use is culturally permissible during specific festivals like Holi, Shivratri, and Dussehra. Any use outside these sacred windows is met with disapproval, showing how culture deliberately regulates consumption.
- The Wedding Lubricant: In Indian weddings, alcohol frequently acts as a mandatory social lubricant. Participants in the study noted that a culturally endorsed reason for drinking is to find the “liquid courage” needed to energize a wedding baraat (procession). Among Goan and East Indian Christian communities, traditional multi-day weddings and ceremonies like the pre-wedding Roce intricately interweave folk singing, dancing, and community bonding with continuous servings of alcohol, establishing a background of normality.
The Gender Divide: Masculine Privilege vs. Female Stigma
The patriarchal structure of Indian society actively guides distinct, gendered pathways of substance use. These norms create a jarring double standard that fundamentally alters how addiction is experienced, reported, and treated.
Male-Centric Normalization and Social Capital
For young men in India, drinking is frequently framed as an expected rite of passage into adulthood—a privilege earned through economic independence and social responsibility. Relatives and uncles actively encourage this, inviting young men to join the elders for a drink, creating a powerful feeling of communal belonging. Refusing to partake can feel socially isolating.
Furthermore, within male peer groups, excessive consumption itself becomes a source of social capital. The ability to consume large amounts of alcohol while remaining physically unaffected is rewarded with immense respect and admiration. High tolerance earns individuals titles like “legend,” transforming a dangerous physical trait into a social virtue, thereby pushing young men to test their limits and rapidly transition from social use to dependence.
The Heavy Burden on Women
In stark contrast, female substance use is heavily stigmatized, morally devalued, and forced into concealment.
- National data shows alcohol consumption at 27.3% for men compared to a mere 1.6% for women.
- Cannabis use is reported at 5% for men and 0.6% for women.
- These statistics do not necessarily reflect an absence of female users, but rather a profound social invisibility driven by the fear of damaged reputations and familial honor.
Where a man who drinks is considered normal, a woman who does the same risks being labeled as “characterless” or a “bevadi” (drunkard). This double standard ensures that women experience higher levels of shame and isolation, and are far less likely to access treatment services, which are themselves institutionally biased and rarely equipped to handle gender-sensitive needs or trauma-informed therapy. Additionally, in households dealing with paternal alcohol use, mothers and wives bear the ultimate burden—managing the household, protecting the children from social scrutiny, and internalizing the immense stigma.
Family Dynamics: Mixed Messages and the Sanctioned Home
The family unit is the primary site of socialization, but when it comes to substance use, the lessons transmitted are rarely straightforward.
A dominant dynamic identified in Dutta’s research is the “Do as I say, not as I do” phenomenon. Children often grow up in households where a highly respected, successful father drinks openly, while the mother explicitly condemns alcohol. This dichotomy creates intense confusion. The child navigates the abstract ‘badness’ of alcohol against the tangible evidence of a respected parent who consumes it, often concluding that the parent’s behavior represents maturity and social success.
Paradoxically, families also facilitate addiction through well-intentioned but flawed harm reduction strategies. Upon discovering a teenager’s substance use, parents frequently adopt the stance: “If you want to drink, drink in the house, but don’t go outside”. Designed to avoid legal or safety issues, this strategy inadvertently transforms the home into a sanctioned space for consumption, removing logistical barriers and normalizing regular use.
Compounding this is the cultural weaponization of silence. The unspoken rule in many families is that substance use is simply not discussed openly out of embarrassment and a desire to protect the family’s reputation. This collective denial isolates the user and ensures that problems intensify, hidden and completely unchallenged.
Peer Echo Chambers and the Shift in “Normal”
Peer influence extends far beyond direct persuasion; it involves subtle, ongoing processes of modeling and perceived expectations, which are highly potent in India’s collectivist culture. A staggering 76% of individuals undergoing treatment reported being introduced to drugs by friends.
Initially, substances function as a social lubricant, facilitating rapport-building. However, participation rapidly shifts from optional to mandatory, with the substance becoming a token of membership. In these environments, non-users are viewed with deep suspicion, and refusal can lead to swift social exclusion.
As an individual’s use escalates and meets disapproval from conventional circles, a dramatic reorganization of social networks occurs. To avoid being nagged or judged, individuals distance themselves from concerned friends and gravitate exclusively toward other substance users. They enter an addict echo chamber. Within this insulated group, destructive behavior is excused, financial strain is shared, and the baseline for “normal” consumption shifts entirely to excessive use. The belief that “everyone does it” solidifies, constructing a massive barrier to recognizing the need for help.
The Illusion of the ‘Functioning Alcoholic’ and the Sudden Stigma
One of the most insidious aspects of how our culture normalizes addiction is the flexible, blurry standard for self-assessment. Because public acceptance is tied to fulfilling professional and social duties, individuals can dramatically increase their consumption while clinging to the culturally invisible label of the “functioning alcoholic”. They measure themselves against external performance benchmarks rather than internal physical symptoms, allowing dependency to take deep root unnoticed for years.
However, cultural acceptance is a revocable contract. The moment a person’s dependency disrupts their social performance or exceeds unspoken limits, a punishing societal re-categorization occurs. The individual is suddenly stripped of the “social drinker” title and slapped with the label of “addict” or “bevda”.
The transition is brutal. Peers who once begged the individual to attend parties and funded their travel just to have them present will abruptly shift to active avoidance, taunting, and gossip. The application of stigma serves as a severe social punishment for violating the terms of normal use.
The Road to Recovery: A Call for Cultural Transformation
Recovery does not happen in a vacuum; it must be navigated within the very society that initially normalized the behavior. Unfortunately, Dutta’s study highlights that while immediate families often become supportive, the broader social and professional world stubbornly clings to stigma.
Individuals in recovery are perpetually viewed through the lens of their past, referred to as “ex-addicts” or “junkies,” which directly hinders their professional reintegration and employment prospects. The overarching stigma forces recovering individuals into deep secrecy out of fear of judgment. Furthermore, well-meaning but uneducated relatives often become dangerous triggers, urging recovering individuals to just have a “small one,” completely failing to understand the permanence of addiction. For the recovering individual, the culturally sanctioned spectrum of use no longer exists; normality is redefined entirely as strict sobriety.
If we are to make meaningful strides in public health and wellness, our cultural systems must fundamentally transform. According to the participants in Dutta’s study, society must evolve from a system that enables use to one that actively champions recovery. This requires:
- Reframing the Narrative: We must launch awareness programs that explicitly educate the public on addiction as a biopsychosocial disease, not a moral failure or character defect.
- Empowering Families: Families need access to comprehensive education to understand the psychological realities of addiction, enabling them to provide supportive, trauma-informed care rather than relying on punishing silence or enabling behaviors.
- Cultivating Social Empathy: We must dismantle the societal habit of “pulling down” recovering individuals, giving them a fair, unjudged chance to rebuild their lives and prove themselves.
- Inclusive Employment Practices: We must advocate for non-discriminatory corporate and professional environments where a history of addiction is not an automatic disqualifier for employment.
At the Tripta Foundation, we are committed to dismantling these barriers. By understanding the profound socio-cultural context of behavior, we can move beyond treating symptoms in isolation and begin healing the systemic frameworks that shape our lives. Addiction is not just a personal battle; it is a collective, social responsibility.
To learn more about our ongoing research, organizational frameworks, and clinical interventions, visit us at www.triptawellness.com.