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Chapter 20 - Addictive Behaviors and Public Health

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2025

By
G. Hussein Rassool
Edited by
Basil H. Aboul-Enein ,
G. Hussein Rassool ,
Nada Benajiba ,
Joshua Bernstein  and
MoezAlIslam E. Faris
Basil H. Aboul-Enein
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
G. Hussein Rassool
Affiliation:
Charles Sturt University
Nada Benajiba
Affiliation:
Ibn Tofail University
Joshua Bernstein
Affiliation:
A. T. Still University of Health Sciences
MoezAlIslam E. Faris
Affiliation:
Applied Science Private University
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Summary

The use of psychoactive substances (legal, illegal, or prescribed) continues to be a major public health problem. The prevalence of alcohol and drug use/abuse among Muslims is extremely difficult to determine as it relies upon self-reporting and is a stigmatized behavior. While alcohol and drug consumption are ostensibly forbidden in Islam, some Muslims drink alcohol and take psychoactive substances. Islam takes a strong prohibitive stance and forbids all intoxicants (alcohol, drugs, and tobacco), regardless of the quantity or kind, because any substance that harms the body is prohibited. Islam established a zero-tolerance policy towards addictions. The public health approach in the response to addiction began in the seventh century during the first Islamic caliphate and is based on an abstinence model. In contrast to the abstinence model, due to the increased use of drugs and injecting behavior (and the control of HIV), harm reduction approaches have been adopted by few in the Islamic world.

Keywords

MuslimIslamalcoholdrugabstinenceharm reduction
Type
Chapter
Information
Contemporary Islamic Perspectives in Public Health , pp. 124 - 129
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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