Investigating the Causes of Youth Addiction to Drugs: A Case Study of Bamyan Center in 2024

The present study, which was conducted to investigate the causes of youth turning to drugs in the center of Bamyan province, has sub-objectives such as investigating individual, interpersonal-environmental, and social causes. It is applied from an objective perspective, descriptive from the perspective of the method, and interpretive from the perspective of qualitative problem-solving. The data collection method was through semi-structured interviews in which 16 men were interviewed, including 13 people with an addiction, one doctor from the aforementioned hospital, and a psychology professor at Bamyan University who taught the psychology of drug addiction at the university. The findings of this study showed that individual factors such as pride, fatigue relief, curiosity, pleasure, relief of severe physical pain, lack of emotion, pessimism, stress, mental disorders, positive attitude towards drugs, weak religious beliefs and values, lack of sufficient awareness about the harms of drugs, and interpersonal-environmental factors such as the availability of drugs, peers, having bad friends, school, room, and place of residence, inappropriate role models in personal life, falling in love, and leisure time. Social factors such as immigration, arrogant politics, family, addiction of family members, poverty, unemployment, hard work, lack of sports and recreational facilities, lack of service facilities, social disorder and insecurity, and lack of law enforcement played a role in turning young people to drugs. Therefore, based on the study's findings, it is recommended that the authorities take the necessary measures to address these issues.