Department of Social Development, Republic of South Africa Country Resources Substance Abuse Strategies and Plans South Africa 2013 Policy document

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The harmful use of alcohol and drugs exposes non-users to injury and death due to people driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs and through being victims of violent crime. Socially, the families of addicts are placed under significant financial pressures due to the costs associated with theft from the family, legal fees for users and the high costs of treatment. The emotional and psychological impacts on families and the high levels of crime and other social ills have left many communities under siege by the scale of alcohol and drug abuse.

The revised National Drug Master Plan 2013 – 2017 and the work done by the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Alcohol and Substance Abuse seek to address these challenges. The Inter-Ministerial Committee has worked on policies, laws and strategies that seek to reduce the supply and demand for alcohol and illicit drugs. Extensive work is also being done to improve treatment for addicts and other harm reduction modalities The National Drug Master Plan complements the work of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Alcohol and Drug Abuse by guiding and monitoring the actions of the government departments to reduce the demand for and supply of drugs and the harm associated with their use and abuse...

The plan is intended to help realise the vision of a society free of substance abuse so that more attention can be focused on raising the quality of life of the poor and vulnerable and of developing the people to achieve their true potential. In comparison with the National Drug Master Plan 2006 – 2011, the revised plan focuses more on the delivery of evidence based strategies that are designed to meet the defined needs of communities. It also strengthens prevention which is the most important leg of this programme.

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