Not in my Ezo

The FINANCIAL — Everyone knows that Georgians are very hospitable, treating their guests as gifts from god. 

Does this Georgian hospitality stop at hosting guests, or does it extend to hosting recovering addicts in their neighborhoods?

If you read this column regularly, you may remember that most Georgians do realize the importance of providing care and acceptance to those with a drug dependency.   But while Georgians understand these individuals need to be involved in the community to recover, they are hesitant to sacrifice their own perceived safety and comfort to help.

This survey, conducted by Georgian Opinion Research Business International for the EU and the Georgian Ministry of Justice, surveyed 3000 Georgians.  Respondents were asked about their attitudes toward crime, punishment, drug dependence, and whether they had been the victim of a crime.  Generally speaking, the data show that a vast majority of Georgians (77%) agree that drug dependence is a chronic illness, and far fewer (22%) believe that its victims are inherently bad people.

When asked to identify reasons for drug dependence, Georgians were most likely to choose idleness, unemployment, hopelessness, or “the tensed rhythm of life”; most do not believe it to be some personal wickedness.  Taking all these responses together, it would seem that most Georgians think that being more tolerant and sympathetic to people with drug problems is the right thing to do. However, there is an internal conflict in the minds of our respondents, yet another in a long list of collective action problems.

NIMBY — A majority of Georgians (70%) think that society needs to adopt a far more tolerant attitude toward people with a history of drug dependence, and 67% believe that it’s important that recovering addicts be a part of normal society.  With all this compassionate opinionating, only 27% are willing to develop a friendship with someone who has a history of drug dependence, 28% are willing to have a recovering coworker, and 30% are willing to live near to one.

There is a common contradiction in the public’s mind between sympathy for those in need and the willingness to help at personal cost. More commonly known as NIMBY (“not in my backyard”), this phenomenon can occur whenever there is a perceived personal cost to contributing to the greater good. It appears that even though, generally speaking, most Georgians empathized with this problem and were accepting and understanding, their attitudes changed as soon as these issues became too close to their own personal space and lives.

Exposure Therapy — As you might expect, having had exposure to someone with drug problems influences your willingness to open your “back yard” to them.  While less than a third of the general public are willing to live near, live with, or work with someone with a history of drug dependence, this willingness is higher among those who have had direct contact with drug addiction.  

Respondents were asked about their experience with housemates, close friends, coworkers, and neighbors who had or have drug problems. The bulk of respondents (85%) answered either “don’t know” or refused to answer, which we will treat as having had no exposure even with the likelihood that some simply did not want to identify someone who has had drug problems. 

Those that admitted to having had contact with someone with a history of drug dependence were more willing to have future contact, but it seems to vary by the respondent’s proximity to the person; the closer the drug addict was/is to the respondent, the more willing they are to deal with other addicts. Those who have had a close friend or housemate affected by addiction were much more willing to interact with other addicts.  Those who had a coworker or neighbor with drug dependence were more willing than those with no exposure, but not by a great amount. 

As compassionate as Georgians appear, they are susceptible to the same collective action problems as the rest of the world… but these data suggest a possible solution.  We’ve seen that people’s experiences, such as having had closer contact with a person with drug addiction, affect their willingness to interact with those who need it. Creating a more open dialogue between those with and without experience with drug dependence may help some to be more tolerant, and others to feel the acceptance and support necessary for recovery.

Analyses of polls like this have a margin of error that is normally between 2% and 5% with a 95% confidence interval.