Updated 23 October 2026
The reasons someone starts using a drug are not necessarily the reasons they continue. That distinction is central to understanding Seychelles’ drug crisis. Availability makes use possible, personal and social circumstances influence whether it begins, and repeated opioid use can develop into dependence that helps sustain further use. Explaining the crisis means following those links—not choosing one explanation for everyone.
This is a causal starting point, not a claim that every link has been measured in Seychelles. The UNODC–WHO prevention standards (2018) distinguish preventing initiation from preventing progression to harmful use or dependence. WHO’s account of opioid dependence (29 August 2025) explains how repeated use can change the ability to control it. The important local question is which circumstances are driving each transition, for whom.
1. Availability does not explain who starts—or why
There is direct evidence that some young people in Seychelles encounter drugs before adulthood. The WHO-published Seychelles school-survey fact sheet labelled 2025 estimates lifetime cannabis use at 9.4% and lifetime non-medical amphetamine or methamphetamine use at 3.0% among students in the covered grades, typically aged 13–17. These are weighted survey estimates, not counts of people with dependence.
The fact sheet reports 1,575 participants and an overall response rate of 60.7%. It does not give fieldwork dates, and its “2025” label should not be treated as a verified collection date. It also does not measure heroin use or opioid dependence. It cannot explain why respondents started, establish a cannabis-to-heroin pathway, or describe young people outside school.
That leaves a crucial gap between observing use and explaining it. If drugs are accessible, why does one person not use them, another experiment without developing dependence, and another experience persistent harmful use? Access alone cannot answer those questions.
The 2018 UNODC–WHO standards identify interacting vulnerabilities, including mental-health and behavioural difficulties, some personality traits, family neglect or abuse, and weak connections with school or community. Supportive relationships and emotional well-being can be protective. These are findings from international prevention research—not a ranking of the causes of drug use in Seychelles, and not predictions about any individual.
Poverty is therefore a hypothesis to investigate, not a sufficient national explanation. The evidence cited here does not establish how much it contributes to initiation in Seychelles, or whether hardship preceded or followed problematic use in particular lives. Likewise, the possibility of income from illicit sales does not, by itself, explain why a buyer begins using. Questions about incentives to supply and reasons to use require different evidence.
2. Dependence can keep use going after the original motive changes
For opioids such as heroin, there is a well-established mechanism that helps explain persistence. WHO describes dependence as impaired regulation arising from repeated or continuous use: a strong internal drive to use, reduced control, increasing priority given to the drug, and continued use despite negative consequences. Tolerance and withdrawal may also develop.
WHO notes that opioids can produce euphoria. But once dependence develops, further use may also prevent or relieve withdrawal. Continuing can therefore be partly about avoiding an unpleasant state, rather than simply repeating the original experience. That is why “why did you start?” and “what makes stopping difficult now?” are different questions.
This does not mean every person who uses heroin develops dependence, or that recovery is impossible. WHO identifies effective treatment options. It means that an explanation based only on the initial decision to use misses a mechanism that can subsequently sustain use.
The surrounding social response also deserves careful investigation. In a 2024 University of Malta doctoral study on Seychelles, Georges Marc Nicette examined media material and interviews with six former problematic heroin users and seven expert or other stakeholder participants. The study identified stigmatising and moralising representations of people who use heroin. Its small, qualitative sample cannot establish how often stigma prevents treatment, or prove that it caused the national crisis. It does show why people’s experiences should be heard rather than replaced with assumptions about their character or motivation.
The core problem is thus a process that can reproduce harmful use: exposure and differing vulnerabilities can lead to initiation; repeated opioid use can produce dependence; and dependence can then become a reason for continued use. What makes those transitions more likely in Seychelles—and what makes sustained recovery harder—must be established locally. The clinical mechanism is well supported. A single national explanation based on poverty, profits or one personal story is not established by the evidence presented here.
A sharper drug-policy debate would ask which preventable pathways matter for which people. That is a more honest starting point than treating the visible consequences of the crisis as proof of its causes.
Sources
- UNODC and WHO, International Standards on Drug Use Prevention, second updated edition, 2018 — international evidence on initiation, progression, and risk and protective factors.
- WHO, 2025 GSHS Fact Sheet Seychelles — official fact sheet labelled 2025; fieldwork dates are not stated in the sheet. School-based self-report data, not an opioid-dependence survey.
- WHO, Opioid overdose, 29 August 2025 — clinical explanation of opioid dependence and evidence-based treatment.
- Georges Marc Nicette, Investigating discourses on heroin use and users in a small island developing state (SIDS): the case of Seychelles, doctoral dissertation, University of Malta, 2024 — local qualitative research on representations and lived experience, not a representative causal study.