Drug Abuse In Dante's Inferno

The use of drugs is becoming increasingly popularized in today’s culture, which is leading to a rise in drug abusers. Drug abuse is the regular, and oftentimes aggressive, use of illegal substances. This is highly immoral, mainly since it is illegal, but also because of the harm it can inflict on one’s body. The paradigm of Hell in Dante’s Inferno categorizes offenses as incontinent, violent, or fraudulent. If drug abuse were to be a ring in Inferno, it would be placed in the ring of incontinence for its crime against orthopraxy.
Drug abuse encompasses anything from habitual intakes to a lethal consumption of drugs. These substances cause a lot of damage to the body, both physically and mentally. Usually, drugs are used as a way to relieve oneself

(13.103-6)

This passage reveals that the Suicides do not deserve to keep their physical bodies in the afterlife if they purposely got rid of it as they were living. Likewise, if the drug users wanted to get rid of their sensibility, they do not deserve to keep it in Hell. A modern-day counter-punishment for the offense of drug abuse would be serving jail time. This is apt because they obtained and used unlawful substances.
Dante creates a fascinating hierarchy of sins in Inferno, ranging from incontinence to violence to fraud and to treachery. If drug abuse was inserted as a new ring, it would be placed among other incontinent evils because of their commonly shared qualities of minimal self-control and anti-orthopraxy used to legitimize orthodoxy. Irony is a strong factor in determining punishments for the crimes found in Hell, and in the case of the drug abusers, a loss of physical senses is fitting as it distorts the original goals of these sinners. Drug abuse is most certainly not a delicate issue, and it would not be treated as such in the