Unraveling the importance of early awareness strategy on the dynamics of drug addiction using mathematical modeling approach

A drug is any substance capable of altering the functioning of a person’s body and mind. In this paper, a deterministic nonlinear model was adapted to investigate the behavior of drug abuse and addiction that incorporates intervention in the form of awareness and rehabilitation. In the mathematical analysis part, the positivity and boundedness of the solution and the existence of drug equilibria have been ascertained, which shows that the model consists of two equilibria: a drug-free equilibrium and a drug endemic equilibrium point. The drug-free equilibrium was found to be both globally and locally asymptotically stable if the effective reproduction number is less than or equal to one ( R c ≤ 1). Furthermore, we were able to show the existence of a unique drug endemic equilibrium whenever R c > 1. Global asymptotic stability of a drug endemic equilibrium point has been ascertained using a nonlinear Lyapunov function of Go–Volterra type, which reveals that the drug endemic equilibrium point is globally asymptotically stable if an effective reproduction number is greater than unity and if there is an absence of a reversion rate of mended individuals (i.e., ω = 0). In addition, an optimal control problem was formulated to investigate the optimal strategy for curtailing the spread of the behavior using control variables. The control variables are massive awareness and rehabilitation intervention of both public and secret addicted individuals. The optimal control simulation shows that massive awareness control is the best to control drug addiction in a society. In sensitivity analysis section, the proportion of those who are exposed publicly shows to be a must sensitive parameter that can reduce the reproduction number, and the effective contact rate shows to be a must sensitive parameter to increase the reproduction number. Numerical simulations reveal that the awareness rate of exposed publicly and the rehabilitation rate of addicted publicly are very important parameters to control drug addiction in a society.