The scourge of drug abuse and addiction in our land

Khelsoril Wanbe *

An Art work by Phurailatpam Banti on 'Drug Abuse : World AIDS Day 2011'

It's hard to comprehend the magnitude of damage inflicted by drug abuse and addiction on our society. Thousands of young people have fallen prey to the jaws of drug addiction. Thousands are still in bondage, unable to free themselves from the clutch of this evil. Drug addiction seems to have become so alluring and irresistible for countless youth that they are being virtually devoured alive.

Varied and divergent factors must be responsible for the rise in drug addiction and abuse. Attempts to escape from the cruel realities of life like broken family, unemployment, social turmoil; adoption of hedonistic philosophy through peer influence supported ignorantly or helplessly by seemingly indulgent parents are just few of the many likely factors.

Drug addiction is a bondage from which the hooked victims cannot escape without a painfully determined struggle; and what is often witnessed is the eventual escape from this bondage in death, leaving behind painful as well as relieving experience for friends, parents and relatives. Indeed, thousands of precious lives have perished in the merciless jaws of drugs.

But the ugliest part is the damage and disfigurement that drug addiction can inflict upon the social, spiritual and physical life of the victim. Adolescents are the most vulnerable preys. What is generally witnessed and experienced is that the addicted person is dehumanised and brutalised due to gradual alteration and degradation of the mind. The addict becomes desensitised to human pains and sufferings engendering brutal and insensitive behaviour, attitude and outlook. The power of judgement and reasoning too get eroded.

Very often drug victims resort to extortion, kidnapping, gold snatching, burglary, robbery etc when he is no longer able to afford the money to procure the expensive lethal substance. These days we are witnessing the rise in cases of daring daylight burglary, robbery, kidnapping and snatching of jewellery etc. In the past many years many children have lost their lives in attempts to snatch their gold earrings.

What is most worrying is the alarming rise of the number of drug abusers. It has become imperative for the administration, parents, youth, social organisations and everybody to give a serious thought to finding ways to contain this epidemic in our land. There is the need to prevent it from extending its grip into the coming generations.

It will require concerted and well co-ordinated efforts of the government, clubs, NGOs, civil societies, religious bodies, educational institutions in preventing further spread of the epidemic and rehabilitating the thousands that have been hooked to the deadly monster. There often seem to be wrong notions among parents as well as the abusers that drugs do not affect much the study life or the career of youngsters or that they rather help them in their concentration, but the truth and reality is that drugs have debilitating effect on the mental, social, spiritual, reasoning powers of their abusers.

I have personally seen many youngsters whose careers have been ruined by the abuse of drugs. Their lives are slowly but surely led down the road of no return. How many promising friends, brothers and young relatives have we lost? How many thousands have passed away after having fallen prey to this dreadful monster?

It was very unfortunate that during the past two decades or so one of the most deadly diseases of our time, HIV/AIDS got readily and rapidly spread among syringe sharing drug abusers. In the period between the late 80s and early 90s of the previous century, the majority of those syringe sharing drug users got infected by the most dreaded disease. Most of those infected had died few years before the arrival of the highly effective anti-HIV drug, popularly known as ART in our land.

Thousands of women and children were widowed and orphaned. There's nothing exhilarating or rejoicing about the untimely demise of so many of our beloved friends, brothers, sisters and relatives who were swallowed alive, right before our eyes. It's heart rending to remember many of those victims who gradually metamorphosed into living skeletons before they finally succumbed to the disease.

It has become most imperative to do something for the thousands of our youth who have been enslaved to substance dependency. So many of them, who could have been great sportsmen and great leaders, have been virtually turned into walking zombies, completely dehumanised, desensitised, demoralised and debilitated. In this land of acute poverty and unemployment, these hapless victims continue to lead lives devoid of meaning and purpose.

All that always hover in their minds is the money to buy the next dose/shot. We have seen some rehabilitation centres coming up that offer priceless service of trying to bring the victims back to normal lives. But as it appears, there seems to be much more that can be done to bring about far-reaching changes to the drug riddled society.

There is the need to emancipate our land from drugs and other mind altering and life wrecking substances. The so many problems of our society have exerted collective impact on the masses, and many youth have been driven to resort to drugs and other intoxicants.

But regardless of the factors, the existence of widespread and rampant addiction has eaten into the vitals of our society and land. Numberless crimes have been committed and countless deaths have occurred on our roads and in our homes.

We do not know what bigger problems will be generated in the generations to come if we, in this present generation, have not taken some drastic measures- not simply meting out punishments but taking up and launching short as well as long term programs, policies, and measures collectively and concertedly.