DRUG ADDICTION – SLAYING THE YOUTH

This new year 2018 news headline “4 students of top Delhi universities arrested for supplying narcotics” (link below) caught my attention.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/4-students-of-top-delhi-universities-arrested-for-supplying-narcotics/521098.html

If you read the complete article, all 4 students are from top Delhi college and in the age group of 21-23 and were top scorers who have later fallen prey to drug addiction. The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) claimed to have seized hashish and Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) from them which cost to around 3 lakhs.

Let the statistics speak for themselves, the population of India has reached over 1.3 billion people and is rising at an incredible pace. Few reports suggest that there are over 3 million drug users however  World Health Organization states that there is difficulty in estimating drug usage due to poor census reporting.

Why Addiction?

Addiction is a syndrome that affects one brain and behavior. Once you are addicted to drugs, you can’t resist the urge to use them, no matter how much harm it may cause.

More Indian youngsters struggle with addiction than ever before. Peer pressure, immaturity, and parenting, all three entice children towards addiction and a life of misery.

A survey suggests that students take drugs to relieve stress, relax, have fun, forget their problems and be part of the group. While most of the female students say since they wanted to keep up with the guys so they start taking drugs.

Impact on Youths

HIV itself is a big issue for drug addicts spoiling their life, HIV positive drug users are often violently attacked, discriminated and rejected by families.

It leads to respiratory disorders, memory impairment, mental disturbance, digestive tract problems, major weight loss and problems with sleep and in extreme cases brain damage too.

Preventing Drug Addiction

A survey report suggests that children as young as a 13-15 experiment with drugs, instead of wondering why our youth are becoming addicts, we should work on how to stop them from becoming addicts.

The famous saying “Prevention is better than cure” needs to be adopted by us. Many NGOs run programs to rehabilitate drug addicts.

In my opinion, there should be more efforts taken to create awareness about drug abuse when our kids are approaching adolescence so that we have zero drug addicts for admission to rehab centers.

Thus promoting more health programs, social interaction, encouraging positive communities for long-term change would help in long run.

Today’s youth culture and social values are changing, I would say they are more dynamic as to what youth was 20-30 decades backs. They may have different reasons to become an addict since it is a transition period to adulthood, with many living independently today. I strongly feel, all we need to do is inculcate awareness so that their decision making becomes rational before they make up their mind on trying their hands on drugs.

Rgds,

NSK