YOUTH AND DRUG ABUSE

It’s not Pakistan nor is it China. India’s deadliest enemy is not across its borders but within it. It is the menace called “drug abuse”.

Youth often associate addiction with movie images, or people they’ve seen at the complete lowest, defeat point of their addiction. Many have ideas about what an addict looks like: desperate, homeless, suicides, criminal. Keeping this idea in mind, it is really difficult for everyone to understand the problem caused by drug or alcohol.

Drug abuse has whopping $550 billion turnover the world over and is the third largest business, albeit illegal in the world. Over 190 million people in the world are addicted to some drug or the other like cannabis, heroin, marijuana, hashish, LSD and many other party drugs.

Every day we hear news of some rave party or the other going on in hotels and resorts and young people in hundreds being rounded up. Crimes as a result of drugs abuse are also on the rise, for drug addicts report to thefts, snatchings and looting to pay of drugs.

Rising pressures and stress in life, falling values and disintegration of family structure and support system, nexus between police and drug traffickers and terrorist organizations are the major causes of rising drug abuse among youths. That’s very serious indeed.

Although there is a patent law in the form of NDPS Act of 1985, but more than the law it is awareness and education that common help check this evil from spreading its tentacles. Youth themselves must be strong enough to resist the temptation of trying drugs, because once they are trapped, it is difficult to break the vicious circle.

If you or your beloved one has been abusing drugs or alcohol, there is no need to wait until you are completely positive there is an addiction present to seek help or to stop using.

Healing programs for youth offer the chance for youth to identify with others who have same experiences and stories. And heartiest gratitude to these programs, many young people who have not crossed the line into addiction have ceased using and found happier, more fulfilling lives without experiencing the seriousness of long-term addiction.