Pubdate: Sat, 25 Jun 2005
Source: Kathmandu Post, The (Nepal)
Copyright: 2005 Kathmandu Post
Contact: http://www.nepalnews.com/feedback.html
Website: http://www.kathmandupost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/222
Author: Sneha Moktan
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

INTERNATIONAL ANTI-DRUG DAY

- - Drug Addiction, Curable & Preventable, But Not Without Support

Clean-shaven, well dressed, good looking and a perfect gentleman to the 
casual eye. Then the very same person undergoes a sudden transformation; 
the eyes get a glazed look, the handsome face gets contorted as a sudden 
hunger takes over. Doesn't it sound like a typical Dr Jeckyll aE" Mr Hyde 
syndrome? Well, this is how a person gets converted when his body craves 
for the slow poison aE" drug.

The world over, Anti-Drugs Day will be celebrated today. Nepal too is 
facing a period where it is losing hundreds of its youth to the jaws of 
this lethal addiction. What is it that drives these promising young people 
to take the first sniff? What is it that keeps them coming back for more? 
What is it that people need to be oblivious about by taking drugs?

Shridhar Sharma, councilor at Aasra drug rehabilitation center and a 
rehabilitated addict himself, points out four crucial factors that induce 
one to take drugs, "The need for false bravado and courage, lack of 
parental care, peer pressure and a desire to display heroism". Among all 
the aforementioned factors lack of parental care seems to be the one main 
cause that results in people seeking satisfaction in drugs.

Ritesh, a young boy of 23 years, says that it was his alienation from his 
parents and the subsequent dependence on 'friends' and seniors in school 
that introduced him to the intoxicating world of drugs. It was a rare 
self-realization that made him come to the rehab center. Min, another young 
inhabitant of Aasra, too attributes his crossover to drugs to the influence 
of friends in the hostel and the apparent nonchalance of his parents. What 
is surprising is the fact that Min says his mother knew about his 'gaanja' 
addiction for quite sometime. But she did not take any real action until a 
few years later.

Arjun professes that it was the so-called 'cool' aura in movies that 
gangsters always had around them that made him turn to drugs. He too wanted 
to wear that cloak of excitement. Ultimately, it was his drug induced 
friend's death that made him realize the gravity of the situation and he 
admitted himself in the rehabilitation center.

Gagan is only 24 years of age but he's already been in and out of rehab 
twice. He jokingly asserts that he had a drinking problem from the very 
beginning since it kind of "runs in the family". He met a girl and could 
not possibly approach her with his stinking breath. This is where brown 
sugar came into the picture. "Brown sugar and tablets cleared my alcohol 
smelling breath and even gave me the confidence to talk to the girl," he 
recounts. Sadly but predictably, it became an addiction. Talking about his 
second venture into drugs even after a term of rehabilitation he says, 
"After you are clean you start avoiding your old friends who were into 
drugs and then the new ones don't want to talk to you, even relatives start 
avoiding you." Then depression settles in and like Gagan said "an empty 
mind is the devil's workshop". Drugs seem like the only ally in the 
otherwise alienated world.

Kamal is a 52-year-old, very jolly-hearted man. At an age where most drug 
addicts have already been cured or if not, then, met with a worse fate, 
this man jovially says, "I have been on drugs for the past 30 years, 
controlled drugs. It was only in the last two years that things got out of 
hand." This man was the principal of a school. He would take drugs every 
evening. After retirement he grew restless and drugs seemed like the only 
way out. He says his wife and daughter tricked him into coming to the rehab 
center but now that he's here he is glad they did.

They have been in rehab for a period of 2-4 months. Some stay for longer. 
They are there because they made a mistake and they know they made a 
mistake. They will be back in society soon: a normal person like you and 
me. Don't treat them like outcasts; don't drive them back to the devils 
they've escaped from. If you know someone who needs help, get help for him 
or her. Above all remember "Prevention is better than cure". Be the parent 
who understands his/her child, be the friend who leads one to the right 
path, be the sympathetic shoulder. And to those who even contemplate 
getting "high" on the treacherous 'joy-ride' listen to what Gagan had to 
say, "Ek chhin ko sukha, jindagi bhari ko dukkha." A moment's pleasure, a 
lifetime of pain.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom