I was seventeen. The glass-shards encrusted fence, the tattered back-door of the house that needed nothing more than a nervous push to creak it open, the warm innocuous bed that the housemaid complained of having a “funny smell”, were dim reminiscences of my Harry Houdini like escape. I was more than three hundred meters away from my house, from my ever-nagging mother, from the snide taunts of my father who picked on everything from my Metallica T-shirt to my ever-falling grades, and from I-make-my-papa-proud brother who outshone me in every field my family devoutly revered. No, being able to play Master of Puppets on the guitar was just “cheap roadside antics” that deserved to find itself in the league of snake-charmers. The black sheep of the family was free. I was breathing hard. “Baby boy still not used to the darkness..” “I am a first-timer.” A blow that was very loathingly similar to my father’s came down upon me like a hammer. Drenched in cold sweat, I looked back. “First-timers don’t talk…” And after a few more sermons Arjun finally gave me what I had come for. The needle was thick, slow and painful. “As you have ingested the manna you stand inducted into the League of Lucifers.” I saw Arjun’s face dissolve into the darkness. And also the others’. “Guys…” The League of Lucifers laughed a mirthless laugh.
The unfathomable euphoria, the devilish rush of excitement, mauling the languor in one’s life, is nothing less than sip from the Holy Grail. But it is a sip of not the elixir, however, but of venom, life-quenching venom. As more and more League of Lucifers come into being, the ever present menace of drug-addiction claws deeper into the social fabric. Whether be it a refuge from perennial family interference or desperation to prove oneself among peers, many a future-citizens are getting sucked into the abysmal black hole. Hence a major step has been taken not only by NGOs but also by bodies like WHO to combat this menace, which goes by the name of drug de-addiction.
The complicated problem that drug addiction is, its magnitude is further amplified by the variety of narcotic and pshycotropic drugs in the drug-trade. Gone are the days when one government health official meeting a year would suffice, to curb heroin abuse fuelled by the latest hard rock hit. The problems are at a far greater level than being solvable by a “find them-cure them” model. This has become a war. A war that needs no less than the best employable strategies, to take down the enemy-our own misled self and the society’s “narcoterrorists”.
A basic strategy that is nothing more than the musings of foolhardy planners is to ban the sale of the drugs responsible for the menace, or as they say “rooting it out”. Banning the sale of drug items would contribute as much to drug de-addiction as would outlawing high-rise buildings and the sale of rope to suicide cases. Much of the damage is caused by the immaculate network of drug-dealers, who are much more organized than the law expects them to be. They are the like the little imps in our world who always pass for amateur minds out to make a quick-buck, but each of which nibbles at our society with a unity and planning that has risked the very lives of our youth. It is such meticulous organization that has kept this dirty business thriving.
A very important weapon or rather the base on which other offensives can be planned against this cancer is the law of the land. The very stringent “Narcotic Drugs and Pshycotropic Substances Act 1985” provides for a minimum of 10 years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of one-lakh which can go upto three lacs. Moreover, the courts have been empowered to fine more than that, citing the necessary reasons in their judgements. It was amended in 1988 to impose punishment for financing illicit-traffic. But there has to be a caution on the indiscriminate implementation of the law. The man retailing the drug-material is more than often guided by the Deuce of poverty and need or he himself has come into the fold of the calamity he perpetrates. If such people are spotted, and they usually are, sending them to the gallows to pacify public resentment is like pruning the grass and sparing the roots. A considerable degree of detective intelligence must be employed in the area, to trace the “drug-lords” from the pawns and subject them to the strictest penury.
But this form of de-addiction helps us fight drug-addiction at the macro level. The more intricate problem lies with the victims, and the candidate-victims of this malice. A lot of damage has already been effected calling for a lot of action in the regard. The action is de-addiction for the ones already victimized. An organized layout of de-addiction centres, across the length and breadth of the country can undo the wrought damage. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare strengthened the program laying special emphasis on the North-Eastern states. In addition to the five drug de-addiction centres at New Delhi, Pondicherry, and Chandigarh, a new one was opened at NIMHANS Bangalore. The decision to acquire 10 acres of land at the CGO complex, Ghaziabad to construct a drug de-addiction center is a significant decision. But the government has largely turned a Nelson’s ear to the this problem. There has not been, till date, a single government initiated statistical survey to find out the number of afflicted populace. This speaks volumes of the level of organization of the counter-offensive measures, Much work still remains to be done for the proper training of the workers and officials posted at the already established de-addiction centers-training not only to hone the very instrumental medical skills but also training pertaining to counseling skills. Separate centers must be set-up to encourage the affected person to come for succor because it is not exactly a image-refurbishing act join a drug de-addiction centre, and it takes almost extraordinary courage to do so.
The other aspect of de-addiction is the insulation of the budding generation, to keep them from falling prey to this disease. It does not make sense to open up more de-addiction centers if there is something wrong with the place from where it all starts-the home. Out of kids resorting to drugs, a humungunous number of them know the full consequences of it, but want attention. Nuclear families with both the parents working isolate the child. A child is not an accessory and he won’t unconditionally obey or love his parents. If he is not talked to by his busy-father, if his mother doesn’t come up to him and ask why he looks down on a day, if they don’t remember his birthday and send an expensive present bought by one of their secretaries, he will and shall take refuge with the Devil. There is also the problem of incessant exposure to celebrities who indulge in “cool-activities”. It is not practical to shut a kid up in a dungeon on the pretext of giving him an utopian world. Rather than monitoring the influx of sights and sounds by hiring private detectives or reverting to any such crack-headed methods in the book, its much wiser to tell them that all that Pitt eats need not be edible, and the cool stuff that Cobain does need not wring cool-results.
The last and a very important aspect of the epic war, is tackling ignorance. Narcoterrorists have more purpose than just money to get more League of Lucifers. Poor, uneducated and hence vulnerable kids are used to get “nice-things” from “uncle” and end up being the retailer pawns. The problem of drug-addiction is at large in the have-nots community. The dissemination of basic information about how bad the stuff is, by holding public demonstrations and awareness programmes would strangulate the vile intentions of the merchants of doom.
Drug addiction is a pshyco-socio-medico problem. De-addiction measures must be taken earnestly and effectively to win the war. Let us not have a bunch of nameless NGOs as lone rangers in this battle for a second independence. Though not exactly in its infancy, getting rid of it would look like nibbing a venomous mesmerizing flower in the bud. And considering the nice little bag of problems that India has, it wouldn’t be a bad deal.
