For the last several years, increasing cases of substance abuse among youth has been a major cause of concern. Youngsters often fail to cope with family and personal problems and resort to drugs. Therefore, parents need to keep a watch on the behaviour of their children. It becomes increasingly difficult to bring a youth back on track once he falls victim to drug addiction. Proper counselling can help the victims to a great extent in the initial stages. With United Nations observing International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking to create awareness on this global menace, Orissa POST spoke to some city youth who have been on a mission to prevent youngsters from falling prey to substance abuse.
Lalatendu Bhoi is a well-known social activist who helps people with drug addiction. However, he believes that prevention is always better than cure. “It becomes difficult to quit the habit once a person is addicted. Therefore, it is best to stay away from all kinds of such intoxicants. Drug addiction is not just taking heroin or cocaine, using materials like tobacco products also belong to this category. The habit can start from a young age and parents are partly responsible for it. Children have the tendency to follow their elders. It is very important that we should not allow anyone in the family to smoke and chew tobacco products. Seeing an elder take gutkha at home, for example, can make a child a habitual substance abuser in future,” said Lalatendu.
Rudraditya Panda of Bhubaneswar is of the view that youth these days become victims of drug abuse mostly due to peer pressure. It begins as an attempt to become an active member of a group and then results in addiction, he said.
“Youth are attracted to cigarettes and alcohol as many of them consider the use of such substances as a sign of smartness. Sometimes, they pick up the habit from home if a family member has such an addiction. Therefore, it is the responsibility of parents to put a complete ban on materials such as paan, bidi, cigarette, gutkha, alcohol and other intoxicants. They should also inform their kids about the ill-effects of such habit.”
Rojalin Prushty, a student who works with a group combating drug abuse in Bhubaneswar, said, “It’s the parents who can inculcate strong moral values in their children because they are the most important persons when the kids grow up. Adolescence is the time when young kids want to experiment with new things. Besides, youth often become vulnerable to substance abuse when they go to college or spend more time with friends. Someone who is already addicted to drugs can force first timers to taste once and explain how he feels. A habit that starts as an experiment becomes an addiction at a later stage.”
Psychologist Dr. Amrit Patjoshi said, “I have seen many cases where people get addicted to drugs and find it difficult to quit the habit. Sometimes people tend to take drugs to solve their problems when they are depressed or suffer from anxiety and other mental disorders. But, in the long run, it becomes more of a need than a problem solver. There are other causes also. Youth that come from broken families also resort to drugs when they cannot cope with their problems.”
Talking about solutions to the drug abuse menace, the doctor said practicing meditation, yoga and pranayam from an early age can help to a large extent to combat the problem.
BRATATI BARAL, OP