Free essay on Drug Addiction – the growing Malady

India has been called a land of paradoxes. All types of philosophies do not simply find shelter here but many have originated on this soil. If we have great saints, rishis and munis who preached celibacy and all types of restraints and balances in life, we had Charvak too who preached total laxity of sex. His followers got temples erected and influenced old architectures of cave building where naked and semi-naked male and female figures are shown in postures unbecoming of the land whose great men and scriptures propagated ‘Sanyama’ (self-control over sex).

But even Charvak’s famous line is’ Yavat-jeevet sukham jeevet rinum krutva ghrutum pivet’ i.e. “Lead a life of pleasure till you live. Drink ‘ghee’ even if you have to take a loan for it”.

Somehow or the other the words madira pivet’ (/. e., drink wine) did not come to the mind of Charvak. Strikingly enough out of thousands of celibate saints in ancient India Charvak was the only exception preaching ‘Vam marg’. Among the modern thinkers too there was only one Rajneesh Chandra Mohan, who called himself Bhagwan, trying to achieve divinity through sex.

But, for the last few decades after independence this fort of healthy restraints has been attacked by western permissiveness not simply in the form of promiscuity but in drug addiction too.

Strikingly enough seats of learning of the elites-schools, colleges and university campus which are the centers of learning, borrowed from the West, are the biggest centers of drug users too. The West has a total sway over these centers of learning— in knowledge—in permissiveness—in drug addiction. Sex is no bar—the mentor and the pupil share all the three equally. The young teacher may practise a little restraint—the young student doesn’t.

A report showed that Mumbai alone accounts for more than a lakh drug addicts. The first of course is Delhi with at least 25% more than Mumbai while Chennai and Calcutta come next. A decade back there were particular centres for procuring drugs.

People from long distances would go to the Colaba area to fetch drugs. Today they are available in any part of the country. A street pedlar or corner cosmetic dealer at Connaught Place in New Delhi or Anna Salai in Chennai or a Panwala or even a cobbler in Kalbadevi market in Mumbai is a drug supplier.

A deep research in the field is full of risks for private individuals as the trade is backed by mafias and big kingpins living in palacious mansions apparently doing some other business. Thus the research has been always based on the drug addicts who visit hospitals for counter addiction known as drying out. It shows that the number of drug addicts among females is much less than among males. Otherwise no group of people has been spared by this evil.

The people include engineers, doctors, jewelers, taxi and truck drivers, young businessmen, executives, plumbers, carpenters, students, rag pickers and low paid child workers. The age group in which the addiction is most prevalent is 10-25. Matured people are conscious of the effects while the young ones take to it as an experiment. The rich get themselves treated but the poor succumb to it and finally languish and die.

The most common drugs are narcotics which relieve mental and physical pain. The most fetched for in this category is heroin. Then there are depressants known as sedatives and barbiturates which bring peace through sleep and laziness.

Much in demand are the stimulants like cocaine. But the greater demand, specially among elites, is of amphetamines and hallucinogens like LSD, Marijuana and Hashish. These drugs take the addict to a different land. He is away from this material world and swims in an unreal pleasant dreamland.

All the drugs have various harmful effects. But the most pathetic condition is one when a drug addict does not get his dose. There is a withdrawal syndrome (the effects created by withdrawing the drug). It includes vomiting, muscle cramps, convulsions and delirium— sometimes resulting even in death.

A WHO report estimates that there are 50 million drug addicts in the world. 30 million consume marijuana, 8 million cocaine, 1.7 million opium, 700,000 heroin and near about 10 million take cheaper narcotics like brown sugar. Cannabis one of the earliest drugs is now grown and consumed in Latin America, Africa and middle East.

Americans spend 90 billion a year on drugs. It is a great health hazard in the States where alone 4 million people take cocaine, 20 million marijuana and 4,90,000 consume heroin the costliest drug. 36 per cent of the high school students were found using drugs in the USA in 1990. There is a mind boggling amount of illegal production of Cannabis (40,000 tons) and opium (4,500 tons) in the world every year. Drug trafficking is one of the greatest headaches for he different governments and the Interpol.

A despatch from WHO head in Bangladesh Abey Sundere was quoted in Dhaka that there are 7 million drug addicts in Bangladesh even when drug peddling carries penalty of death. Of these 7 million 10,00,000 are heroin addicts mostly in 20-29 age group. Drug control in Bangladesh would cost 1 -7 million dollar under a United Nations master plan.

The most demanded drug in India these days is ‘brown sugar’ a preparation from morphine. In different areas it is sold with different names as smack, horse, junk or snort. It is taken in three forms. It may be rolled in a cigarette, or in an aluminium foil or is dissolved in water, heated and injected in veins or under the skin. A vial of one gram costs Rs. 45 to 50. The cheaper ‘poodis’ are available for Rs. 10 each. It is in demand the most as it diminishes physical and mental pain, produces lethargy, apathy and a numbing of sensibilities.

Addiction to brown sugar becomes established in three or four days only. Once addicted it is very difficult for a person to leave it. The addict is so afraid of the withdrawal syndrome that he does not want to experience it and sticks to addiction.

Looking to this menace the government was awake after a decade in 1985 when the Narcotics Act was amended. The imprisonment for possession of drugs was enhanced from 10 to 20 years and the penalty from Rs. 1 lakh to 2 lakh. The immediate effect of the amendment was that the price for brown sugar was doubled in Delhi and Mumbai markets. It is not the act or amendment to the act that is important. It is the implementation that matters.

All sins under the sun are committed by people in high positions amidst riches with impunity. No law can check them. There have been seizures of drugs. But as a reporter has said it is always a tip of the iceberg.

Mr. Melvyn Levitsky U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for international Narcotics Matters testified that India has nearly seven lakh drug addicts. It is no comfort to us that Pakistan too does not lag behind in number. In Pakistan a promising pilot project has been started. The Asian narcotics map is gradually undergoing a change. India has become a major transit centre for drugs originating from the Golden Crescent.

According to a report the North Eastern States specially Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh have become the biggest transit links from Burma which is the biggest supplier of heroin. Although BSF and the security forces have seized some narcotics (once 4.65 kilogram) the picture is not very bright as some army personnel on both the sides of the border have been a party to drug trafficking.

Let us see what we can do with an aid of 7.5 million provided by United Nations Fund for Drug Abuse Control (UNFDAC) to NCB (Narcotics Control Bureau) in India.

The addiction has created a race of young men and women who want to remain lethargic. The more serious is the problem of increasing crimes due to addiction. When an addict, even belonging to a well-to-do family, does not have resources to buy his increased doses he indulges in chain snatching, pick-pocketing, petty thefts, shop lifting, robberies and even violence and murder.

The crimes of rape and murder done under the influence of drugs gone a helping hand to terrorists in Punjab as anywhere in the world. Mere legislation won’t eradicate this evil. It requires an attempt by voluntary organizations supported by government officials and people of prestige everywhere.

Helping the people to leave addiction requires sustained efforts, and rehabilitating them, after the addiction is left, requires money. It requires a network of trained social workers in every city or the drug addiction would create a greater havoc than it has done in the West as India has become the biggest drug trafficking channel in the world.