Editorial: Still Stoned

A college student was taken into custody in Namchi on Monday evening. After commonly abused subscription drugs were found in his car, his rented apartment was raided and a much larger consignment of contraband uncovered. Apart from being booked under the Sikkim Anti-Drugs Act, the 23 year old, IIIrd semester student is also facing charges under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. These are strong laws, career-ending cul-de-sacs in fact. Go through any of the many news-reports on ‘drug busts’ around the State, and one will notice that the number of repeat offenders is very high. A noticeably disturbing trend of late has been the increasing number of very young finding themselves on the wrong end of the law [when it comes to ‘drugs’] because of their chemical dependence and the need to finance it. It can be safely vouched that many of the young SAD Act or NDPS Act offenders become addicts first and then graduate to become peddlers or mules for peddlers. The youth picked up in Namchi on Monday was old enough to be be expected to decide things better for himself, but was only starting out in life. A conviction under the charges he has been booked under will land him a jail sentence, and it is common knowledge that things go downhill from thereon. The gloom of his future is highlighted here as an example of the inevitability that awaits many young people in Sikkim because the society at large and its representative organisations are failing miserably in keeping them safe from addiction.
There are many who believe that SADA and NDPS are extreme in their severity and inhuman in their failure to differentiate between an addict [who is a victim] and peddler. They are right to some extent, but what cannot be ignored either is the situation which led to the drafting of the Sikkim Anti-Drugs Act in the first place. Till this Act came into force, the peddling of common substances of abuse in Sikkim, even though they were claiming lives, because they were dealing in prescription drugs and not hardcore psychotropic substances, got away, even when caught with huge consignments, got away without even a slap on their wrists. This newspaper had lobbied consistently for an anti-drugs law specific to the Sikkim situation and welcomed the enactment of SADA when it finally came about. What the recent episode from Namchi and the many which have been reported before that, however, prove is that the social support required to combat addiction with any chances of success, has not come about. What Sikkim is thus left staring at is a situation where there are strong laws to punish both peddling and addiction, but no social net to help its young Say No. Anti-drugs awareness is almost exclusively attempted by rehabilitation centres [of which Sikkim does not have enough], and they already have their plates full helping the already addicted quit their habits and stay clean. Their assistance is definitely required, but what the State desperately needs is for its associations and groups to address the problem of substance abuse earnestly and effectively and help the young keep away, because once they acquire chemical dependence, the vortex will pull them in and snuff out potential which the society at large has a responsibility to groom and nurture.