Letter:
This is with reference to the recent article “Invite Counsellors to Nuance Sikkim’s Anti Drugs Campaign” [editorial featured on 18 June 2012]. Being no novice and convalescing from drug abuse myself, I would like to throw some light on this burning issue. The challenges posed by mushrooming numbers of deaths and the profound sorrow which the victim’s family has to bear is insurmountable. Once infested by this devastating disease, one can do little and at the time of saturation, the affected individual slips into self pity, bipolar complications and develops antisocial personality disorder. Dearth of spirituality and social consolidation and ambivalent to normal life, they find themselves aloof from daily activities other than consuming drugs, and in stark contrast, the society assumes them as adamant and recluse. These are the key moments where counselling works – “vice -versa, user and the non-user” by counselling both it is possible to provide mental asylum and instil certainties, opportunities and education to the users because majority of them are school drop-outs in their mid to late teens.
Out of five core causative factors for starting drug abuse four of them is purely psychological, the factors are:
1. Peer pressure, lack of family/social support
2. Parental or sibling drug abuse or severe parental dysfunction
3. Curiosity, pleasure seeking or lack of satisfaction in life period such as adolescence, times of isolation or grief.
4. Easy availability of money and easy access to drugs, and
5. Psychological, emotional escape from difficult situations.
Consciously speaking, addiction is a relapsable disease and even science bears testimony to this, but, seldom we in Sikkim, especially non-users accept this fact. Addicts live on the verge of emotional upheaval; stigmatizing, loathing, out-classing end in bad books against them and is not the remedy in fact it reduces their self confidence. Users belonging to low income families are more likely to bear the brunt because even in post addiction life they cannot envisage a prosperous future.
The level of awareness is very dismal in Sikkim and startling to learn that all the prayers and endeavors to make life better of prevailing users are falling into deaf ears. Repressive scheme to constrict the menace of drug usage will not bear any fruit unless we accept them as who as they are and display compassion. It is learnt that under the jurisdiction of Sikkim Anti-Drugs Act, users are illegible for any Govt Service, meaning all the resources and energy spent on apprehending them ends in smoke. Out of sheer agony they either commit suicide or get infected with H.I.V. following continuous usage.
Former President of USA Richard Nixon, in 1971 intended to discourage the production, distribution and consumption of illegal psychoactive drugs by declaring "Global war on Drugs" with military aid and military intervention. But in June 2011, The Global Commission on Drug Policy declared Global war on Drugs a failure with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world. Let us plant optimism and juxtapose between repressive and non- repressive method, and accept them as who they are, with circumspection and humble appeal to the citizens of : Democratic, Sovereign, Secular, Republic of India.
With inputs from Prashant (freelance counselor) and on behalf of those lost voice, who already succumbed.
Karma Bhutia
i think it is political correctness gone too far to call drug abuse a disease.
ReplyDeletecalling a drug abuser a victim of a disease throws accountability out of the window.
a person born with a degenerative disorder or some systemic ailment has no choice over it. accidents happen because people are in the wrong place at the wrong time.
one the other hand, someone who CHOOSES to abuse drugs, is well, making a choice.
it may not be a good choice, or an informed choice. but choice it is. because under normal circumstances no one can force you to become a drug addict. sometimes the case is made out that a person has an addictive personality. like perhaps someone has a murderous disposition, or a disposition to lie or steal. one day someone may even isolate a gene that supposedly heightens ones proclivity to commit a particular crime.
there is already talk of the evil gene, the psychopathology of crime, of looking at crime as a clinical disorder.
however in the real world, the reality outside the insular world of academia, criminal lawyers and now NGO types- people are accountable for their actions.
that is how the world functions and society maintains its semblance of order
of course society should apportion someone of its resources to mitigate the effects of this malaise.
however that does not mean getting into semantics to couch what is essentially a problem resulting out of all the wrong choices that some individuals make in their lives.
Is drug addiction a disease or a menace!!! why should a drug addict be allowed to join govt service!!
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