Editorial: Blundering Through an Involvement Deficit

Two youth were taken into custody in Jorethang earlier this week in possession of Brown Sugar. Chemical dependence is not new to Sikkim and the abuse of prescription drugs so extensive that the State has adopted the Sikkim Anti-Drugs Act to address this peculiarity. SADA was required since the Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substance Act which covers peddling and consumption of substances mentioned in its name did not quite meet the law enforcement requirements of addressing the nature of substance abuse in Sikkim. But then, laws by themselves cannot curb crime or address social challenges. As a result, what Sikkim has now is an Act in SADA with a very handsome conviction rate, but only limited success when it comes to curbing either peddling or addiction. One cannot fault either the government or the police for the situation because addiction [the condition which drives the demand for substances of abuse], more than a law and order situation is a social challenge requiring a social engagement for even the hope of a resolution. That has obviously not happened and now there is increasing evidence that ‘harder drugs’ are winning addicts in Sikkim. One can empathise with the frustration that the cops must obviously suffer when they round up a 21 year old with more than two thousand capsules of Spasmo-Proxyvon and realise that the youth has already served time more than once for peddling. ‘Punishment’, if that is how one sees time served as a convict, is obviously not reforming too many. A similar frustration must hit police personnel every time they respond to calls reporting yet another suicide and bring down dead bodies of lives that could have been saved. And they return to this thankless task every day, reporting to their beats knowing that their policing from the day before has made no dent in the nexus of disinterest that spawns substance abuse and suicides in Sikkim. Both issues require a social response, but Sikkim has still not firmed up the societal backbone strong enough to take the load, and hence the problem continues to be unburdened [in news-reports and occasional editorials like this one] unresolved. These are social challenges; situations that need to be met with social engagement supported by a political will which creates the enabling laws and environment to redress the situation. The sequence has been different in Sikkim with the expression of political will and enabling laws [at least for addition in the form of the Sikkim Anti-Drugs Act] coming before the social engagement which continues to remain awaited. And surfacing in this unwholesome scenario from time to time are those who pass superficial judgements blaming these on politics and not the society - causing perhaps even more harm than the indifference with which the community is responding to the challenges. Among all the factors that sustain substance abuse, societal indifference contributes the most and when it comes to suicides, these manifest in Sikkim in the absence of adequate awareness, or even interest, in mental health. Economic destitution has not claimed lives here yet. Lives are being lost and put in harm’s way because a civil society refuses to come together in Sikkim.