Collective efforts needed to keep youngsters off drugs

Representation pic. Pic/iStock

A report in this paper cited senior officials from the Narcotics Control Bureau talking about well-heeled youngsters in the drug trade. Their revelations included accounts of young men, and some women maybe, in their 20s, many of them well-educated, who are into this illicit business. Worryingly, they do so knowing fully well the harm it causes and, besides consuming the substances themselves, have a network for supply.

The big lure is peer pressure, the need to ‘fit into' a particular clique, or at times, officials blamed the OTT platforms, for glorifying a drug lord lifestyle as lures to get into this trade.

It is surely disturbing to think that young persons, educated and rich, have no thought about the implications of the crime and the fact is that it is a crime, they are getting embroiled in. Even if they do know the ramifications, they are either too confident of escaping the police net, or the lure of this is just too strong.

Send the anti-drug message out very strongly. Public service advertisements or documentaries need to focus on the darker side of this trade as several times drug money is used to fund other crimes too.

We have to reinforce the message that there is nothing glamorous about drugs, doing drugs, told to take drugs or getting snared into supplying drugs. The get-rich-quick scheme comes with the shadowy game of hide ‘n' seek from the cops, the constant looking over one's shoulder to escape the dragnet and running away so as not to get caught. A life like this, is no life at all.

Parents, counsellors and institutions need to press the pedal on this, so that lessons begin early in life and are imbibed early. If youngsters are pressured to get into drugs, encourage them to be brave enough to speak out about who is pressing them. Drug, dope, substance abuse not cool, only criminal.