“I turned to cocaine, marijuana and alcohol under the false pretext that it will allow me to escape my problems. It just made things worse. I had everything, a good job, money, a loving family, yet I felt so empty inside.”-Manoj Bhatia, a drug addict from Delhi laments.
Flashback to year 1992, school life for children those days would be filled with crazy friends, duck tales, hormonal roller-coaster ride, first crush, sickening drama and of course having to deal with all of it. During those years getting a new video game or acting cool by smoking fake candy cigarettes made you a trendy child.
Fast-forward to June 26 2014, World Drug Day. It is the 21st century and changes have been inevitable. It is all about experimenting. Smoking, drugs, drinking i.e. ‘fagging’, ‘doping’ and ‘boozing’ are the in trend things today. These were considered to be taboo at a certain time but not anymore. In fact if you have not tried any of these you are not a part of the big run.
Children, today, have to try everything. It has become a compulsion for every child to catch up with the trends, the trends being drinking and taking drugs. Today we won’t be surprised to see a 14 year old child injecting ecstasy. In India alone the number of drug addicts has been on a tremendous rise. Today 7.5 crore Indians are addicted to drugs.
Drug addiction, today, in India is spreading like a wild fire among all sections of the society and children are the most vulnerable among them. According to a nationwide survey by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, 32.1% of children below the age of 18 in India have tasted alcohol, bhang, ganja, heroin and other forms of narcotics. It also reveals that 70.3% of those kids have been first exposed to one or the other form of drugs by their friends and relatives, 11.7% by their parents. According to other recent data, among those involved in drug and substance abuse in India, 13.1% are below 20 years. A survey reveals that of the children who came for treatment to various NGOs, 63.6% were introduced to drugs at a young age below 15 years.
Overall, 0.4% and 4.6% of total treatment seekers in various states were children. Heroin, opium, alcohol, cannabis and propoxyphene are the five most common drugs being abused by children in India.
20 million children in the world are estimated to be getting addicted to smoking every year and nearly 55,000 children are becoming smokers every day in comparison to 3,000 in the US. Recent available data point out that among the alcohol, cannabis and opium users about 21%, 03% and 0.1%, respectively were below 18 years.
Trying out new things is not bad but where should one draw the line? The situation today in India is getting worse day by day with children getting introduced to the new so called ‘trends’. Stories of enjoyment turning to mishaps are all over the place and the worst part is that they are still not enough to convince the people against going overboard and taking it slow. Very few manage to keep their heads on their shoulders; most dive head first in turbulent waters. Some gasp and fight back and come out safe and evolved; others sink in deep.
