Prime Minister Narendra Modi has put his finger on a serious menace to the youth in India. Illicit drugs not merely ruin their health but also dig deep into their pockets leading them down the slippery path of anti-social activities. What it pernicious is the spread of the evil among school and college students. Drug trafficking is big business. Modi has spoken of the nexus between drug trafficking and terrorism. India’s youth should be aware of the fact that the money some of them spend on drugs eventually finances the bullets that kill the country’s security personnel. The Prime Minister believes that most young Indians love the country and its soldiers. The link between drug barons and terrorists is not new and has led to the origin of the term, narco-terrorism. When the terrorists in the Golden Temple Complex were flushed out, Indian troops also found heaps of drugs which were pumped into them to make them do great damage. Drug terrorism is prevalent not only in this country. Drug cartels, especially in Latin America, have led to orgies of violence.
Modi has asked parents to set goals and targets for their children. He has rightly called drug-addiction a psycho-socio-medical problem and said it needed to be treated like that. Addicts, families, friends, society and government should work together to tackle the problem. A national toll-free helpline has been set up. The police have been asked to give the matter serious attention. Prominent people and the social media should run a movement to stamp out the evil. The sooner it is done, the better.