Be smart, don’t start: A drug awareness initiative

SHILLONG: “Be smart, don’t start”, a drug awareness campaign was held at Assam Club, Laban on Saturday initiated by local youth Danny Langstieh in collaboration with Manbha Foundation, Dorbar Shnong of Laban Dorbar Shnong, Seng Teilang Kynthei Laban and Seng Samla Laban.
The resource person for the session was Dr. Rica Lamar assisted by Neil Khongwir of Manbha Foundation.
Lamar spoke about various cases of substance abuse in the society especially among school children who eventually get embroiled in drug network as they are easy targets.
She added people who sell drugs create a network and mainly target students in order to make them addicted to drugs.
“Initially, the drugs are given to the students for free and as they gradually get addicted to it, they start buying it. In fact, the students also become a part of their network and start dealing in drugs eventually. People can become addicted to drugs because of various reasons. The most common are out of peer pressure, to de-stress, style and fashion and family issues,” she said.
Lamar pointed out that drug abuse is a disease and users should be made to understand that there is a way to come out of it.
She informed that drugs are easily available nowadays as India is a transit country because it is placed between the Golden Triangle consisting Burma, Thailand and Cambodia.
“All that these people need is a helping hand and therefore we should provide encouragement as well as support to these people to come back to their normal lives and lead a healthy life,” she said.