NEW DELHI: Painting a grim picture of the drug and HIV-affected North East, Rajya Sabha member from Meghalaya, Wansuk Syiem, on Wednesday urged the government to mount an awareness campaign on the lines of NACO to contain drug abuse in the region and rest of the country.
The plea of Syiem in a special mention assumes significance as Shillong is afflicted with the scourge of drug abuse which prompted even the High Court of Meghalaya to intervene.
According to Syiem, the Centre should also accelerate the implementation of National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction in the region because of the urgency of the situation.
“The debilitating effect of drugs makes students both physical and mental wrecks at the young age when they should be seriously studying to build a better future,” she said.
For fear of social ostracism, the youths suffer silently and shun approaching government hospitals or counselling clinics run by NGOs, the Rajya Sabha member said. But the clergy in the local churches also pitch in to offer spiritual and divine sermons to the victims, she added.
“Hailing from the North East, I am aware of the extent and gravity of the situation in which persons and, of late, the student community, are misusing psychotropic substances,” Syiem said.
Living close to international borders, the youth in the region, including students, have easy access to sedatives and inhalants pushed by the drug mafia, she said.
At the impressionable age, they are hooked onto cannabis and other substances, Wansuk said. This menace earlier confined to affluent sections of the society has now percolated to communities from the lower social rungs and the economically weaker sections, she said.
It is an irony that fancy for drugs is accentuated by many social factors — affluence, misplaced sense of machismo and desperation of sorts, the MP said. Mobile phones, internet and other digital apps provide fertile ground for audio-visuals that feed on the lust for drugs and adolescent sex, she added.
Student communities in urban areas develop this craze at a very impressionable age and live a lavish life beyond their own resources incurring debt, Syiem said.
Drug trafficking remains an issue of contention between India and neighbouring Myanmar which share a 1643-km long border.
