Not a single day passes without drugs being confiscated either from the East Jaintia Hills route or the Guwahati-Shillong route. And each time a drug haul happens the cost attributed to them amounts to crores of rupees. The question is why are the carriers so bold as to risk everything including their lives to carry those drugs knowing fully well that they are not risk proof and could be arrested any time since the intelligence gathering as far as drugs are concerned is much more sophisticated due to technology. The fact is that some manage to get away and earn their way through life. Perhaps the drugs are also destined to be taken further onwards to other states. There is no state or country today that is immune to drug-use. India is facing a huge challenge in countering drug addiction largely among the youth. There is no single method for drug de-addiction that has worked. Every person responds differently but some aspects are common.
In Meghalaya there is still a lot of taboo in how drug-users are viewed. There is need for greater empathy in understanding their situation and what has pushed them to drugs. At last count it is estimated that about 3 lakh youth are drug users. Obviously one government department cannot do much. There’s also need for a concerted effort and the attempt should be to reduce harm among drug users. That involves creating harm reduction centres that include needle exchanges (dumping used needles and being supplied with fresh ones) as has happened in Manipur at least two decades ago, meetings with social workers, psychiatrists and medical doctors. Meghalaya needs more addiction treatment facilities. Society itself must come forward and offer its services instead of judging and condemning drug users. Building a network of social workers to support drug users to reform and come out of their addiction, which is a slow process, is another imperative. While the root causes and consequences of addiction are universally damaging, the approaches to treatment and recovery differ significantly around the world. These differences are shaped by cultural values, social norms, and healthcare systems. What are the tribal cultural values that can wean our youth from their addictive status? Has society tried to explore that?
On the contrary India has adopted the western model where addiction is treated as a medical condition that includes medical detoxification, residential rehabilitation, outpatient counselling, and medication-assisted treatment. But there are alternative methods that are more indigenous such as building social harmony and group cohesion. Treatment often involves family and community support, and there is a strong focus on reintegration into society. Group therapy and community-based programs are imperative with lesser reliance on medication. Meghalaya might like to explore these alternative routes to help recovering addicts. While the cost to the state in providing such resources would be quite high considering that Meghalaya’s internal resource generation is low but adequate attention needs to be paid to this societal scourge before we lose the best brains to drugs.
