SHILLONG: Drug abuse by children below the age of 12 and their rampant exploitation as carriers have become a cause for concern.
This was said by the president of Meghalaya Drug Users Association and counsellor of Manbha Foundation, Neil Khongwir, on the sidelines of a programme.
“Unlike before, now drugs are becoming more and more easily available and the amount of supply coming in compared to five years ago is really vast. Almost every locality here in Shillong has got 2-3 drugs peddlers, they even peddle in schools etc,” he said.
Again, he pointed to another dangerous trend which is the use of drugs by children starting from the age group of 12-13 years use by drug dealers who are not paid with cash but given drugs for peddling.
“A lot of clients are below the age of 13 years. Nobody will suspect that they are carrying drugs with them because they are young. The children are used by big time drug dealers as mules where they deliver drugs from spot to spot,” he said.
“In turn, they are not paid with cash but are given drugs. They become slaves to drugs which forms a part of illicit drug trafficking,” he added.
Focus on rehabilitation centers
According to Khongwir, persons caught peddling should be sent to rehabilitation centers as jailing them is not a reformative measure as it will only make matters worse.
“That is why I am stressing on the setting up of free government rehabilitation centre, where instead of going to jail, they can be sent to rehab center. Psychologically, it needs six months for a drug addict to be kept away from society for his brain pattern to be normalize,” he said.
He informed that both young boys and girls are into drug addiction but there are no proper rehabilitation centers for females. The females either go private doctors or outside the state.
As for the rehabilitation of young drug addicts, he said, “The Social Welfare Department has to work on that especially the juvenile case as rehabilitation centers do not take those who are below 17 years of age.”
Awareness campaign in vain
Despite drugs awareness campaigns held from time to time, the menace of drug abuse is on the rise starting from young children to adults hooked to drug abuse.
Asked on the fruitfulness of such campaigns, Khongwir concurred that such programmes are not fruitful and he has done 7 awareness programmes this year.
“The problem is that Heroin is very popular drug in Shillong as it cannot be traced, it is easily available. Students can go to class and nobody knows that they are high. The maximum effect is that the teacher might think that the student is sleepy. It is not like alcohol and ganja which stinks,” he added.
Urging teachers to be on high alert, he said the teachers need to watch out for students who withdraw from school activities, bunk classes or look sleepy.
According to him, peer pressure is not the only reason to be blamed for rising drug addiction among youngsters but broken families with single mothers/single fathers are a major reason.
“Getting easy access to money also leads to misuse of money,” Khongwir said.
To deal with the growing concern of drug addiction, he said the union is working in tandem with the Police Department and to also work together with the various Dorbar Shnong.
Kingpin: not caught
With the drug trafficking network getting increased, the kingpin is never in the scene. To this Khongwir said, “There are dealers/suppliers in Shillong. They don’t have drugs on them but they have people working for them. It goes on, it is like a chain of command.”
“Nothing can be traced back to that person. It is difficult for law enforcement to build a case against them,” he said.
