AMEY JOSHI

The fight against drugs is indeed a complicated one, but not really difficult if we play our part to clear away the smoke from someone’s life.

As a country or as a state we face many issues. Some of the common issues are poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and terrorism. However, we may feel impervious to some of the above issues but the one which is actually affecting our society as a cancer is the issue of drugs.
In recent times, it almost every day that we read on the newspapers about people getting caught with drugs or narcotic substances or police conducting raids on rave parties as well as someone losing his/her life due to drug overdose.
We don’t seem to understand the gravity of the situation as long as it doesn’t affect our loved ones. The reason why the issue of drug abuse is a serious one is because most of the times it is the youth of our country who is falling prey to it. In other words, the future of our country is falling prey to it. “You must always try it once in your life,” is a phrase that is responsible for pushing people, mostly youngsters, into this trap.
It is not just the duty of the police or the government to tackle this problem but as responsible citizens of the society we need to do whatever possible on our part to fight this issue.
First we need to understand, why people get addicted to drugs? One of the reasons as mentioned above is, some people just try it as an experiment, but some use it to get instant relief from certain tensions of life. There are people who say that they started using drugs just because most of their friends were into it.
Research suggests that the amount taken determines the effects of the drugs. A smaller amount may act as a stimulant and speeds you up, while a larger dose can act as a sedative and slow you down, and an even larger amount can be fatal and can result in death.
In order to fight this problem we need to start with our family, friends or people who are our colleagues at work. Parents need to often have conversation with their kids. In today’s world, while growing up, children are often exposed to certain things or substances at a very early age. Even the kind of environment plays a factor in which a child grows. It is even essential to educate a child when he is about to step into a different environment. In schools and colleges, even though there is a pressure of academic performance and competition, being a teacher or a classmate, one can certainly find some time to give moral support to one in need. It is often noticed that stress and loneliness are major factors which take an individual towards addiction. Identifying youngsters in need of help and counselling can actually mean stopping them from going in the wrong direction. Even at our workplace it is advisable to have light conversations or moments wherein a person can open up and share, so that he will not feel the need of any alternate substance to be used as stress reliever.
However, these are some of the preventive measures to stop one from being an addict.
Identifying drug users is not always easy; however, some of the common symptoms include bloodshot eyes, drastic weight loss, mood swings, trembling etc.
If you want to get someone into a drug rehab treatment, an intervention is often one of the most effective tools. An intervention is a meeting in which concerned family members or friends help an addict to realise how the problem has affected his or her life-and the lives of those around them. It doesn’t physically force them into rehab, but it does give the addict a real-world view of what happens each time they get high on drugs.
The fight against drugs is indeed a complicated one, but not really difficult if we play our part to clear away the smoke from someone’s life.