Home ›› 10 Apr 2023 ›› Opinion
Carl Gustav Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who is widely regarded as the founder of analytical psychology, has said that “Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether it is narcotics or alcohol, or morphine or idealism.” However, I differ a bit from this opinion as I feel that nothing could be more dangerous than an addiction to drugs. Especially, if the addiction spreads among the teens and the youth, who remains in an emotionally vulnerable situation, the outcome could be very detrimental and result in far-reaching impacts for both the individual and the society in a greater sense.
Let’s have a look at some stats to get our heads around the severity of drug abuse among teenagers and the youth. According to information provided by the Department of Narcotics Control (of Bangladesh), around 2.5 million Bangladeshi youth are addicted to drugs, of which adolescents (aged between 15-30 years) account for 80%. On the other hand, different media reports on the number of people receiving treatment from rehabilitation centers indicate that incidents of drug abuse among teenagers and youth are experiencing an upward curve.
A number of reasons contribute to the rising cases of substance abuse among the youth. First and foremost, many teenagers start taking drugs just out of curiosity while some others get involved in this because of peer pressure. Once you start taking drugs, you get habituated to the feelings it artificially creates, and cannot refrain from indulging more. For some others, drugs come as a way to find solace and escape from the realities of life.
The easy availability of different kinds of drugs is also to blame for increasing drug addiction. Drugs seem to be very available in all spheres of life. From a shabby slum to roadside makeshift shops, drugs are available everywhere. As a result, cross-sections of people including teenagers and school-going children can easily buy drugs and consume them. Moreover, porous borders with India and Myanmar are a huge blessing for the drug peddlers as they can easily traffic drugs and other contraband items and then spread those smuggled drugs among their root-level agents to be distributed among the youth. Owing to such easy availability, teenagers are easily getting entangled in this vicious cycle of drug abuse. That is why, almost 56.1 per cent of the total drug addicts are either students or unemployed, as claimed in the Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition (JHPN) published by the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDRB).
However, whenever a teenager gets addicted to drugs, it results in serious consequences for them, their family and society as well. Firstly, some drugs are reported to have knock-on impacts on your brain’s hippocampus, the area which enables a person to learn and memorize information. So, once you get addicted to drugs, it weakens the power of your memory; thereby decreasing your cognitive ability to study better and achieve further in your academic life.
Considering the harmful impacts of drug abuse, it is imperative that immediate actions be taken to tackle this issue and bring down the incidents of drug abuse among teenagers and youth. As they say, “charity begins from home,” the first step should also be taken from the family level. Meanwhile, schools have a very instrumental role to play in this regard as educators play a very significant role in developing good habits among learners and keeping them away from bad influences.
If necessary, schools should map out detailed awareness-raising programs with family members’ involvement to inculcate a sense of awareness against any form of drug abuse. Counselling should be provided by both family members and teachers for those students who have mistakenly stepped on this path. Many children abuse drugs to feel rebellious and to get attention. They want to be heard, and they should be given proper adult counsellors who will hear their problems.
The writer is Principal, DPS STS School Dhaka.
