Drug Abuse- a Menace to the Society

Drug Abuse is a serious issue affecting all sections of the society, Irrespective whether they are Young/Old, Poor/Rich, and Educated/Illiterate. To really understand the gravity of the situation one needs to understand a few very important points;- what actually is Drug-Abuse? As I understand a very simple definition of Drug abuse is that it means use of drugs for the purpose for which it is not meant to be used (in other words use of drugs not for treating ailments but to satisfy vicarious pleasure ). The destructive thing about this is that when people experience the hallucination under the influence of these drugs, they would like to this again & again causing a serious Drug Addiction. Now let’s try to understand the various Drugs frequently abused. The Most Common that is used by more than 80% of the people is Marijuana also called Ganja or Grass or weed in colloquial language. The most dangerous aspect to be noted is that in spite of being labeled a Banned Drug, Marijuana is available very easily to all & sundry. The reason for it to be a favorite among the Drug addicts is that it is not very expensive & it gives an instant kick and can be had instantly without even letting a non smoker know about it. We see thousands of people smoking cigarettes everyday & their may be many of them smoking Ganja & still we won’t know about it. Even though this is not an appropriate time to say I cannot prevent myself from saying that the If the Law enforcing authorities are strict, this menace can be controlled to a very large extent. Why would people get addicted to this? Other than the reasons of being easily available etc, as mentioned above Chemically a substance called as THC ( Tetra Hydroxy Cannibinol) a ketone present in this Drug makes the body become dependent on it. The relaxation it brings to the smoker along with the euphoria it creates makes the smoker misconceive that this actually is not destructive & some regulars believe that smoking grass helps in harnessing their creativity. Once again this is a misconception which needs urgent rattention. . Now let us see How it becomes a menace to the person abusing it so that we can understand how it affects the society. As the time goes by & the addiction takes root, it causes various personality disorders, serious psychological behavioral problems & loss of priority resulting in Poor judgments, Slowed reflexes, Distorted vision, Memory lapse, Anxiety, Confusion, Constant physical fights, tiredness, Black outs, Lowered inhibitions & problems in remembering recently said or did. They even start believing that Drugs is necessary to have fun & to even to exist. They constantly feel run-down or depressed leading to suicidal tendencies. They constantly complain of Dry mouth, Nausea, Head ache, decreased co-ordination, Increased Heart rates, Reduced Muscle strength, increased appetite & craving. Drugs & Alcohol together are contributing factors in at least half of all murders, Suicides, & Car accidents in an inebriated condition. Drug dependency pushes people to loose their self esteem & make them promiscuous. Approximately there are 1 lakh deaths occurring per year because of Drugs. The Illegal drug Mafia has a firm grip on the Market & is a very big source of funding Terrorism. Of course Marijuana is not the only drug & there are more serious Drugs like Cocaine, Heroin, LSD, and Phencyclidine which are more dangerous but luckily they are not very common as these are expensive, difficult to procure & more harmful. These drugs are snorted, smoked or injected. When these drugs are taken thru injections, it increases the chances of transmitting AIDS & HIV by sharing of needles. The Good News is that more than 98% of the teens have never tried these harder drugs like cocaine. Let me see if we can do anything about this, first of all on a personal level if we find our friends or other young people indulging in it, we have to report to the family immediately. On the family level care should be taken in handling these people & we should give them all the love & support to overcome the addictions with the help of De-addiction clinics. On a bigger scale the society of which we are a part of should take stringent steps to see there are no peddlers or users among them & finally the state should introspect & see why it cannot be rooted out if there is a will & conviction among them. My friends, Recently we saw the Grammy award winner Amy whinehouse dying at the age of 27 because of Alcohol & Drugs. It’s a pity that such a great talent has to loose out to Drugs. I can go on & on about the menace the Drug Abuse causes to the Individual first & then the society, but I feel the more we dwell upon it, the more we would be energizing it, so lets all say NO TO DRUGS & Promise to ourselves & to the society that we would weed out this menace in our generation completely.