Drug Addiction Among Students And Youths of Barak Valley Alarming

Drug Addiction Among Students And Youths of Barak Valley Alarming

SILCHAR: Drug consumption and addiction, particularly among youths and students of Barak Valley, is assuming serious dimension with its social ramification. The initiatives taken by the district administration of Karimganj on the occasion of world anti drug day to arouse awareness among the masses in general about the harmful effects of drug consumption have been well appreciated by the civil society. But, the token approach on a particular day towards the ever rising menace can hardly act as a deterrent to it. Of serious concern is the drug abuse in the campuses of educational institutions. Karimganj on the Indo-Bangladesh border and a route for smugglers for contraband goods is all the more vulnerable.

Concerned at the phenomenon, Kamalakha Dey Purkayastha MLA of Karimganj along with some social activists of the town met the Deputy Commissioner M S Manivannan IAS of Karimganj and presented him a memorandum on Wednesday, giving a grim picture of how a good number of school and college students are falling a prey to the addiction without any check from any corner. If authorities of the educational institutions look indifferent, the parents and guardians seem to have adopted a sort of lordly indifference towards the problem. Apart from physical emasculation, the youths are being affected psychologically, the representation adds, casting a dark shadow on their future career.

Kamalakha Dey Purkaystha while interacting with the Deputy Commissioner tried to impress him with the suggestion that mere awareness programme would not help. The disturbing points or areas have to be identified by involving the members of the society and find out ways to contain the menace before it goes beyond control. This social vice has spread in rural areas as well. His advice to the administrative head is to devise a long term plan to meet the challenge. The network of drug smuggling has to be broken along with illegal selling outlets. Habitual drug addicts are to be identified and subjected to counseling or sent to reform centres.

In fact, the known corridor for smuggling of drugs, narcotics and heroin all the way from Myanmar passes through this valley. Smugglers with contraband goods are frequently detained by Jirighat and Lakhipur police assisted by 37 Assam Rifles in Lakhipur sub division. They are sent behind the bar and their goods seized. Once, they are on bail, they go back to their business. This is the story as recorded in police files. Unless more stringent measures are devised, the check on drug smuggling can hardly be effective.

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