Kochi on a High
The Queen of the Arabian Sea weeps as her people get caught in the web of drug addiction.
“We have a problem, and the problem is right in our face. It’s high time we do something about it.”
As Ms. Diana Joseph, Director of Fourth Wave Foundation & Project ‘Venda’ moved onto her last session of the day, I suddenly fell into thought — why aren’t we talking about this more?
There are a few moments in life that are true eye-openers. And then, there are those which hit you so hard that you wonder why and how something went overlooked for so long. For me, it was such a day.
The Dark Side of Kochi
The location — S.A.F.E (an acronym for ‘substance abuse free environment’) forum, an initiative by Project ‘Venda’. I would like to say outright that this is not the usual “say no to drug abuse” or a long, cumbersome session about how drug abuse affects life; this was a genuine, holistic approach in looking into abuse and addiction, based on both facts and figures, and experiences alike.
I had actually stumbled upon the event purely by chance and hence I had no idea regarding what was going on as I walked into the venue. I looked at the topic list, which seemed to be focusing on promoting a drug abuse free (or as they put it — S.A.F.E ) experience for school children and promoting prevention, care and recovery, amongst others. Being late, I fumbled around to a seat in front of me with a bunch of pamphlets and papers in my hand. The title on a booklet read “Nammalariyatha Nammude Kochi : The end of innocence” (Our Kochi, unbeknown to us). As the event was going on, I randomly opened a page from the booklet.
It was a short paragraph, the words of a real life, anonymous 13 year old boy, right here, in this city, who got into dealing drugs to make some cold cash on the side. What hit me the most was that number — 13! A kid, who had barely become a teenager was involved with drugs? It seemed a bit hard to digest. I turned to the next page. The subsequent page had a similar story, and my next ten to fifteen minutes were spent reading the whole thing, not accepting the facts presented to me at first, denying, thinking that this was in fact, all bogus.
But then, I stopped to think — was it?
Also read: At stake : ~life~ hope
The Driving Factor
Let’s face it, doing drugs is not something that’s shocking anymore. We hear “it’s cool”, “everyone does it”, “it’s no big deal”, so on and so forth. But this was a side of the story that we chose not to acknowledge, even now — as we come across stories of kids, actual kids, being dragged into the murky depths of drug dealing and abuse. While it is true that each individual is responsible for his/her choices, isn’t there something what we consider as being “too young for this”?
Why do they target early and pre-teens?
The answer is quite simple.
They are the most impressionable of the demographic. They are at that point in their life where they are beginning to know and understand what the world is and how it works. What they’re exposed to, at this age could have an enormous impact in how their lives will turn out to be.
It is this fact that people seek to abuse, and resort to trade our future for money. Such events, though they sound very rare at first, is actually more common than we are led to believe. Need proof? Just go through the newspapers — not the front pages and the fancy headlines, somewhere in the middle, in fine print you will see news of people caught while attempting to deal marijuana to schoolchildren. We see it, we dismiss it as an isolated event — almost on a daily basis.
The Blame Game has to Stop!
What leads kids to drugs at such a young age (apart from free advertising thanks to modern media and the enthusiastic mafia)? One factor that was pointed out at the S.A.F.E forum was two words — childhood trauma. While it is a huge factor behind addiction, I believe that the primary drive behind substance abuse are two different words — peer pressure. For kids today, their primary need is to be accepted, to feel wanted (we’ve moved up the hierarchial chart, hunger is no longer a need). And as such, they tend to do things which makes them look “cool”. It comes as no surprise that since centuries, the thrill of being an outlaw and being involved with narcotics have been tagged cool by people everywhere.
The blame doesn’t entirely fall upon the users. There’s plenty of it to go around for everyone in the society. But, instead of trying to spread the blame, we should focus on how to get past this.
A Model of Support
Let’s hear the story of the Icelandic model of substance abuse management. Two decades ago, Icelandic teenagers were the most involved in drinking and substance abuse. Now, Iceland has the cleanest living youth and teens in all of Europe. How did this come to be?
What they did was pretty simple. They identified the possible reasons behind high rates of substance abuse in teens and the youth. Then they created a social system that strengthened family relationships and gave their teens better things to do. They introduced activities — sports into the lifestyle of their children to promote “natural high”s. Engaging in these activities provided them with a natural dopamine rush, without having to seek solace in drugs. Another key point they discovered was that most of the children resorted to substance abuse as a coping mechanism. Which was why they decided to emphasise on family time. Something that we generally seem to consider whimsical.
“Dad..”,
“Not now, I’m busy”
Also read: Wrong
Speaking about the youth, the numbers of users (and addicts) are on a sharp rise as well. Everyone has a right to make their own choices in life. However, one should keep in mind that it is their life. The line between substance abuse and addiction is blurry, and you may not realise that you have crossed it until it’s too late. Addiction in any form, to anything will eventually be the cause for your downfall. Addiction can make you lose sight of what’s important in and beautiful about life.
There are those who power back to sobriety, which is an extremely demanding task that asks for courage, determination and support. However, the question still persists — what happens after? This is one of those situations where we show the fickleness in our society. We stigmatise recovered addicts, like everything and everyone that we stigmatise. The society sees them as abysmal and most often shuns them out. What’s startling is the fact that the youth are no better in this regard — even though we consider ourselves to be the most understanding and accepting generation. Alienating and judging recovering addicts will cause them to fall back to the same path they fought so hard to escape from.
A Ray of Hope
The first step in dealing with the problem is to accept that we have a problem. This is the most crucial step to solving any issue and honestly we still haven’t got through to that phase yet.
We have to show our children that we care, and that they can be accepted and cared for as they are. Make them feel wanted, cherish them, listen to them, and most definitely stop doing things that could scar them for life.
Keep an eye out for people who would ruin your child’s future without a second thought for some quick cash. If you are a user, make sure that it is what you want, and not something you are doing to impress someone or trying to fit in somewhere (you deserve much better). If you are an addict, kindly reach out to someone. There are people who care for you and please let them help you. Though you may not feel like it, you do need help.
And if you are none of the above — be kind.
Don’t stigmatise people, it is one of the worst things that a human being can do today (without actually breaking a law).
When you see someone come out of the deep dark hole of addiction, please don’t push them back into it. Congratulate them, applaud them for their bravery and perseverance, for their journey was never an easy one.
