Letters from Kashmir

A few days back, a life stuck in the shadow of many a severe life-threatening drug, was finally caught and brought under the condition of normalcy. A life totally caught in the mire of severe drug addiction was restored.

For me, one is addicted when one makes drugs a priority over life – the drugs that take the user far from normalcy and to the brink of ruining one’s identity! It is when one loses identity for the urge of drugs that one usually realizes the mistake. It is then that one realizes that all that the drugs gave in return was a life of dissolved potential and weird irrational personality; unconscious and unaware of worldly affairs.

Usually, people get into addiction due to some kind of stress that they undergo. It may be social religious etc. Most of the youth of the present generation are drug addicts because they may have passed through some types of criticism like due to their family standard, their weakness in education and other social issues.

A large number of our youth are also caught due to the perceived western influence on their minds. It completely changes our mindset and makes us feel that we are at the top of the world, but it actually ruins us down to the bottom. Some youth use cigarettes that makes them feel that it raises their social status, but they are unaware that it is actually wrong and makes their status to fall in society.

Some of our genius youth crush a bit of charas and fetch a feeling of being a saint and claim to have achieved an ascetic tendency. Others fall in love and when they feel cheated, some might start indulging into drugs. Many a great minded youth of our country also get indulged with this evil of drug addiction because their potential is being crushed under the feet of some rich families who snatch, through corrupt practices, the rightful opportunities belonging to youth mid or lower class families who have worked for it. The youth suffer unemployment and begin to use drugs that later leads to suicides too.

Now! In the present era of development and education, there is an alarming need to control the addiction and save the youth and the future of our country. There are many ways to control addiction among youth as it can be controlled starting from grass root level to the next higher levels up to the highest level. This way the drug addiction can be completely neutralized in our country.

First, individuals can play a great role in diverting the attention of youth towards some social and religious work that will inculcate a feeling of motivation in their minds and make them stress-free. Hence, it will prevent them from using drugs.

Parents also have a vital role to play to drive this addiction out of our society by being more supportive of them, rather than being critical. This way their children won’t suffer any kind of stress and would possibly focus more on their studies. Additionally, there should also be social action on selling and availability of these drugs, especially to the youth.

Educational and other institutes can help a lot to destroy this evil of addiction by introducing youth to various athletic activities that will completely change the mind of youth about addiction. These institutes can also organize various debates and programs in view of the drug abuse thus control it a lot. The government must play a major role in driving the evil out by introducing various schemes for youth, generating employment and setting various rehabilitation centers up for the already addicted youth, so that they can rehabilitate and start their journey again with a new positive change. There should be a complete and effective ban the life-threatening drugs in the country and all the drug peddlers and sellers should be arrested as they are also a great cause for the ruin of the youth.

Finally, the steps against this biggest social evil should be made our top priority because if not controlled now, our country may suffer a lot and would be ruled my mindless cowards in future. And that would be the most frightening debt under which the country may soon drown.

Saqib Javed Dar (Anantnag)

Muqu’s Creations

(Saqib Javed Dar is a Class XI student of Saint Peter’s International Academy, Anantnag, J&K. He studies science stream and aspires to be a future doctor and writer. He is also an avid writer and writes about his experiences of life.)