Drug abuse has been an issue since the early 80s and we are still grappling with it. We are yet to find a foothold in the fight against drug abuse. Why? Let us begin by asking ourselves. Several factors are involved in the widespread abuse of drugs and experts have cited dozens of reasons. Yet one of the key factors continually neglected by us is the social factor. Since the early 80s, our youth has been robbed of positive spaces or outlets for channelizing their adolescent energy. Like for example, socially sanctioned spaces for the young boys and girls have vanished with self-righteous groups throwing in more and more restrictions. And these had a negative impact on adolescent behavior. As we said before, in the adolescent phase one goes through a difficult period of shaping behavior against peer pressure and one is also faced with multiple career options, both positive and negative One could easily be frustrated. Since the 80s, nightlife had simply vanished into thin air. Spaces for positive entertainment and leisure or relaxation had gone. The conflict brought brutal repression and the victims were mostly the youths. In widespread combing operations, droves of young people were called out from their homes at daybreak and paraded in local grounds for verification till late at night. In the eyes of the security personnel, every young person was a potential threat to the nation and the locality was a war zone. Midnight knocks, enforced disappearances, killings, rape and molestation of women and scores of other human rights abuse incidents followed. In short, an environment of siege was created. Imagine what that would do to the adolescents and the young minds. A negative attitude was bound to develop leading to an imagined situation of hopelessness. There were the prime factors of our youths venturing into the drug world. Again there is the porous border and the easy availability of drugs in the market as the state is very close to the Golden Triangle, a region overlapping the mountains of four countries of Southeast Asia which are Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. Along with Afghanistan and Pakistan in the Golden Crescent, it has been one of the most extensive opium-producing areas of Asia and of the world since the 1920s. Most of the world`s heroin came from the Golden Triangle until the early 21st century when Afghanistan became the world`s largest producer.
We must always keep this background in mind as we try to deal with drug abuse and its related problems. We have tried many models in combating it. The police model has not worked at all and it has only led to the drug users going underground further complicating the tangle. In hurried drug sessions syringes were shared and the era of HIV/AIDS began. The NGO model has also failed with its methods of treatment, de-addiction, substitution therapies and counseling sessions. As the recovered youth is once again thrown among the pack of wolves lurking in our midst, and into the suffocating atmosphere of our society he is back to his old habits. Drugs have changed but the addiction continues. Thousands have died and thousands are dying. The new Social Welfare Minister needs to apply her mind. Social welfare is not only about the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) or the anganwadis. It is about welfare activities of the state modeled on the concept of welfare state. Fixing errant NGOs for misappropriating funds will not do. It is about fixing the ills of the society. For that, one has to understand the societal problems and the charged scenario arising out of the conflict situation and restrictive norms of the society. Even though AK Mirabai is a first-timer, her moment of truth has arrived.