IMPHAL, September 8: 3D Foundation, Mayang Imphal today organized a Drug Awareness campaign at the Mayang Imphal Puja mandop.
Speaking at the programme, Care Foundation president, Th Subhaschandra Singh spoke on “Drugs and its harm”.
He elaborated that drug abuse has not only left many children orphaned in the state, but it will also greatly affect the society and our future generations.
Deliberating on the harms of drug abuse, he said one can voluntarily discontinue from using drugs, however it is hard to drain out its effects from one life.
Speaking on addiction and its aspects, Orchid Project, project officer deliberated on ways which lead to drug addiction.
He elaborated that the main reasons for someone taking up drugs is peer pressure, curiosity about what the drug and its effects is all about, easy availability of drugs ad unemployment.
He also explained that lack of parental care during a child’s growing up stages could lead to drug abuse.
Lack of recreational avenues and failure to develop appropriate life skills in a child are other major factors leading to drug abuse, he said.
He further expressed that the society should try to understand the feelings and reasons behind a child taking up drugs instead of criticising them.
There is a group of drug abusers known as the social user. Such groups start using drugs only during social events; however fell prey to the habit subsequently, he said.
He concluded, “Addiction is an illness and should be treated”.
Global Fund, Project Officer, M Sadananda Singh spoke on ‘Detoxification’.
He said that Alcohol can and should be clubbed together with the dangerous drugs as it has the same effects on the abusers.
There are 19 de-addiction centre in such a small state as Manipur whereas there are only 9 such a populous city as Guwahati. This shows that Manipur has a high number of Drug abusers and there is a high presence of addicts who are trying to quit and return to the mainstream.
NACO, Programme Offier N Raj spoke on ‘role and responsibility of the community’.
He said such awareness campaign as today’s can only be effective if it is conducted on a door to door basis.
Lauding the effort of organizing such an awareness campaign he said, the area lacks behind in awareness campaigns as compared to other parts of the state. He continued though it is a little late, we can nonetheless take it as a stepping stone and move forward.
He said lack of preventive counselling in the state is another major factor behind the large number of drug addicts in the state.
He also said, parent’s need to practice “tough love” to their children.