STRAIGHT ANSWERS

Dr Yusuf Merchant, president, Drug Abuse Information Rehabilitation and
Research Centre (DIAARC), on the plan to fight the growing trend of drug
abuse amongst the youth in the city

Why do you think that there is an increasing trend of drug abuse amongst
the youth?

Parents are bringing up youngsters who use dangerous party drugs like
Ecstasy, Acid, Cocaine, Cannabis etc, and think nothing of it. In fact,
they think that it is quite cool to get high on these substances and enjoy
themselves. They admit the use openly, and don't consider them drugs at all.

How dangerous are these drugs actually?

A little overdose of Acid can cause brain damage. Prolonged use of all the
other drugs, especially Cannabis, can also cause brain damage. These drugs
can lead to financial and emotional troubles as some of them like cocaine
cost upto Rs 3000 per gram.

Where are these drugs mostly used?

We have noticed that these drugs are used mostly at private parties and
pubs and discotheques. In fact, we have found out that some of the
discotheques don't mind the open use of drugs on their premises.

What are you doing to stop this?

We are sending a legal notice to all the concerned authorities to take
sufficient action to stop the open use of drugs in public places. In case
no proper action is taken, we will be filing a writ petition with thes
court, asking for sufficient action to be taken in this direction. Some of
these discotheques where drugs are encouraged must be stripped of their
licenses as this will stop others from encouraging the use on their
premises.