YABA ADDICTION

Its Extent And Nature Horrifying

The crackdown on Yaba peddlers by Rab has exposed the magnitude of
the problem of drug use among the affluent youths in the city. Kudos
to the Rab team. The details pouring in are mind-boggling, to say
the least. Moral degeneration has reached an abysmal state, without
our even knowing what has been going on. The situation has turned
critical, as addiction looks like threatening a whole generation of youths.

The law enforcers' action has apparently forced the drug peddlers to
change their modus operandi, and they are now recruiting new
operatives to keep the business alive. Obviously, the supply lines
have to be cut off to ensure that the deadly drugs don't reach any
customer. The illegal business has grown big and the law enforcers
will have to make some determined efforts to contain it.

There is more worrying news. So far, the general impression was that
Bangladesh was being used as a transit route by the drug smugglers.
But it is now clear that the number of local users has increased
manifold. Worse still, drugs like Yaba are being produced locally!
That's also an indication that a huge number of youths have become
regular customers of such intoxicants.

The question might now arise what the narcotics department had been
doing while the drug business thrived. Evidently, the surveillance
on production, supply or marketing of such drugs was poor, if at all
there was anybody to bother about the ominous proliferation of the
drug. Another point that seems to be rather baffling is that the
Yaba trade was being conducted by youths from rich and socially
well-placed families. Were they powerful enough to neutralise the
enforcement of law? What else can we surmise from the way the Yaba
trade was going on?

Whatever might be the reason behind the malignant growth of drug
trade and abuse, it has to be stopped in order to save our youths
from self-destruction. The law enforcers have already arrested a
number of suspected drug peddlers. And we expect that soon they will
be able to identify and catch the godfathers who might have been
controlling the business from behind the scene. Drug abuse has to be
prevented at any cost, if we don't want to find ourselves ensnared
with a social menace of the most unmanageable type.