PERILS OF DRUG ABUSE

THE news of 17 students being detained for drug abuse has sent
shockwaves across the city. It was the talk of the town in the
corridors of power, in school classrooms, in homes and
get-togethers.

Students, parents, teachers, friends and the community at large were
asking questions.

The fear in the air was palpable and more so with some receiving
threat calls. Will today's grade-school students be the potheads and
coke addicts of tomorrow?

How did this peculiarly American affliction find its way into a city
that boasts of a crime-free image?

How did these students succumb to the dull glow of the
hashish?

Was it a pathetic attempt to ape the West? In America, according to
one report, seventy-eight per cent of teens say that illegal drugs are
used and sold on American school grounds and substance abuse costs
corporate America over $100 billion each year -- and that's not
something to sniff at. Outrage at what has rocked the city has led to
introspection and a feeling that, in someway, we have only ourselves
to blame.

A campaign against the perils of drugs must now be intensified to
ensure that no more young ones are caught in the drug maelstrom and
that the drug abuse numbers are stopped from creeping upward. The
merchants of death and drugs who run their operations like a
well-rehearsed military operation have always targeted the young and
it takes just a sniff or two to be trapped for life. Beginners are
told it won't hurt anyone.

It does far more than hurt -- it kills.

Drugs sap the energy, rot the teeth and freeze the mind and it's only
a razor-thin line that separates drug abuser from moving from hashish
to more potent narcotics and once hooked, stayed hooked.

They say for the average drug addict, from the first shot of morphine
to the morgue takes just five years.

Imagine never having your son's children in your lives, never seeing
him smile or hearing his voice again.

These are permanent, painful wounds from which one never ever
recovers. There are lessons to be learnt from what has happened and
one can only hope that we have learnt ours. The schools can do their
bit by educating against the perils of narcotics and keeping a closer
watch, the parents can do their part by educating their children and
the community as a whole should keep a close watch and help the city's
police by informing them of any suspicious activity.

We owe this to this great city and to our children.

Today it is them. Tomorrow it could be us. United we can fight the
drug menace.