Humans get bored with their regular life and may want an experience beyond it. Which is completely normal. Some turn to substances. All the psychedelic drugs are nothing but an experience. So why shouldn’t people use them recreationally?
Let’s talk about the century-old failed morale of fearing drugs. Go to anyone who uses drugs and tell them about the harmful effects of drugs. Most probably, they are already aware. Now, what are the chances that they will stop doing drugs? Slim. That is why I believe our approach to problem is very primitive.
If a man rapes, you might say “Hang him”. Will this stop the problem? If someone is a murderer, you want to give them life time imprisonment. Will this help the survivor or the victim? No. And our jails are the proof. Jails show us that all we care about is revenge. We don’t want to cure the basic cause of the problems. Drugs are not the problem, it is the addiction.
We want youth to stop using drugs, but we don’t understand the root causes of drug use. For example, the drug problem in Punjab is huge. This could be because of the immense wealth coming in due to NRI culture. With a heck-load of money, they have to spend it on something. It doesn’t help that glorifying alcoholism in Punjabi songs is just the norm.
But what about the drugs being used in the state’s engineering colleges? During my B.Tech days, I realised the reason a lot of students were doing drugs was because there is nothing else to do. Absolutely nothing. Not even sports activities. An empty mind is a devil’s workshop. If we really want to help the youth out of substance abuse and substance dependence, we should involve them in something else. Something that can bring out their creative side.
What if we created medical center for safe drug use? What if, through those centres, we phased in purified drugs which are less addictive? In the 21st century, developing these is possible. I firmly believe this will work towards killing the charm of drugs.
But only if we understand the mindset will we understand the problem.