Valley of Drugs: Bliss or Blues

Charu Yeotikar

Look at the ancient wisdom “विद्या ददाति विनयं,विनयाद्याति पात्रताम। पात्रत्वात धनमाप्रोति , धनात धर्म तत: सुखम”. It so wonderfully connects  the stages from learning to modesty, from modesty to prosperity, from prosperity to religion and religion means duties and responsibilities. Learning for a child starts from home where parents sow the seeds of their ideology in the minds of their offspring. As a toddler the learning starts from school. A child always represents his family and school where the socialization, grooming, civic sense, mannerism all these things are taught. Behaviour very clearly indicates what one has learned.

Recently two events took place at nearly the same time. Let us see what they are. Some children bring pride to their family, school and country while some disgrace their family and school too. So let us see what we can learn from the events. There are some public figures like   political leaders, spiritual gurus, sports personalities and film stars who have lots of followers, and these followers do a lot of idolatry. Idolatry is an old tradition of India. Indians not only worship gods but also worship their heroes too. These heroes build their empires cleverly. They impress their followers with a lot of publicity around them, myths are created. Now a day, systematic brand promotion has become an established profession and a business proposition. Someday something goes out of order and the whole empire suddenly collapses. The scion of a leader of ruling political party and scion of a film star ends in jail due to their illegal activities.  These brats of their renowned fathers bring  disgrace to the family and put  big question mark on their upbringing. So what are we learning from it???

Life is too short to learn number of things. We cannot get all the experiences in one life time so we need to learn a lot from others’ lives too. See what we learn from this event.

Remember however big or small you are, every land has a law and all citizens are abide by the law. Sometimes it happens that some people who earn immense wealth and power start thinking that they are above law. They are free to do anything and all sort of their activities will be pardoned easily. But once a person is caught by the law has to go through a tedious procedure of the law and the wealth and power don’t cross the path of law every time. Sometimes it happens but not every time. Howsoever powerful the rich one is, remember that pride always goes before a fall. Once a very powerful person ended very badly. Remember the end of Hitler, Napoleon, Ravana, Kans and so many like them.

Every land has its own law. Never get indulged in illegal activities. Law takes its own course. It takes long to come out of it in a country like ours. Keep yourself away from activities that can spoil your future.
Take interest in other adventurous activities like mountaineering, trekking, hiking, biking, rock climbing, go to the ocean. Try scuba, snorkeling, rafting, surfing all wonderful activities. Take interest in literary activities like writing or in performing arts like acting, dramatics, singing, dancing.  Join a sports club and play your favourite game. They are the excellent outlet for extra time and energy that one has.

Birds of same feathers flock together. Try to find friends of your common interest. Now a days when parents are very much indulged in monetary activities, don’t have time for monitoring their children, try to compensate their time for children by providing money and a good life. So the children don’t understand what to do with the money and spend it in wrong activities.

Many of you might be planning to go abroad and there will be employment hours to be completed so why not learn some of the skills which can be helpful for employment like electrification, mobile and TV repairing, plumbing, gardening, cooking, carpentry which can be adopted as a hobby. You can start with such activities and make it your own side business.

India is a signatory to the UN single convention on narcotic drugs 1961. The convention on psychotropic substances 1971 and the convention on illicit traffic in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances 1988 to control the narcotic drugs. There is provision of punishment on cultivation, production, manufacture. Transport, possession, sale, purchase, import  and export. Uses of narcotics drugs are offensive and has penalty of imprisonment and fine.

The above mentioned event caught the attention of common man towards narcotics drugs. The story of narcotics is interesting. Narcotics drugs which are pain relieving and producing euphoria starts from the opium poppy plants. The milky juice of seed pods of this poppy plant is used to produces opium which had been used from earlier centuries. Later on morphine was extracted from opium which is powerful than opium. Later on heroine was developed from morphine which is more addictive than morphine. Opium in various forms can be used as smoked, eaten, drunk and injected. With increasing use of drugs euphoria and relaxation eventually give way to drug tolerance so the addict must use progressively large doses to achieve pleasurable effects. Once the effect of the drug wears off than the pain produced in the body demands for large dose. An overdose of narcotics can severely depress the central nervous system with respiratory failure and death too.

Medically speaking narcotics are some of the most powerful painkillers so they are used for terminal cancer patients but when normal people use them it turns out to be fatal.

Some popular narcotics are Coderine, morphine, fentanyl, LSD, heroine, MDMX etc. LSD causes subjective changes to consciousness, emotions and thoughts. Side effects are distorted perceptions anxiety, depression, flashbacks, dilated pupils and elevated blood pressures. Marijuana (cannabis) causes various physical and psychological effects, dizziness, loss of appetite low BP, nausea, headache etc.

What can we do to an addict can do? Detox his body. In detox process the body rids itself of the toxic influence of drugs or alcohol. Rehab treatments are tailor made programmes which teach the addicts to get rid of narcotics drugs physically, mentally and emotionally. Once a person detox himself can lead a normal life but has to control the urge to divert himself towards the narcotics drugs.

Narcotics are drugs that block or reduce pain by binding to opioid receptors in the brain and spinal cord. Though wonderful pain killer but they also bring an intense feeling of euphoric high so they are likely to cause a psychological disease; addiction. There are mainly three types of narcotics. Natural opium derivatives obtained from poppy plants like morphine and codeine. Partially synthetic drugs derived from morphine like heroine oxycodorine. Synthetic compounds drugs in this category are formulated similarly in structure to morphine. Those medicines which are used to relieve acute or chronic pain are called opiates, opioid analgesics or narcotics drugs.

There is a very simple mantra  say  ‘NO to Drugs’  first time and say ‘No to Drugs’  every time.

There are cases of children of renowned who suddenly get headlines of media and become a talk of nation due to narcotics. Their jail tenure may be a great experience of lifetime for them. Though to be addict is not good but once understanding the mistake and then come out of it will be the highest reward for him and his family. They can prove before the youth that once an addict is not always an addict and by strong determination can be a good citizen. May be due to any reason if a person becomes addict of drugs or alcohol and has a deep desire to come out of it then can get himself admitted in a rehab centre and take treatment. By strong willpower he can control his craving for drugs and can clean himself.

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