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Recovered addicts speak

19 June 2009

Recovered addicts speak to the media

Recovered addicts speak to the media

Parental love and guidance in adolescence are very important. It is the time when children experiment with drugs, alcohol and other anti-social activities, say recovering addicts.

They said there should be a number of drop-in and rehabilitation centres in the country.

Krisna Kumar Subba, 21, a recovered addict, said, when parents took their children for granted, children went awry. When relatives or friends inform parents about their children’s behaviour, they tend to ignore it in fear of social stigma.

He added that when one was too much into drugs, parents and relatives started ignoring, friends started calling names, and it was difficult to get employment and earn trust of friends and teachers.

Tashi Choden, 23, another recovered addict, said peer pressure contributed to the hellish life she underwent for five year. She said one of her friends gave her soft drink laced with tablets after which she started drugs. She attempted suicide three times when she was on drugs.

Phuntsho, a recovering addict, started drugs for pleasure. She said she met friends and experimented marijuana on the weekend and soon became dependent on alcohol. A chain-smoker, the 18-year-old class XII pass-out from a private school in Thimphu said when girls drank, they did not know limits.

Krisna, the son of a civil servant, started abusing drugs in Thimphu when he was just 16. Later, when he studied in Phuntsholing, he came to know a lot of common tablets that Bhutanese youths abused. He said, from marijuana, one goes for alcohol, then tablets. Three of his friends died of overdose.

Another 22-year-old recovering addict said getting into drugs was easy but quitting the habit was difficult. He was expelled from a high school in Chhukha for abusing drugs when he was in class IX. He had two friends who abused cocaine and brown sugar.

The drug-dependent and recovered youths Observer talked to said they bought the substances from across the border and abused either in India or back home. They said smuggling the substances was never a tough task.

Many of them said they spent over Nu 500 for a day’s dosage. But Tashi Choden said she did not spend money on drugs. “When you want it, it is always available with friends,” she said.

According to Krisna, in Phuentsholing alone, there could be about 300 young people who abuse drugs or alcohol while his friends said the figure could be about 500 if students are also counted.

There are 18 students in Phuntsho’s circle of friends, all of them from private schools in Thimphu and Punakha. Five of them are girls. Tashi Choden is among recovered addicts engaged in a baseline survey by Bhutan Narcotic Control Agency. She said, if tomorrow they are left without a job or money, many of them might revert to the old habit. “We need to be kept engaged,” she said.

Krisna used house lizard’s tail as an alternative when he didn’t have money to buy tablets. He said the mind needed to be preoccupied to stop substance abuse.

Each recovering or recovered addict Observer talked to had lost at least one friend to drug overdose. Phuntsho was sidelined by her relatives when she was into drugs. Now fully recovered, she said, “Parents and relatives should help recovering addicts positively.”

By Rabi C. Dahal

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