First of all, I would draw your attention to the distinction between the habit of taking drugs and the addiction to drugs. If you take a drug, which you may give up whenever you like, it poses no problem. But addiction to a drug brings forth a problem, which we call withdrawal syndrome. If you abstain from a drug to which you are addicted, you shall experience some problems like shivering of body, water rolling down from the eyes and severe joint pain etc.
Every medicinal drug has also two components; one is the component that treats the disease proper and the other one treats the mental depression or anxiety caused by the disease. For instance, chloroquin is taken by a malaria patient. Its one component takes away the malaria fever and the other component treats the mental depression. One is called Haptophore and the other is called Toxophore. Now after the year 2000, every drug has these two elements except of course Vitamin C. So every body takes some amount of intoxication or the other.
There are two types of drugs, one is explicit and the other illicit. The former type of drugs is prescribed by the doctors and the other taken by the patient himself out of his own desire and practice, such as Ganja, Mescaline etc. Now the addiction to explicit drugs has surpassed the addiction to illicit drugs.
The drug addiction increases in proportion to growing state of helplessness and despondency in the society. Why is it that the adolescent and the youth fall prey to addiction. As you see, the volume of curriculum expands day by day. Parents and guardians more and more scold their children for the failure or poor performance in school or college exams. The prospects of employment decrease day by day. All these phenomena create frustration in mind of the youth about the future and the young man in the face of such frustration all around feels driven to take to drugs.
Let me now narrate a small experience of mine. One day, while I was passing through a village ground in my car, suddenly a group of 15 to 20 young boys ran to me and surrounded my car. They said, 'We are police people searching for you'. At first I got astonished as to why at all the police would search for me. Then I found that none of them is a policeman. All are boys of good families but addicted to drugs and use the ground as their place for drug taking. Every evening that ground is crowded by the young addicts. I went to the police station to inform them about the misuse of a public place for the purpose of drug abuse. The concerned police officer wanted from me a list of the names of the boys who hade masked as police men, but I refused to disclose their names because I felt, being addicted to drugs they are as such self-punished.
As you might be aware, we have passed the agricultural phase of history, where father used to be the chief of the family. He is no more so. We have also passed the industrial society and are rapidly entering into a post-industrial information age. In spite of a dozen of Prime Ministers, the employment prospects are dwindling. For a job of Rs.3,000/- salary per month, there are 3 lakh applicants. But for a job Rs.3,00,000/- salary per month, I am sure, there shall not be even three applicants. This is a post-industrial high-tech and high-touch information society. In this society the individual is losing his esteem. To boost up their sense of self-esteem, the people are taking to drugs, especially in sectors where feeling of helplessness increases. This is the intellectual deduction of the social thinkers all over the world.
What is addiction? I was working under an American Scholar Dr. E.William Sutherland, who is now the Chairman of the biggest organization of USA for controlling drug and substance abuse. Thanks to his work on Beta receptor, he has won Nobel Prize twice and now is working for the third. He is 80 years old, takes bear very occasionally, but drinks milk everyday and runs for about 12kms. According to him, whatever methods we have adopted so far to contain drug abuse have been all failures, since we are not able to help the people know and experience real sources of addiction.
Marijuana, Charas, Heroin etc. are artificial substances. But the real and more powerful addictive substance is present in the body of human being itself. About 32 litres of alcohol is being produced in the human body everyday. That circulates through out the body in a Kreb's Citric Acid Cycle and generates temperature and energy required for the body. Thus the most addictive substance of the world is being created everyday in the human brain itself. This addiction is the addiction to convert pain into pleasure. That addiction which converts pain into pleasure is stronger than even morphin. That is, so to say, a divine substance, called Beta endorphin and encephalin. These two substances are created by love. If people are made to realize the true import of these natural addictive substances, then they won't run after artificial substances as they do now. This is the opinion of the biggest scientist on Deaddiction and two-time Nobel Prize winner Dr.E.W.Sutherland of USA.
Every citizen should have a responsibility for deaddicting the patients from the habit of addiction. For this purpose, one should know what he could do? By reacting to or grilling somebody, you can't drag him to the right path. To start with you have to go along with him and just help him overcome the habit in a smooth way. We have to do just as we do in case of a sinking man. This process you may call counseling. This counseling process should start with the people who are interested. Secondly, knowing the symptoms of addiction is also important, since one falling to addiction may require First Aid in the initial stage. Especially the police people need to learn it. Four things are important at the stage of First Aid. First, the eye, one has to see whether the eye has been expanded or contracted or how far the eye has lost sensitivity to light. If there is no sensation in the eye in response to focus of light on it, then condition is to be considered critical. Secondly, the heart, whether he takes long breathe continuously or not. Third is whether he vomits or not. And fourth, whether there is some sweating on his body or not. When you see these symptoms, you should immediately arrange for the First Aid.
I would advise the workers of Project Swarajya to involve the medical institutions and personnel in the drive for de-addiction. Just as the police officers have been involved so also the doctors should be. Some body observed that the doctors are taking drugs. I fully agree with him since I know the doctors, students and medical representatives are running after intoxicating drugs.
A few days back, I asked Dr. Trumpey, 'Why do you spend so much time after walking, whereas we only spend 15 minutes. Why do you spend 3 hours?' He replied, 'If I don't spend more time after walking, then I have to spend more time in the club. Less time for walking means more time after the club.' It is a truth, admitted by the scientists all over the globe.
Men are different from each other in terms of cash, attitude, skill, knowledge and habit. So it is very difficult to explain, why somebody takes drug and another doesn't. As you might know, the greatest genius of theatre in the world William Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet, "Alcohol increases the desire but takes away the performance." Knowing this fully well, the people took to drinking.
So there is an imperative need for a joint effort to combat addiction. Such efforts need to include psychological counseling and First Aid. Most of all, man should get used to the natural substance of addiction that is there given in the human brain. Then only the drive for deaddiction would be successful.