Integrated participatory efforts of all government and non-government entities concerned have become crucial to combat the abuse of drugs along with its illicit and trafficking. There is no alternative to making all efforts of preventing drug abuse effective and fruitful to protect the young generation from addiction. Administrative officials and development activists came up with these observations while addressing a virtual roundtable with media personnel recently.
The number of drug addicts increased in the country, with 114 patients taking treatment every day at public and private rehabilitation centres last year. The number was 104 in 2018, and 69 in 2017. A total of 90,133 people with addiction underwent treatment at the five government rehabilitation centres and 53,720 at the 324 private centres in the last five years. The number of female addicts increased four times last year. Ninety-one females took treatment at the government centres in 2018. The number was 360 from January to November in 2019. Experts said easy and availability of narcotics is the number one reason behind the rise in the number of drug addicts. Social unrest, inability to cope with failures, boredom, loneliness, and changing family structures are among the causes that lead people towards drugs. Social media also makes people feel lonely, they said.
The smuggling of yaba pills from Myanmar in recent years has become another serious threat to the younger generation of Bangladesh. It was perceived previously that drug abuse was a problem among the ultra-poor, but now it has spread among the wealthy and well-educated youths. Many young students, coming from middle or upper-middle-class backgrounds, have become the prime targets of drug peddlers. Once hooked on the habit, the victims either eventually drop out from their academic institutions or perform poorly. Zero tolerance against drug addiction cannot solve the problem without going to its roots.
