Rayhan Ahmed Topader :
Once upon a time in some countries, Yaba was used as a medicine to stop flux. It was also used for weight loss treatment. The main ingredient of the drug is Methamphe tamine. Methamphetamine was popular among the soldiers during the Second World War to eliminate fatigue and to stay alert. Later, common people, especially students, long-distance drivers and runners also started using it. Gradually, its use is prohibited worldwide due to its bad or long-term harmful reaction. However, it still continues to grow in some countries. Drugs used to be mixed with caffeine and met amphetamine. This drug is mostly produced in Thailand and spread out in other countries nearby. It is now available in Bangladesh even after the use of Marijuana Phensedyl, Heroin and Pethidine. Yaba is also known as Crazy Medicine or Crazy Drug by many people. Some people say it Nazi Speed or Speed. Yaba, the Thai word for crazy medicine, is a round pill.They are bright, red, orange or lime green in colour and carry logos. Each pill is small, roughly six millimetres in diameter, and easily transportable. There are many different ways to inhale the drug, including fashioning water funnels, called turbo, out of empty water or glass bottles attached to straws and aluminum foil. The most common method of using yaba is oral ingestion. Tablets can also be crushed into a powder and either snorted or mixed with a liquid and injected. In addition, tablets can be heated on aluminum foil to produce a vapour to be inhaled.
The smuggling of yaba tablets from Myanmar in recent years has become another serious threat to the younger generation of Bangladesh. It is a highly addictive mixture of met amphetamine and caffeine known as Nazi speed in the West. It was first developed by Hitler’s scientists to keep soldiers capable of fighting for days at a stretch. It entered the Bangladeshi market in 2006 as a fashionable drug for the well-to-do people. Because of its covert symptoms, this ‘madness drug’ is now the number one choice of the addicted population in Bangladesh. It can be swallowed, injected or sniffed, depending on the desired lasting effect of the drug. During World War II, armed forces of the United States, Great Britain, Germany and Japan, used yaba to fight fatigue and enhance performance. After the war, Yuba became available to the people all over the world. The United War State Army, the largest drug trafficking organisation in Burma, is currently believed to be the primary manufacturer of yaba in Southeast Asia and Thailand is the primary market for these tablets. Yaba is a powerful central nervous system stimulant with longer lasting effects than those of cocaine. This is because cocaine is metabolised in the body more quickly than met amphetamine. Today Yuba tablets are getting increasingly popular among young people all over the world including Bangla desh. The government needs to realize the matter that our young generation is gradually ruining themselves as well as their families and the whole nation.
Now Bangladesh is a safe route for yaba drug dealers because the country has been illegally used as a transit point for trafficking yaba in many Southeast Asian markets. Most of the yaba comes from neighbouring country Myanmar and also Laos. Yaba tablets are trafficked and smuggled into Bangladesh through vast border areas, water-ways and air-ways. The drug is being trafficked to the developed world through roadways and ships. Among the trafficking routes to Bangla desh, the vast forests and terrain areas of hill tracts and the Bangladeshi, Myanmar and Thai fishing trawlers are being safely used for transporting the drug to Bangladesh. Conside ring the land route to be unsafe, organised gangs of drug smugglers are now using water and air routes for trafficking deadly drugs, said newspaper sources. Due to inadequate security measures at the airport and connivan ce of corrupt officers and employees, banned drug items are entering the country every day. In the absence of adequate patrolling by the local administration and other law enforcing agencies, deadly drug like yaba is being smuggled into the country from the neighbour ing Myanmar through different waterways of the Bay of Bengal. Using different river routes, such a dangerous drug is entering riverside districts and divisional cities of the country. In most cases while smuggling drugs by land routes, consignments are often seized by the law enforcers. Bangladesh is currently emerging as one of the leading drug consuming countries. Two potential factors are contributing to the growing trend of drug consumption.
In an attempt to stop this, the university authority introduced drug tests for doctors after allegations of this rampant narcotics abuse came to light. Addiction, with all its pervasive impacts, including making young people psychologically and physically crippled, often leads to violent behaviour. They often resort to crime to sustain their addiction. Thus, when many anti-narcotics bodies observe June 26 as the UN Day for combating harmful drugs, the battle against addiction continues to be a major challenge. As a result of the organised transit trafficking, coupled with the supply of Indian, Burmese and Pakistani drugs into Bangladesh, drug addiction has reached an alarming rate in the country. In order to achieve this, the government has to ensure a strong grip of law and order and security forces across the borders so that illegal drugs cannot enter into our country so easily. Upon catching the traders involved in drug trafficking, punishment of the highest order needs to be handed over. Within the country, police and other state security forces should perform their role much more honestly to wipe out different drug selling and consumption spots. It causes sleeplessness and person can not sleep even seven to ten days in response to yaba. It causes dry mouth, irritable mood, forgetfulness sweating and less body movement. Users started to feel themselves dull. It can lead to increased heart rate, respiratory rate and blood pressure. Long-time addicts may have high blood pressure.
Due to high pressure small blood vessels in the brain start to decay and break down that cause bleeding. It hampers personal, professional and family life. Addicts suffer from depression due to failure and backwardness. Suicidal tendencies are also common. schizophrenia can also occur due to symptoms such as visual illumination, and abnormal behavioral symptoms. Excessive Yaba use can lead to death. Those who enter Yaba through the syringe, may be infected with germs of severe bleeding diseases like Hepatitis B,C and Aids. Along with increasing the amount of Yaba, the addicts become dependent on it both physically and mentally. Once you have taken Yaba for a few hours or a few times, there are many symptoms in the body and mind, so the forced addicts will go back to the world of intoxication. It is not that the addicts will never return to normal life. But this requires long-term treatment. Different types of medical procedures are shown in the advice of mental disorders specialist; They can go back to the drug-free lifestyle. Drugs, psychotherapy and other treatment options were tried to bring the drug addict back to the normal and healthy lifestyle. Sometimes surrounding environment, need to change to encourage drug addict. Psychiatrist, family members, relatives and real friends have an important role for treatment purpose. Users can get back to the healthy life with the combined support of psychiatrists and family members.
The Rise of Yaba in Bangladesh. While Yuba abuse is a relatively recent phenomenon in Bangladesh, its widespread availability on the nation’s streets has quickly become a national health concern. Just 10 years ago it was considered a niche drug for the well-to-do, but has quickly become a drug of choice among many young Bangladeshis. It is difficult to pinpoint just how serious Bangladesh’s Yuba problem is, though some estimates suggest there could be well over half a million users in Dhaka alone. The problem is thought to be particularly serious among students and the middle class. The rise of Yuba, locally known as baba, in Bangladesh can be attributed to a number of factors, not least its extremely porous border with Myanmar, the chief producer and exporter of the drug. Some reports suggest as many as 3 million Yuba pills cross the Myanmar-Bangladesh border every day, through as many as 33 land and sea smuggling routes. While reports of drug seizures by police and customs officials are commonplace, authorities seem ill equipped to effectively stem the tide of the illicit drug flowing into the country. However, the overall resistance needed to protect the youth of the country from the invasion of Yaba. The law enforcement agencies must be more active in those places where the people bring Yaba from neighboring countries. Strict action should be taken to prevent the production and supply of Yaba within the country. Exemplary punishment should give to narcotic dealers. Everybody, especially the emerging young people, must be made aware about the evil of Yaba.
