'Drugs affect not only users but also families'

'Drugs affect not only users but also families'

Thomas More Adhika Prabhaswara, Member of ASEAN Law Students'
Association, Sanur, Bali

Illegal drugs have been around for thousands of years but only in
recent times have they become a worldwide scourge that is
irreverent of place, age or status.

Every year thousands of individuals are lost to drugs. The
majority of people who are affected by drugs are youths.

There is no greater asset to any country than its young
generation. They hold the future in their hands and the decisions
they make today will shape the entire region.

Drugs affect not only the users, but also their families,
schools and communities will also feel the devastation of drugs.
For this reason, they must be prepared to face drugs and
understand their potential damage.

Drugs are generally availabile but nonetheless restricted. Any
one of a number of drugs or other substances, which are strictly
regulated or outlawed because of their potential for abuse or
addiction can be found. These include those classified as
narcotics, stimulants, depressants, hallucinogens and cannabis.

In illegal trade, controlled substances are known as "drugs"
or "dope." Commonly known substances can be classified as
follows:

Cannabis: This class includes marijuana, hashish and hashish
oil. Normally smoked, this drug is essentially an intoxicant and
has no psychoactive effect or hallucinogenic effect. While it
currently is being recognized for its medicinal use in many
Western countries for such things as cancer, it recently was
recognized regionally as a treatment for glaucoma.

Cannabis is non-addictive. Between l850 and 1937, marijuana
was used as a treatment for a wide range of conditions, from
insanity to gout. During the American Prohibition (1920s and
1930s), recreational use of marijuana became widespread as a
response to the lack of alcohol.

Depressants: Barbiturates and tranquilizers such as Librium
and Valium are categorized in this class.

These drugs are used to produce sedation, to induce sleep, to
combat anxiety and to treat epilepsy. Excessive doses cause a
drunken-like state and have side effects similar to alcohol,
including a hangover.

Hallucinogens: This class includes LSD (Lysergic Acid
Diethylamide), mescaline and peyote. These drugs are often
described as psychoactive, that is affecting the mind. While
hallucination is common, other effects of the drugs depend upon
the conditions surrounding the taker while using the drugs.

LSD is sometimes used in psychotherapy, but its ultimate
effectiveness has not yet been established. These drugs are non-
addictive.

Peyote has been used in American Indian rituals since before
America was discovered by Europeans. LSD was discovered in l938
and has been regulated since the early l950s.

Narcotics: It can be divided into two groups -- opiates,
including opium, heroine, morphine and codeine -- which are
derived from the opium poppy and nonopiate synthetic narcotics
such as Demerol and Methadone.

Their major medicinal use is as a painkiller and a
tranquilizer. Outside of medicine, the recreational use of the
drugs produces euphoria, although the exact pleasure effect has
not been identified.

All narcotics are physically addicting, depending upon the
drug, the frequency and duration of its usage, and its dosage.
Symptoms of withdrawal from the addiction include weakness,
depression, nausea, vomiting, irritability, insomnia and
anorexia.

Stimulants: This group includes cocaine, a drug extracted from
the leaves of the South American coca plant, amphetamines,
synthetic drugs which first developed during the l800s, and other
amphetamine-like synthetic drugs. These drugs stimulate the
central nervous system and are used medicinally to combat
depression and narcolepsy. Excessive doses produce hyperactivity,
paranoia and other psychotic symptoms.

Drug abuse: This is the repeated or uncontrolled use of
controlled substances.

Drug abuse can cause permanent damage not only to ourselves
but also to our society:

* To Ourselves

- Drug abuse can change the personality of a user drastically
like changing moods from what used to be a happy person into a
very angry person.

- Drug abuse makes the user unconscious to themselves, their
society and makes them apthetic about anything else besides their
drug habit.

- A lack of working spirit and sometimes mental problems
because of chemical reactions from the drugs.

- They will do anything including trespassing the law or
social norms in order to get what they want.

- They will not hesitate to hurt themselves in order to
release the pain from drug addiction, which can lead to death.

* To Family

- Drug abusers often lack repspect for others, even in their
homes and toward their parents and will do any act of violence in
order to get what they want.

- They are careless about possessions such as cars; they lose
their sense of belonging and give bad names to their families.

- They waste a lot of money in the treatment and recovery
time.

* To the Nation

- The loss of the young generation from a nation which is
built upon the hopes of the young people, because they hold the
key to continue the nation.

But, we (current generation) have a more insidious danger
related to drug abuse, which is HIV/AIDS because one of the most
common transmission methods of the virus is by sharing of
needles.

In Indonesia in the year 2000, an assessment of HIV infection
in eight cities revealed that 70 percent of victims were below 24
years of age. By the year 2001, the Ministry of Health estimated
one million drug users, 60 percent of whom were injecting drug
users, of which 70 percent share needles and 15 percent are
HIV/AIDS positive.

Recommendations and action plan

At the conclusion of the Asian Youth Congress on Drug Abuse
Prevention, held in Sanur, Bali, from Aug. 26 to Aug. 29,
hundreds of young participants pledged to adopt and uphold the
following recommendations and action plan:

1. We, as the young generation, pledge to be united against
drugs, despite our differences in culture.

2. We are committed to avoiding gateway drugs and stand firm in
our decision to say "no" to drugs.

3. We vow not to treat drug addicts as criminals but as human
beings and to always be supportive of people who want to be free
of drugs.

4. We promise to be active and proactive and to create and
implement effective activities for drug abuse prevention.

It is our intention to make this pledge a reality not only on
paper, but also through our actions. The first step will be
sharing what we have experienced here with our peers back at
home.

The congress yielded several recommendations and action plans
as followed:

School-based programs

*Recommendations:

- Principals and teachers need to be trained in drug
prevention education and they should be drug and tobacco free.

- There should be drug prevention counseling centers at every
school.

- Information on the dangers of drug use should be made
available at all schools not just those in the capital.
* Action plan:

- To participate actively in the formulation of school-based
programs.

- To volunteer in regional areas to provide information and
counseling for students who don't have access to drug prevention
information.

What can young people do?

* Recommendations:

- There should be a balance of cooperation between the
schools, the communities, homes, etc.

- People of influence who can provide moral support, financing
and facilities need to back up the youth. Nevertheless, young
people should also be active in raising funds and resources.

- The youth should be taken seriously and included as
competent stakeholders in the fight against drugs.

* Action plans:

- To help in reducing the use of drugs, including alcohol, in
people who are addicted.

- To use music, movies, computers and other means to increase
the impact of prevention efforts and make prevention something
the youth want to be a part of.

Media Literacy

* Recommendations:

- Media makers should not display mixed messages that warn of
the dangers of drugs, both legal and illegal, while at the same
time glorifying but not showing the real effect they have on
users.

- Education that helps youth interpret the real meaning of
media messages need to be included in prevention efforts.

* Action plan:

- To view the media not simply as consumers but as discerning
individuals who can understand the intention of both advertisers
and other media-makers and thus protect ourselves against pro-
drug abuse tendencies.