Parents told to help kids say no to drugs

Parents told to help kids say no to drugs

JAKARTA (JP): Parents, don't neglect to look out for your
teenage kids, otherwise, your beloved children may have to face a
dangerous challenge -- drugs -- alone.

This call came from a social worker helping people, many of
them alarmingly young, to get over their drug addictions.

Teenagers are most vulnerable to becoming addicted to drugs,
said David D. Gordon, founder of the Harapan Permata Hati Kita
Foundation in Bogor.

The main activities of the foundation are caring for and
rehabilitating drug addicts.

"Most victims at drug recovery centers here are teenagers,"
Gordon said at a discussion on drug cure and prevention at
Soebono Mantovani Islamic boarding school in South Jakarta on
Thursday.

When children are in the age range of 14 to 17, they begin to
have wider social contacts than they did in elementary school, he
said.

"They are starting to go to malls, watching girls and trying
all the fun things they can during their junior high school
years, as they have more freedom from their parents," Gordon
explained.

Thus, parents and all parts of the community need to address
the problem, he said.

"Parents, government officers, non-governmental organizations
and teachers should contribute to solving the problem."

Gordon suggested that more discussions and meetings on drugs
could be held to give people addicted to drugs the chance to
share their experiences and problems.

Such events also become a means of education for the public,
especially teenagers, on the dangers of drugs, he said.

Gordon also said that the role of the media was important in
making young people realize that drug use can have a very
destructive effect on their lives.

"But the media should make news reports that can educate
people, rather than simply grabbing people's attention by
dramatizing facts," he said.

Bella Parama and Yoga Pratama, two young people currently
undergoing treatment for their drug addictions at Permata Hati
Kita Foundation, shared their experiences with a group of
students, teachers and local government officials at the boarding
school.

Bella, 23, said it was cigarettes that later led him to
consume alcohol, heroin and putauw (low-grade heroin).

"I consumed the drugs to demonstrate that I was more
courageous than my other friends," he said.

Bella stressed that social contacts often are an important
factor in leading people to start using drugs.

"For example, I got the drugs from my friends. I had spent
much of my spare time with them rather than with my family," he
added.

Yoga told a similar story.

He said he had lied to his mother and sold his belongings to
get money to buy putauw.

Nancy, the mother of another young drug addict, told the
audience that she would do her best to save her son's life after
realizing that he was heavily addicted by putauw.

"After I discovered that it is very difficult and expensive to
cure people of their drug addictions, I realized that the most
valuable thing in the world is my children," she said. (asa)