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Kathmandu Saturday December 29, 2001 Paush 14, 2058.
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Deadly drugs
The rampant use of drugs, which has hit this
country really hard as a result of the open border system between Nepal and India, has
always been a matter of grave concern. Unfortunately, the open border has provided easy
access to both soft and hard drugs, with the full knowledge of the government. Students,
women and young girls have become victims of such drugs. If the government had monitored
the human traffic across the open border thoroughly, the number of drug addicts and inflow
of drugs into this country would have been less than what they are today. But that did not
happen. What has happened is that thousands of girls and boys have been hooked on both
soft and hard drugs pushed by traffickers and peddlers. Besides, the government has
introduced no measures to rehabilitate the addicts or prevent them from mingling with
other people. As a result, hundreds of people, especially youths, continue to fall prey to
such deadly drugs.
A study conducted by the Richmond Fellowship
Nepal states that more than 1,500 women in Kathmandu and Pokhara have become addicted to
hard drugs, leave aside the young boys and girls who have contracted HIV as a result of
exchange of drug syringes. They include a large number of students who should be preparing
themselves for life. The women tend to be divorcees, the wives of drug addicts and drug
peddlers themselves. The reasons behind their addiction, cited by the research group, are
family discord, poverty, lack of shelter and even sheer curiosity. The women who indulged
in such drugs have also been lured into the sex trade as they have no means to purchase
the drugs they need for their daily doses. Such activity has not only affected a large
section of students but also created serious social and economic problems in the country
as a whole.
The hard and deadly drugs traded across the
porous border between Nepal and India include brown sugar, heroin, dentrite, marijuana,
tdjesic, etc. The soft drugs - hashish and marijuana - either grow wild or are cultivated
in this country illegally. Both Nepal and India have yet to come up with adequate measures
against the drug peddlers. The hard drugs enter this country from Myanmar, where they are
cultivated by Myanmar rebels, through northeast India. These rebels have been cultivating
such drugs to sustain their fight against the Myanmar junta since the 1950s, a few years
after that country formerly known as Burma got its independence from Great Britain. But
the way such deadly drugs are traded across the open border shows that both Nepal and
India have yet to take such activities seriously. Nepal alone cannot prevent drug
peddling, nor can we be free from such activity unless India joins in efforts to crack
down on drug peddlers. The government must take this problem seriously and seek
India’s help to prevent cross border drug trade. Besides, the government must also
introduce stringent measures against those who grow soft drugs illegally in the country. |
