Youth Addiction -A dark cloud in the bright sky of Kolkata

Addiction is an evil, which is a menace to the society or an individual, more or less everyone seems to have an addiction, and it can be from drinking coffee, gambling, shopping to drinking alcohol, smoking and consumption of drugs. Some of the addictions are only threat to the very individual or the very family, but some of them are not only threat to the individual or the family but also to the society. Drug and alcohol addiction of late have emerged as a great peril to Kolkata as the young generation is falling prey to this demon easily. Young generation takes it as a sensation, a symbol of modernism at first but soon they become enslaved by it.

Mainly the age group between 18 and 24 is becoming dependent on drugs, nicotine, and alcohol. These phenomena generally occur out of curiosity, loneliness, depressing, stress, inferiority complex, excessive pressure of school or college, social life, a mental gap with parents, etc. Some parents give a good amount of pocket money to their children as a fulfilment of their absence in their children’s life, and the children end up taking drugs, drinking, smoking by that money. Most of them initiate their path to addiction with their friends at school, college, university and social gatherings. I know some of my friends who have started smoking cannabis (weed) just to quench their curiosity but soon it has become a compulsion to their every day’s life. Some I know, spend most of their money in pubs, bars, night clubs or being buying liquor from the local foreign liquor or country liquor counters, at times even when they were not of the legal age of the consumption of the same, and it goes to the extent of them running out of money and they wrangle it from their parents as they are financially dependent upon them. Sharing my experience, there are some child beggars in College Street, Rabindra Sadan area who will ask you for money to have some food, but many times I’ve seen them smoking cigarettes,  bidi, sniffing dendrite and judging by face and physic they are not older than 10-12 years.

The following are the categories of addiction Kolkata’s young generation is into:

Alcohol, Weed, Nicotine, LSD (lysergic acid), Dendrite. They say it helps them to alter their state, hallucinate, get rid of mental and physical pain, and ease their stress. It’s a trend amongst them. The youth today resents to addiction on every occasion. They need to drink to celebrate when they pass an exam, they need to drink if they fail in an exam when they are partying, it surely means they are drinking, smoking or smoking up weed if its a house party. There are guys who even get into the addiction holding on to excuses that it stimulates their powers to think or may be to pass their lonely leisure time. All they need is an excuse to trigger their addiction.

Short term effects may not have that much fatal impact but the long term effect is very horrid for the individuals, for the respective families and for our city, Kolkata as they are the backbone of our future. The instantaneous effect may be very soothing but as the tolerance increases, they need to dope in a bigger quantity which can lead to even financial hardship and they end up stealing from friends, family, and relatives.  Paranoia, mood swings, memory loss, body noose, drowsiness can reduce the energy, creativeness and zeal of doing some works.

We can end it by putting our efforts together, but the youth has to be conscious, has to be sensible of what they are doing. None but only they, can give it a period. Addiction will only bring sorrow and woe to our city, Kolkata. As the Biblical proverb says, “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging”. “At the last, it bites like a serpent and stings like and viper”