Recently in a school in the Kannur district, a ninth-standard girl, suffering from anxiety, was given dark chocolate by her senior. He said it will calm her mind. She felt better on the first bite itself, as he had promised. The next day she felt an urge to have the chocolate one more time and went to her senior boy who had given her the chocolate. Slowly she was becoming addicted to the drug that was given to her.

Once she became addicted to the drug, the girl was taken to many places and raped. Nude videos were taken by the drug mafia, which they used to blackmail her. She was forced to become a supplier of drugs to fellow students and to students of other schools.

The girl tried to commit suicide many times. However, she revealed her plight in counselling and in the end the plus 1 student who first lured her into drug addiction got caught.

Opposition Leader, VD Satheesan, related a sad story in the Legislative Assembly about drug abuse. It was about his long-time friend’s son, who had to be admitted to a rehabilitation centre for the second time. Satheesan says that he used to carry the boy when he was a baby and grew up to be smart and intelligent. The boy also passed his engineering studies at a prominent college.

However, he ended up as a drug addict. The family, friends, and everyone are hoping that the boy will back to a normal life.

The new generation of boys and girls are posting pictures on social media of using drugs and enjoying drug parties in hostels without any qualms. Students are given free drugs and made addicts of the substance. Then they are used to supply drugs to fellow students in schools and colleges.

Under the influence of narcotics, the students get involved in anti-social activities. They are being used for criminal activities. The drug menace cannot be stopped by standing in an anti-drug human chain or symbolically burying drugs. Strict actions must be taken against those who are involved in the drug trade. Those who get arrested in drug cases must be kept in custody as preventive detention.

The number of students who went to a rehabilitation centre in a year is 3933. More than half of them are underage students. Ten times more this number might have undergone anti-drug treatment in secret. Even after treating the children for more than a hundred days, 20% of the students are unable to overcome their addiction. Only a small percentage of drug addicts go to rehabilitation to get treatment. Those who used to buy drugs from the internet also were among those who sought treatment.

A teacher of a school in Kochi said that on the day of the third allotment for plus 1, the Excise department caught nine students of the school while they were buying stuff. They were apprehended by the officers who were undercover. Some of the students have been using drugs since the seventh standard.

Recently, the teacher got a phone call from a police station four kilometres away. They had caught a girl and four boys from a house for immoral trafficking. The girl was a plus 2 student of the school. The girl had named another nineteen girls who use drugs in the school. When investigated all these girls were found to be drug addicts.

The menace of drugs is real and is slowly sucking the life out of our children. If it is not put under control, the new generation will become a lost generation.