Mokokchung Times News
Mokokchung, March, 5
In one year alone, Nagaland State registered 217 drug cases and 309 arrests according to the recent data released by Nagaland Police. The State Police has aggressively carried out its enforcement duties to curb the menace of drugs and contraband goods from the State. However, the reiteration by the institution that any person “indulging in drug abuse” or drug trafficking will be sternly dealt with, as per provisions under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
Under various sections of NDPS Act, a person who produces, manufactures, possesses, sells, purchases, transports, imports inter-State, exports inter-State or uses cannabis, opium, psychotropic drugs etc. can be punishable up to a period of 10 years along with a fine worth up to lakhs.
Drug addiction or dependence is a chronic dysfunction of the brain system characterized by the compulsive choice to take a psychoactive drug on a continuous foundation so that one can experience its satisfying effects. The various common reasons causing addiction include peer stress, curiosity, frustration, instability in domestic quarters, relationship problems, unemployment, etc. An addict, unlike the general view, can be anyone from any background with any income and education.
“The saying, ‘you only live once’ and should try everything in life is something I’m not a fan of because when it comes to alcohol and drugs, not everyone is going to have the same reaction,” Price, a recovering addict from Dimapur told Mokokchung Times.
“Some of my friends would party with the rest of us for weeks and stay sober the next week but it wasn’t like that for me and some of my friends,” he continued.
Price, who is now sober for seven years, started using pills and marijuana at the age of sixteen and turned to hard drugs at nineteen. “I was curious at first but whenever I got high, it helped me forget my worries and that’s how I started,” he said.
According to him, he usually bought his substance from in between the borders of Assam and Nagaland.
Sharing about his journey as an addict, he explained that convincing people to offer him money was one of his greatest challenges. “People didn’t trust me enough and at the same time, they didn’t want me to suffer. Also, the fear of getting caught by cops was there but the last thing I cared about was what society thought of me.”
Price explained how all addicts share the common thought: “This will be my last time,” but usually never turns it into action. He explains this as ‘helplessness’ as many addicts genuinely intend to quit but keep failing.
“I woke up a morning late, angry because I was afraid that I might not be able to get my drugs. That’s when my mother asked me where I was going and told me that she had sent our driver to pick my drugs. And that really made me think what I was doing- I was even making my mother buy drugs for me! And this incident really pushed me to decide for rehab,” he shared.
Speaking about the kind of help he received in Nagaland, he said he was not much aware about it as he is not involved with foundations like Kripa in Nagaland or with any other Narcotics Anonymous (NA) group.
Reacting to the common saying, “once an addict, always an addict,” he said he agrees with it but not in the line of how generally people perceive it.
“As an addict, it’s good for me to think that way because it makes me more careful and not overconfident about my recovery,” he said. “Recovery slips when we become overconfident. However, I do not agree with people’s perception of ‘Oh, you’re an addict, you’ll never change’ or ‘you’ll always lie and manipulate people’. I think these things are just blanket stigmatization,” he added.
Speaking about the challenges an addict goes through during recovery, he said, ‘Just because you send him or her to rehab doesn’t mean he’ll be de-addicted. Rehab can help you in detoxification; that is, free your body from the chemicals. However, addiction is a brain disease and people usually start indulging into such substances because of various underlying issues and such issues need to be addressed and dealt with; otherwise only a simple detoxification will put the addict in high risk of relapsing.”
As recovering from addiction is a personal process, he believes that each has their individual story. However, he prefers a secular approach as mixing it with faith might give fatal results when the addict relapses.
“I have come across many people who share their testimony of being sober by giving credit to God. It is all well and good as long as he is sober. But there are some who pray and fast for weeks and months and when they still can’t quit, they become devastated because they are left with the apprehension that even God cannot cure them and that’s a worse feeling than your own addiction,” he shared.
In conclusion, he hoped that the society will do away with their preconceived notions about addiction and instead focus on learning more about ‘addiction as a brain disorder’ and not stigmatize it or discriminate against the addicts.
“As someone who has been clean for seven years, I just want to say that we may be clean from substances but since we’ve been using for so many years, our way of thinking isn’t much different from an addict. It takes time to change perspective, to view the world from a recovering addict’s point of view and it’s really hard to do it by ourselves. We need love, care and faith in us and our recovery especially from family members, friends and loved ones,” he finished.
(The name has been changed to protect the identity)