The mother of two daughters and the son who started taking drugs while in the twelfth grade and has quit studying since has run out of ideas after taking him to different places in India. “He stops using drugs for some time after treatment at rehab centers but again relapses. He has damaged the family´s esteem. I wish he were not born,” Gurung says with misty eyes. [break]
Similarly, Harikala Gurung (name changed) is also concerned about her two sons´ drug habits. “The elder started while in the eighth class and the younger followed by the time he also got to class eight. Both of them have now quit study,” the mother of two sons and three daughters reveals.
Fed up with the situation, Harikala chased away her elder son and handed the younger over to police. “I took the younger to the police after they said he could not be arrested in absence of proof,” Harikala says.
Mothers like Sita and Harikala in Pokhara have united against drugs. They have been raising awareness about the hazards of drugs and even handing over peddlers and addicts to police.
Three affected mothers formed a Mother Group for Control of Drugs and Social Reforms in 2004 and the group now has 60 members, including 45 victims. Even mothers of clean children have joined since then. “No one is a drug user in my family but I have joined empathizing with the problems faced by the mothers of drug users,” says vice-president of the group Maya Gurung.
The mothers spend hard-earned money collected through dances, deusi and donations on informers, and have so far handed over around five dozen peddlers to the police and dragged around 200 addicts to rehabilitation centers.
“We raid the suspicious spots used for the sale of drugs with help from the police,” says secretary of the group Bishnu Gurung. “We go home to home to raise awareness and find peddlers through our secret sources,” she reveals of the group´s modus operandi.
Police records show that 84 were arrested for distribution of drugs in the 2064/65 fiscal year, 17 of which are serving jail sentences while the rest have been released on bail. Similarly, 53 have been arrested prior to Baisakh in this fiscal year with 36 out on bail.
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