"Strong black coffee" was the mantra for many kids but come 2010, even in Nepal, students are fed up of coffee and are moving ahead not knowing the after effects of "drugs". The new generation of students "try" drugs to study and/or to focus on something and get addicted not knowing how to rid of the habit.
19-year-old Koshish started smoking marijuana at the age of 15 when he was in class nine. "I didn´t know that it helped focus on things. One day I smoked with my friends and then I had to study because I had exams and I could really focus. Since then I´ve been smoking," shares Koshish.
When asked if he knew the after effects of marijuana, "halkaa fulkaa thaachha" ie ´I know a bit´ was all he could say but did not elaborate on it.
Worldwide, young boys and girls are victims of peer pressure-pressure from their friends to try drinking, smoking, or trying drugs. Also, since children learn from their seniors, it becomes somewhat of a compulsion to try and ´the try´, most of the time, ends up as an addiction.
For Koshish, it was seniors, friends circle and media and movies influence which led him to try marijuana. He says, "I want to quit and so have lessened my consumption" but the lessening of consumption doesn´t help, says Dr Krishna Gauchan.Dr Gauchan has been helping young boys and girls at the Richmond Rehabilitation Center in Dhulikhel and Mental Hospital in Lalitpur.
"Drug users often feel that excessive marijuana smoking or regular intake of any other drug can cause a person to become more dependent on the drug and make them feel they are helpless without it, which is not the case," says Dr Gauchan.
Marijuana, on the other hand, is not considered a dangerous drug but it can produce paranoia and psychosis. Users often inhale the unfiltered smoke deeply and then hold it in their lungs, which damages the lungs and pulmonary system. Marijuana smoke contains more cancer-causing agents than tobacco smoke.
For 24-year-old Dipen, however, life was going smooth until he took a U-turn at the age of 21 and started taking brown sugar, a narcotic which initially produces a feeling of euphoria that often is followed by drowsiness, nausea, and vomiting. But now, Dipen has stopped taking the narcotic frequently but he says he cannot concentrate on his studies.
"I try and studied the last time when I had exams without taking any drug but it was just impossible," shares Dipen.
"There is no such thing as not being able to study without the intake of the drug. Most drug users find many ways to go back to drugs. One needs to concentrate more and it will happen," suggests Dr Gauchan.
In Nepal, the youth are burning out because of the political instability and the education system which in turn leads them to cigarette or drugs addiction. Many students also try and go abroad but when their visas are rejected, out of frustration, it may lead to substance abuse as well.
There are around 70,000 drug users in Nepal of which 17,000 are already HIV positive. "The number of drug users in Nepal is rapidly increasing," informs Dr Gauchan and he blames depression, tension, domestic fight and curiosity for young people to indulge in drugs. Some children, however, take drugs at an early age because their parents do so and are born with that way genetically.
Drug user or not, it all boils down to concentration and will power.
(*Names of the two students in the article have been changed upon request.)
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