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The event was held at St Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church in Makokoba and was to commission a research done by Mr Danisa Nkomo, on behalf of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) to raise awareness among youths on the prevalence of drug and substance abuse in the city.
Those invited to the launch included members of CCJP both adults and youths, the clergy from the church, youths and their advisors, pupils from schools and students from Bulawayo Polytechnic, Nust, Lupane State University and United College of Education and other stakeholders.
The general feeling at the event was that there is lack of coordination between stakeholders which has resulted in rampant drug abuse as the drugs are readily available on the market.
Sadly, this includes drugs which youths buy over the counter and later abuse.
A pharmacist who attended the occasion, a Mr Tirivanhu said abuse of prescribed drugs was on the increase as people would use one prescription to buy the same drug from different pharmacies until they have the quantity they want to abuse.
“There is need for coordinated efforts between all stakeholders because what we have seen is an increase in the abuse of prescribed drugs where some people including youths use a single prescription to buy drugs from 10 different pharmacies and get hoardes of drugs, which they then use illegally,” said Mr Tirivanhu.
“Drugs, both mainstream and illegal substances are being smuggled into the country because there is high demand locally. Government policy is that all drugs should be registered but we are having a problem of unknown drugs and alcohol substances being sold on street corners because there has not been a coordinated effort by all stakeholders.”
The feeling was that all stakeholders including parents, schools and other learning institutions, rehabilitation centres, police, local authority, line ministries, churches and youth advisors should work together because drug dealers were finding innovative ways of evading arrest or detection to successfully smuggle drugs which end up in the hands of youths.
“Police should come up with techniques on how to detect drugs because our children are in danger.
They are being exposed to different kinds of drugs and alcohol,” said a participant.
School children now hide packs or bottles of drugs in their school bags when they go to school or extracurricular events like sports and gatherings. Some of these substances that are found in the streets and abused by children; Tentacao imported from Zambia, Zed and cough syrups like Ngoma and Bron Clear which are popular in western suburbs and have flooded the market.
Bron Clear is imported from Botswana. These substances are illegal products in Zimbabwe but always find their way into the country and are being sold in the streets.
The effects of these has been noticed in touts whose behaviour and appearance has been of dirt, coupled with violence and vulgar language after taking these substances especially at the Basch Street bus rank popularly known as Egodini where they are mostly sold and consumed.
The researcher Mr Nkomo said his findings were that parent and guardian involvement is critical in stopping drug abuse.
He said the critical role of ensuring a drug free community should start within the family.
“Parents have a role to play in ensuring that children have a drug-free life. When our children start consuming drugs and we ignore them, they will come back to haunt us again by stealing, beatings us, or abusing others. There are several community involvement groups, which we and our children could be members of and try to improve their lives,” he said.
Some children have engaged in drugs because of lack of supervision as parents leave them in the custody of guardians or alone as they go to seek greener pastures outside the country.
An official from Ingutsheni Psychiatric Hospital said parents should be wary of things like violence, unusual quietness and breaking of property. These are possible signs that a child would have started taking drugs.
Interestingly, people only take mbanje, cocaine, mandrax to be the only major illegal drugs forgetting that tobacco, beer and other alcoholic substances and syrups are alcoholic and dangerous too. Some of them are too sweet such that a layman would not tell it is a drug.
We have seen or heard of many people being intoxicated by such substances.
Archbishop Alex Thomas of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bulawayo who was guest of honour at the event challenged both parents and youths to reflect on the importance of life saying abuse of any drug renders life useless.
“It is very important that we take an active role in tackling this challenge of drug abuse. It is unfortunate that those who sell drugs do it for money, they want to earn a living forgetting that they are putting somebody’s life in danger.
“We should be able to challenge drug abuse because it is happening in our own homes, neighbourhood and church,” he said.
Archbishop Thomas said many youths experiment with drugs for a number of reasons ranging from curiosity to know how it tastes or how it would affect them. Some would want to have a good time, others pushed by peer pressure, stress, or need to boost performance in sports among others.
It is worth noting that every drug, be it illegal or prescribed has side effects.
The biggest challenge in the fight against drug abuse is that some parents do not lead by example as they abuse drugs in front of their children who end up adopting the same behaviour.
Parents should remember that children are watching and would take after them when they grow up.
Socialisation starts within a family and if a parent takes drugs chances are high the child would become a drug addict too.
Archbishop Thomas said some people abused drugs because they want to “solve” problems not knowing they would be worsening them.
“Some abuse drugs because they have problems not knowing they are only worsening them. Human life is precious, let us preserve it and prepare a drug-free society for future generations. If we allow drugs in our lives 20 years from today our lives would have changed for the worst because we only get life once. Sometimes our youths are afraid to say no to drug abuse while many children have also been orphaned because of drugs,” he said.
Online Reporter