Youths central to development

National Youth Day tomorrow is a public holiday and while it has been one since 2018, this year is the first time it has been possible to arrange serious public activities with youths and organisations and use the day to address major issues that affect young people.

It is important to note the first word of the title of the public holiday, “national”, and the fact that it is a national public holiday. The break in events in recent years can stress the major switch from what was largely events organised by a political party on the same day of the year for some decades to events now co-ordinated under the general, but not exclusive aegis of a Government ministry.

The emphasis is on youths as a whole, regardless of how their parents or even themselves in some cases may vote, and on what they want and what they need. And having a day set aside each year for this helps to focus attention on both, although obviously young people should not be ignored for the rest of the year.

The fact that the choice of the actual date honours the late President Robert Mugabe can help everyone remember his immense contributions as first Prime Minister and first Executive President, including opening education right up to tertiary level to all, a vital component of any youth policy. All humans make mistakes, but we need to remember what people got right.

The basic thrust of today’s events is to start tackling the growing problem of drug abuse, which affects all age groups, but is generally more prevalent among younger people and certainly more damaging among those moving out into the world. So this is both a national issue and a youth issue that cuts across all potential divisions, and an issue that must involve the youths themselves.

A lot of work has been done in gathering facts and working out ways over how effective campaigns can be run.

Starting more effective action now that Zimbabwe is launched on a path of economic growth is important. Growing prosperity carries the risk of more drug abuse, simply because more people can afford to abuse drugs, and abuse ever more addictive and “harder” drugs, although the dangers of alcohol and mbanje are bad enough.

To this can be added the fact that the criminal elements around the world, and Zimbabwean criminals are no different, seem to be doing a lot of research in finding new drugs, and new distribution channels.

Any effective policy to curb or end substance abuse has to concentrate on potential users. While going after suppliers is necessary and useful, experience around the world has shown that it alone is not good enough. The USA devotes more resources than any other nation into interdicting supplies, and has the largest prison population for drug-related offences, and yet has one of the worse records of substance abuse.

Criminals will get around barriers, just adding the costs to their prices, and so we are back into the one downside of creating a prosperous and open country. We have to cut demand and try and persuade people that there are better ways of living.

This means the youths themselves have to be involved, and be involved in a central position. Middle-aged moralists giving lectures is unlikely to get much attention, although ensuring that youths have the information and data is obviously essential.

We have experience in this already. We are beating back HIV, with some dramatic progress over the years, because we involved those most at risk, and they tend to be teenagers and young adults.

We dumped the moralising, which was obviously ineffective, and instead made sure that those at risk had all the information they needed and then relied on their good sense, and young people are smart and can be sensible, to minimise the risks. We also provided the necessary back-up and resources. But even those services needed people to use them.

The same sort of approach is likely to be the most effective when it comes to drug abuse, with the addition of showing those tempted that there are better ways to achieve contentment and excitement.

Already young people are aware of the dangers. Most are related to or know an alcoholic or can at least see one lurching around. And we need to remember that alcohol abuse, in the sense of drinking to drunkenness, is just as much drug abuse as sniffing cocaine and often done for the same reasons.

Some people take to drugs for the glamour or because “everyone does it”. Some take that route because they want to brighten up their lives, and some do it because they have despaired of ever going another route.

So we have to go a lot further than just pointing out the inevitable downside and degradation of substance abuse, although that has to be done as one of the programmes in the information area. Drugs are not glamorous. We have to go further than offering effective rehabilitation programmes to addicts who want to go clean, although we must do that.

Here the growing number of Government and other programmes that are opening doors to youths are important, not just economically, but because those doors open into worlds that offer the rewards of happy and productive lives.

The thrill of excelling at something you enjoy doing, at beating back everything that can derail your dreams, is far greater than shoving a chemical into your body.

Here, to a degree, we can use that general feeling common to young people that they can and should be able to do better than their parents and elders.

So this is an excellent way of effectively re-energising our National Youth Day, concentrating on something that needs to be done, something that the youths need to be central in the action. The rest of us can support their efforts, but they have to be in the front.