Beating drugs scourge requires everyone to pull together

We face the possibility of losing an entire generation to drug addiction if we don’t take action now

IHAVE been fighting my personal demons for more than 16 years. It’s been 16 years since I started living a drug-free and healthy lifestyle. I am intimately aware of the havoc that drug addiction wreaks on young people and their communities.

The reality is that the road to recovery and a drug-free community cannot be taken without the support of family, friends, community members and government agencies such as development services, health facilities, the police and the entire criminal justice system.

In a single year, R20 billion is lost to the South African economy due to drug-related issues, a significant portion of the country’s wealth in a country where more than half the youth endure grinding poverty. Much of this goes to dealing with drug-related crime, and the burden of illness and disease.

Every day young people face despair. Despair that is slowly turning our communities into a cemetery of dead dreams for our youth. Surely there is something to live for, even in a country where youth unemployment is as high as ours.

If you pay attention to the findings of the Anti-Substance Abuse Formative Research for Gauteng, you will see that young people under the age of 20 in the province are, for the most part, incapable of contributing to the country’s future. Gauteng is a microcosm of what the country is facing as a whole. Drugs are quickly reaching rural communities and we dare not let them snuff the light out of many more young people.

The situation in our country is dire. The task that lies ahead can be made so much easier if all of us make a concerted effort to understand that it boils down to a single common denominator.

We need to understand that each of us carries a deep hurt inside us that we have to deal with. Alcohol, drugs and sex are the only things many people have at hand to help them carry their emotional and spiritual burdens. The 16 years since I quit taking drugs will be wasted time if I don’t take it upon myself to deal with my own trauma every day.

The people you see in the documentary, who I have worked with, have been experiencing a lot of problems. They are going through the same thing that I went through. Seeing their lives destroyed is painful. Drug abuse does huge damage to families and communities. Diyaboa ka montle ka mo – out there things are really rough.

What’s been missing in the conversation about the drugs scourge is the wisdom of linking the problems posed by this drug epidemic to wider development issues. For people to understand the far-reaching impact of the crisis, they have to start looking at how it affects communities. Better solutions will be found if all role players looked at the bigger picture.

Just because we do not use drugs does not mean that it is not our issue.

Drugs cripple communities. It is a primary health issue, a crime issue, a social development issue and a criminal justice issue. Some of the approximately 113 000 young people in South African jails are there because of nyaope, tik, heroin, you name it.

Most importantly, we are facing the real possibility of losing an entire generation to the scourge. I know the challenge. The drugs may change, the way people consume drugs might change, but the devastation is the same.

What has made drug addiction challenging to deal with is the stigma that weighs heavily on users. In communities such as Eldorado Park, a deep-seated resentment towards drug users has crept in. Although understandable under the circumstances, hate makes it even more difficult for the most important stakeholders to mobilise much-needed resources.

People look at themselves and think they can’t get help because they will be rejected – they are afraid of what people will think. It makes it hard to help because negative attitudes towards active drug addicts. Every shot of whisky, line of cocaine or hit of heroin is one too many. If you are taking more and more because you are chasing that first high, it will not be enough.

It can only end in one of three ways. You either end up dead, in prison or you are institutionalised.

Yes, it is true that government has many competing priorities and that resources are limited. But it costs more to fix the drug addiction problem than it costs to prevent it in the first place.

The road to recovery is hard. It cannot be done alone.

Together we can all fight for a Gauteng that is a 100% drug free.

Kabelo Mabalane is host and ambassador of the Soul City Institute’s documentary Kick It! which screens on SABC 2 every Friday at 8pm