Stay away from drugs
KEEP the youths busy if you want to keep them away from drugs.
That is the sentiment among former drug addicts who think that the reason teenagers get involved in illicit activities is because they do not know what to do with their free time.
Combine boredom with peer influence and you have a recipe for disaster, says former drug addict Mohd Rashid Hashim.
He says that youths are easily influenced by their peers and are also very curious, not to mention reckless.
“They spend a lot of time with their ‘members’, gathering at ‘points’ because they do not know where to go and hang out,” he adds.
“They do not dare take drugs at home where their families can catch them.”
Relating his own experience of being addicted to heroin for 25 years, Mohd Rashid says he was also influenced by his friends from school.
Not only did he smoke the substance but he was also selling it.
Mohd Rashid feels the curfew is a good move “because these children should not be out so late at night.”
“Why must these children be on the streets at 2am when they should be at home sleeping? They have to go to school in the morning,” he adds.
He says he voluntarily entered the Cure & Care Clinic in Sungai Besi for rehabilitation and managed to quit.
The centre conducts programmes such as therapeutic communities where addicts can voluntarily enter for two years.
The programme is designed to change the behaviour and mindset of these “clients” and include counselling sessions.
The former heroin addict says that we should at least “trial” the curfew implementation.
“I think this will help stop the (drug abuse) problem from becoming worse for the children and their families,” he adds.
Mohd Rashid believes that this method is needed considering the way times are changing nowadays.
He says that this will also result in parents becoming more responsible towards their children.
Another former addict Naim says that the youths should be kept occupied with lots of activities to stop their minds from wandering.
This is one of the things he picked up from the Cure & Care Clinic in Sungai Besi, where he has been for the past eight months getting treatment for his addiction to syabu (methamphetamine).
“They keep us very busy here so that we do not think about taking drugs,” he says, adding that this same principle can be applied as a preventive measure for youths taking drugs.
“If they have other things to do with their peers, they won’t get involved in selling or taking drugs,” he says.
He believes the curfew can help prevent teenagers from getting involved in illicit activities late at night.
He says that youths do get themselves entangled in drugs and he himself has seen it happen, adding that it is more rampant at night especially in nightclubs or entertainment outlets.
The former addict says he wanted to turn himself in to the police when he felt his addiction was taking over his life.
“I could not get a job and I was easily agitated and getting angry at everything,” he adds.
He told his ex-wife about his plan, adding that she told him about the Cure & Care Clinic in Sungai Besi.
That is where he has been for the past eight months.
Naim says that keeping youths at home is a good way to curb the problem as the children will also be able to spend more time with the family.
Family support, he adds, is an important element in not only keeping kids away from drugs but also in curing them of their addiction.
National Anti-Drugs Agency (AADK) director-general Datuk Seri Zulkifli Abdullah says that high-risk youths have nowhere to turn to release their pent up energy.
To help them channel their energy towards something productive, he says the Youth and Sports Ministry will be creating more sports facilities in urban and rural high-risk areas.
Its minister Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman said last week that areas identified as “highrisk” are those with a large number of “drug cases, rempit and so on.”
He said they will focus on these areas as well as approach the people there to help them adopt a healthier lifestyle.
Giving an example of teenagers living in People’s Housing Projects (PPR), Zulkifli said that the youths are confined to small spaces.
“There is not enough room in the flats so the youngsters go out and try to find entertainment outside,” he adds.
Hence, they prefer to hang out outside of home but when they are out, there are not many facilities for them.
There must be political commitment if everyone is serious about tackling the drug menace, he adds.
“The community also needs to be involved because AADK and the police alone cannot solve the drug problem.
“You should not avoid addicts. You should help them,” he says in an interview.