Let’s shun drugs
UNPERTURBED by flies that hovered around him, James reached for a small bottle that was in the pocket of his torn jacket, drank the contents, grimaced and resigned to sleep like an octopus with his feet astride.
In about five minutes’ time, he started tossing and turning as he sought a perfect position to sleep.
Acquaintances called him “Professor”, while others dismissed him for a mad young man with misplaced priorities.
“He is very good at mathematics! In fact, he was a mathematics teacher. Children flock to his shack with assignments, but the moment he is paid the dollar he demands for his services, he goes to buy the highly potent musombodhiya,” said a cobbler who was mending shoes nearby.
“God’s gift is being wasted in that young man. He has a sharp intellect, social skills, but he will never stop taking drugs,” added a food vendor who claimed she often gave James leftovers.
Apart from these two, schoolchildren in the area also confessed that James was a good teacher, whose only challenge was his bad drinking habits.
“Blazo vanotsemura masvomhu avo, but kadoro kavanomwa ndiko kakaoma manje,” said one boy who was resplendent
in a Churchill Boys High School uniform.
But James is not the only person in this predicament in Glen Norah and other high-density suburbs.
There are many people, including girls, who have been ruined by drugs.
Even the well-heeled are also battling similar challenges.
Called “kunamwa”, “kusticka”, “kubhutsurwa”, “kustonwa”, “kunyura” or “bhanya-bhanya”, an embarrassing state of drunken stupor is now the hallmark of drug addicts.
Some of the drugs they take make them act like zombies, while others make them
sleep for a very long time.
For others, drugs make them stay awake. So widespread has the challenge of drug abuse become that it is not unusual to visit any community and find parents and guardians complaining about the worrying trend among youth.
When youths take drugs, they sometimes sleep for long hours, while others become hyperactive and end up doing a lot of morally reprehensible things like violence in communities.
As I commit pen to paper, gentle reader, civil courts countrywide are awash with cases where parents end up trying to evict their children because of violent behaviour and or petty theft, as they seek to buy more drugs.
“The drugs issue is giving us sleepless nights. I sent my child to school with the little money I earned from the industries thinking he would lead a better life. Now, he is always drunk and accused of all sorts of crimes.
“What is it that I have done wrong to deserve this? We need immediate action to stop this scourge.
“I have great pain in my heart as we speak,” said one elderly man in Glen Norah recently.
But he is not the only one.
“My daughter has become worse than a cat. She is always high on drugs and often comes home with men.
“As we speak, she is pregnant and I do not know who the responsible guy is. We are told that when these children drink, they engage in sexual activities.
“What is happening to our youth is so worrisome that I wish I had not given birth to such a child. I pray day and night that authorities take immediate action on suppliers of drugs and these illicit brews,” said one elderly lady.
Most communities have formed groups to keep away drug lords whose enterprises have caused them untold suffering.
Now that the highest office in the land has spoken out against drug abuse, we hope children will shun drugs and help spread the message.