School and college students are lured towards drugs because of three reasons: fun, curiosity, or studies-related stress, says Rishiraj Singh, Excise Commissioner.
He was at Government Arts and Science College here on Wednesday to launch a State-level de-addiction drive.
Mr. Singh told the students that even if they used drugs once or twice for fun they were likely to get addicted to it. Some students might start using them out of curiosity after being persuaded by classmates, which too should be avoided.
The third reason was most important as most parents seemed to be exerting pressure on their wards to perform well in exams. Students who were not brilliant might be susceptible to stress and start using drugs or do other things.
In New Delhi, a student killed one of his juniors recently just to postpone his class exams. Fortunately, such incidents are rare in Kerala, but it might happen here too any time. “Every hour a child is committing suicide in the country due to stress. Every eight minutes, a child is running away from home,” he said.
Mr. Singh said both parents and teachers need not force children to excel in studies and let them pursue their own academic or non-academic interests, such as sports. “It is equally important that parents and teachers detect substance abuse among children in the first stage itself. Otherwise it will be impossible to cure them,” Mr. Singh said.
The onus was on parents and teachers to persuade children against falling into the trap of drug addiction. As many as 1,20,000 cases related to substance abuse were registered here in 2017. Many college and school students were found to be in the grip of drugs, even though they might be using a small quantity. The Excise Department was willing to organise awareness classes for teachers and parents on the issue, he added.
