Youths Warned Against Drug Abuse

{{The youth or young people are the leading majority of people that have continued to use drugs.}}

Apparently, those who use these drugs for the very first time are always curious and take them as experimentation.

This is how they get addicted and the continued use or abuse of these drugs then takes another toll.

To some youth, taking drugs or consuming alcohol is a sign of maturity or another fashionable lifestyle.

In most cases, teens who take drugs and alcohol have to steal their parent’s money or join gang groups that engage in criminal acts during night hours.

Drug abusers use enticing words when they are trying to introduce their peers into the vice.

For instance, they say that the use of drugs is pleasurable and will drain one’s sorrows or problems and this is how many young people are tempted thus end up consuming drugs.

However, they conveniently forget to remember that once you have embroiled in this dangerous and life-threatening habit, breaking free is extremely hard.

Youth need to know that there is nothing essential about using drugs and the vice is unwarrantable.

Youth have also to know that drugs lead to several hazards such as organ illness, depression, social stagnancy and financial instability.

The most applicable way of trying to stop the youth from engaging in drug use is to put a stronger emphasis on impeding the ways they access the drugs.

Rwanda National Police (RNP) is doing a lot of work in preventing the channels youth use to access drugs.

Now it is time for parents to join hands with the police to sensitize their children, brothers and sisters to lead a drug free life.

To successfully bring an end to drug abuse, sensitization through posters, billboards, stickers, etc., should be used so as ensure that people all over the country have been educated about the use of drugs and their consequences and have same level of understanding.

In schools where most students take alcohol and smoke cigarettes as well as marijuana, there is a need to have anti-drug clubs and administrators should engage their pupils and students in the culture of sport and physical education so as to prevent them from being unoccupied.

Last year, the Ministry of health’s study confirmed that 52% of the Rwandan youth between 15 and 35 years old consume alcohol, 41% smoke cigarettes, and 20% use marijuana at least once in a lifetime.

16% of the mental health cases in the country are due to drug abuse. Most of all those are in urban areas.

The issue of drug abuse should not be left on the security agencies alone but it should be everyone’s responsibility to help the Government address the issue.

RNP