Drug
addiction ruins many families
Taslima
Hossan
Inside
the room, lit only by a kerosene lamp, five men crouched around a small
stool. The lamp flickers on the stool while the men use a foil to heat
up something they call heroin, a popular drug for the addicts. The five
men are there in different shapes and doing different things. One is
holding a pipe while another, tears in his dreary eyes, looks for more
drugs.
The
scene is common in many slum huts in Dhaka's Saidabad area, according
to some neighbours. Such "adda" takes place in hundreds of
huts in the impoverished area - sometimes to the knowledge of law enforcement
agencies. Some parties go late into the night. And there are women too.
Rasheda
( not her real name) does odd work for survival. At 28, she looks like
a woman in the late 50s. She loses balance and trembles like a sick
person whenever she fails to get her doses of heroin. She waits for
others to finish and take in the leftover because she has no money to
buy the drug.
Not
long ago she was happy with her husband and a daughter. But her trouble
began when the husband -- a small trader -- left her to marry another
woman. Looking for work, she met another woman who introduced her to
this darkened life where poor and struggling people resort to drugs
often to bury their sorrows and miseries. However, the addition leads
them to further miseries.
Drug
abuse and addiction have become a growing phenomenon in Bangladesh,
especially in cities. It has affected people from all walks of life.
The clients are from all sections of the society -- the rich as well
as the poor. Pinpointing a reliable data on the number of drug addicts
across the country is difficult. But unofficial estimates put the number
at more than 2 million, including women. Anti-drug volunteers found
more than 63 women in Saidabad City Palli in January this year. The
addicts include housewives and even female students. Most of the addicts
take phensidyl, heroin, pathedrin and ganja.
Life,
an anti-drug organisation, has recently conducted a survey on 465 students
from higher institutions, including the Dhaka University - and 130 of
them were women - from 33 male and 12 female dormitories. The survey,
however, also included cigarette as a drug. The survey found that 55
percent male and nearly 8 percent female students smoke cigarettes while
alcohol is taken by about 14 percent male and about 4 percent female
students. About 12 percent female students were found to be addicted
to bhang and charas. A small percentage of female
students were found to be heroin addicted. According to another survey,
the addiction was found to be high among prostitutes.
Consider
sex worker Khodeza. She says she takes drugs to bury pain and illness.
She says there are clients who would force sex workers to take drugs.
Loneliness,
failure of love affairs, neglect by husbands and relatives and violence
are the reasons why women take to drug addiction, experts say. To this
category belong women from middle and upper classes and even educated
housewives. Some are led to this dark alley by drug addicted husbands.
That's what has happened with Shila, a housewife in Dhaka. One night
she complained of appendicitis pain and her husband told her to take
heroin. Shila realised that she made a mistake and one day she met a
friend of her husband who misled her to further drug addiction. She
wanted to quit, but it seemed too late.
Doctors
say drug addiction is more harmful to women than men. Says Dr. Zhunu
Shamsunnahar, who treats psychiatric patients, drug addiction affects
women's reproduction abilities; causes irregular menstruation and abortion.
Drug addicts are also at a risk of contracting deadly disease AIDS.
In addition to causing physical problems, drug addicts also suffer from
mental problems.
There
are a number of private centres, including Central Drug Treatment Centre
in Dhaka, to deal with drug addicts and their treatment. There are facilities
for women too. The centres also offer telephone counseling.
Paltu,
35, has recovered from drug addiction after two years of regular therapy
and treatment. Dr. Mahadev Chandra Mandol, who works at the Drug Treatment
Centre, says a drug addict can recover with a two-year uninterrupted
treatment. However, steps are taken against relapses.
Advocate
Rehana Sultana says that anti-drug measures should be strengthened.
They say drug trafficking carries up to death sentence as the maximum
penalty.
-NewsNetwork.