Yielding to yaba
The recent yaba-busting drives by the elite strike force Rab, and arrest of six youngsters with some yaba tablets and 24 pornography CDs has taken the nation by surprise. Because all of the arrestees come from affluent upper class families, and used two luxurious cars for carrying and selling the drugs.
Acting on the information gathered from these arrestees, Rab raided a yaba factory in Gulshan on October 25 and seized 1.3 lakh yaba tablets worth over Tk 4 crore. They also seized 5,000 ice pills, phensidyl and foreign liquor worth Tk 46 lakh, and held one of the top drug barons.
Subsequently, Rab raided a few houses at Badda, Dhanmondi and Uttara in the capital and seized a huge quantity of yaba tablets. The seizure of large quantities of yaba tablets and ice pills clearly reveals the bare fact that the size of this illicit trade and the number of its clients are also huge.
Yaba, originally manufactured by the Nazis to help keep their troops awake for days, has become increasingly popular in many Asian countries, including Bangladesh, as a drug that is more hallucinogenic than heroin. The WHO banned yaba in 1970 across the globe. But it is still being produced in the "Golden Triangle" -- the drug producing areas, which straddle the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos.
Yaba creates an intense hallucinogenic effect and can keep users awake for days on. Chronic use of yaba has been linked to lung and kidney disorders. It damages the small blood vessels in the brain, which can lead to stroke. The long-term effects are even more jeopardous.
"Ice" is a nickname for crystal methamphetamine hydrochloride, which is a powerful, synthetic stimulant drug. Ice often looks like large, transparent and sheet-like crystal, but may also be coloured. Other nicknames for ice are "meth," "crystal meth," "shabu" and "glass."
Like other methamphetamines, ice is usually snorted, swallowed or inserted anally. It is also smoked or injected, producing a rapid onset of the drug's effects. Smoking or inhaling of ice has become more common in Australia in recent times. Smokers use a glass pipe, while others heat the ice on aluminum foil and inhale it.
Ice is a potent stimulant, which speeds up the activity of the central nervous system. Although a few deaths have been reported in Australia as a direct result of using ice, it is associated with more significant physical, emotional and social harm than other type of amphetamines.
According to experts, the deadly drugs yaba and the ice pills are smuggled into Bangladesh from Myanmar and Thailand. The Thai government launched a massive drive against yaba and ice pills in 2003, and killed more than 3,000 traders and users of the drugs. After the crackdown in Thailand, the traders have chosen Bangladesh as an alternative destination for marketing of these deadly drugs.
The youngsters who fell into the fatal grip of yaba and ice are now facing moral, physical and financial catastrophe. Many of these youngsters who are willing to get rid of this curse are unable to get out, as the drug barons have kept them under threat of kidnapping or physical assault.
The concerned authorities need to undertake youth regeneration programs with a view to steering these addicted youngsters back into normal life through a corrective course of actions. They are really in need of some well-thought out programs that will shape-up their creative urges and help them to develop their holistic outlook through active participation.
In Thailand, the number of students entering rehabilitation to get off yaba addiction has risen by nearly 1,000 percent in the past two years. Those coming off the drug are susceptible to severe depression and suicidal urges.
Drugs, of whatever kind, have an immense influence, particularly on youngsters who easily fall into the trap of the drug demons. Youngsters, especially girls, think it is fun to have a little pink pill that smells like vanilla, and yield to yaba day by day. They will be end-up with wrecked lives if we fail to help them to find the way back.
The daily Prothom Alo carried an extensive report on June 24, 2005 regarding the smuggling of the deadly drug yaba into Bangladesh, as a wake-up call for us. Unfortunately, its call was not able to waken the concerned authorities, who slept for more than two years until the recent yaba-busting drives by the Rab. Due to failure of the concerned authorities in taking proper steps in time, dangerous drugs have become deeply rooted in our society.
Bangladesh is now facing an invasion of destructive drugs -- yaba and ice. The teenagers from the affluent families, living in the posh areas of the city, are getting addicted to these drugs at an alarming rate. Worse still, these youngsters are veering towards increasing level of crimes and violence. One who takes yaba and ice pills suffers episodes of violent behaviour along with other physical and mental disorders.
Drug addiction and criminality were earlier confined to the youths from poor and under-privileged backgrounds. Now we have a reversed scenario. Affluence gained quickly is often dotted with faults that come back to haunt us, is an old saying that we find is true today among the upper class families, where the children are turning into addicts and criminals.
The society is likely to run off-balance if we cannot prevent the prevalence of drugs. It is practically impossible to accomplish this uphill task through sporadic efforts. We appreciate the recent drives against the yaba abusers and peddlers by the Rab, which should be intensified.
Meanwhile, the government has initiated diplomatic moves to get help from the countries concerned, especially Myanmar, to address the crisis arising out of use and trade in dangerous drugs. It is the right approach. Obviously, the drug menace cannot be contained by Bangladesh's effort alone. It requires a regional approach. It is high time for Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan to join hands to fight against the drug menace.
The government has formed a committee, which will meet every 15 days, to deal with the yaba menace, and decided that all yaba-related cases would be tried under the Speedy Trial Act. This is a welcome development, but a belated one.
Parents, teachers and the civil society members also should not avoid their responsibility for starting a social movement to raise peoples' awareness against drug addiction. Pressure should also be created on the government to improve the logistics when the addicts want to return to normal life. Otherwise, we will have a generation yielded to yaba.
A. N. M. Nurul Haque is a columnist of The Daily Star.
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