Drug and substance abuse in Alex where aptly put in the spotlight in a township struggling with many associated ills.
Several speakers highlighted the concern about this scourge on 26 June, the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, to residents who had gathered at the East Bank Hall.
The dangers from the abuse are often mininised or ignored mostly by youth who turn to drugs for a variety of reasons including experimenting, peer pressure, to ward off boredom, stress and problems associated with poverty and unemployment.
Councillor Teffo Raphadu said the occasion was befitting in a township struggling with many social challenges centred around drug and alcohol abuse. “The youth wrongfully associated the abuse with being cool despite the serious psycho-social damage cause to the abuser.
“Consequences include alcohol fetal syndrome in babies and slow learners who later on in life struggle with a variety of physical and mental limitation to their development.”
He said children emulated the habit of abuse they see daily in the community with many older residents and within the family showing no concern or desire to shield them from the abuse. “The children are left with no one to warn them about the resulting psycho-social dangers.
“They then graduate from cigarettes to hard and more lethal drugs including the dreaded nyaope ravaging the township.”
Raphadu urged for role models who will encourage the youth to always be in control of themselves, imbibe more responsibly, show care and love for each other through constant advice and introspect as groups and lead goal-orientated lives.
He encouraged them to desist from frequenting and sleeping in taverns and to be part of the change they want to see in Alexandra by also reporting drug dealers and criminals to the police. “Parents should also plant in the children a seed that will germinate into good citizens.”
The event on youth month was lauded by Xolani Mpelane of the River Park Drug Treatment Centre at River Park Clinic. “The abuse of drugs and substances by the youth, with those struggling with poverty and unemployment abusing them to cope with their hardship.
“Others do so with mistaken belief that drugs and alcohol are the only way to have fun.”
He disclosed that South Africa ranked among the highest of countries with this seemingly increasing problem globally. “Various interventions are being applied to mitigate the challenge through services at the clinic for those who seek help.
“Let’s spread the message about the rehabilitation and other services offered to family members, neighbours with addicted children and to the entire community.
Constable Bongani Mbalati of Alexandra Police Station, who is also a poet, said it should be of concern that local youth are more involved in drugs than many counterparts of foreign origin residing in the country. “Crime intelligence reveals this and that the dealers and their children do not indulge but lead lavish lives at the expense of our children.”
He added that most of their customers compounded their families’ poverty by stealing meagre resources from their homes to fuel their habit. Mbalati questioned the morality of dealers for selling drugs knowing that they destroyed lives of 15-year- olds.
“Let’s declare war against drugs through collective participation,” he said while reciting his poem on the danger of drug use.
He also warned those who misinterpreted the legal use of drugs within the home by smoking in public that they will be arrested.
This said in addition to admonishing those who sold cookies laced with drugs at schools after reports of a local primary school teacher who acted funny after consuming them.
Mbalati further urged those alleging police collusion with drug dealers to provide details and registration numbers of vehicles used to enable internal police investigations.
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