It is very well said that drugs work as slow poison and those addicted can’t help themselves beyond a point even if they fully realize the consequences of it. Whenever we talk about drug addiction, the first thing which comes to our mind is the gender of the addicts as we assume that it is people from the male gender who are quite often, if not always, associated with addiction. But it’s completely baseless to assume that the other gender i.e female folks aren’t trapped into this murky and dangerous addiction that can have serious health complications for them.
Women are beautiful creation of Allah and their status has been tremendously upheld by the religion of Islam. Thinking that women, or even men, pick up drugs just like that won’t be correct and one has to understand the socio-economic and political dimensions associated with such a behavioural issue that ultimately leads them towards addiction.
It is a sad reality that women are involved in drug addictions nearly equally as men and are rather more easily getting involved in such activities. The reason for this may be the family disputes, sexual assaults, molestation, bad company, depression, the uncertainty with regards to jobs and finding a match as well as many more such challenging scenarios including social evils like issues of dowry etc. And due to all these things they sometimes just want to forget each and every thing and for this they often turn to drugs-first mild and then gradually to higher doses- without realising the bad effects. With time the urge to use drugs reaches to the extent that they start consuming many other harmful and dangerous drugs like Weed, Brown sugar, sp tablets also known as tikki Phol in Kashmiri, nail paint removers, sr-solution, diluters, shoe polish, alcohol, nail polish, thinners, etc. Without even realising that they are just ruining their own lives.
Drug addiction among women is spreading like wild fire and a survey of 2012 has shown that 70000 youths are drug addicts in Kashmir valley among them 22000 addicts are females! Latest survey which was done by SMHS revealed that 3500 girls were found involved in drug addictions and most of them were students belonging to the age group of 17- 35.
Whenever a woman is under the influence of drugs sexual assaulted, rap’s, robbery, are a common thing to occur and a defenceless as well as dizzy person can, in no way, safeguard herself against any such assault.
Though for all in general but for women in particular, it is important to realize that she can be a mother and thus her addiction isn’t only impacting her health but also blurring the entire future generation. So women not only destroy their lives by drug addiction but also put a whole generation at the risk of growing abnormally.
Having said this, we have to realize and understand that as a society we need to take certain measures to tackle the ever growing menace of drug addiction and together we can definitely make a great difference. It is to be understood very clearly that most of the drug addiction seek help and in the absence of a support system, they fail to reconcile with situations and ultimately end up becoming drug addicts. We- as a society- have to become that safe net, that safe zone for all marginalized and dejected people who are about to kill themselves.
(ayoubbazila05@gmail.com)
