By Ben Oroko
The continuous cycle of drug abuse among brilliant school children can only be broken by the use of a positive approach.
The remedy to having a strong foundation of a drug free family is to use spiritual guidance and counseling. The family, community and church should inculcate holistic and positive morals in our children. The kids should be helped to pick good role models through education and motivation.
Turning a blind eye to the ruins caused by illegal drug use is wrong. This isn’t the time for blame games, it is the time for the whole community to come together and work on making the society drug free.
It is at this point that everyone with the children’s future at heart must stand to be counted and waste no effort in ensuring that the fight is taken to the door steps of the drug barons and their agents.
It’s a critical moment for the community to come together, collaborate and share notes on how best you can clean up your drug-infested environment. It’s the community’s work to hold the government accountable and ask them to scale up the war against illegal drug use.
It should be noted that the first way to start the way against drug abuse should be at the foundation of the society- the family.
The society has been under the false impression that it’s the youth who recklessly abuse drugs either intentionally or out of peer pressure yet the problem starts with some parents : the kids watch their parents abuse drugs and follow suit.
A number of programmes have been designed to create public awareness on drug abuse among the youth and that is commendable. Unfortunately, no such programmes have been made for the adults. The menace of drug abuse has become such a big problem that our major concern as a family has shifted to finding a way to keep families, communities and schools drug free.
We should aim to stop drug abuse among adults by developing programmes targeting the adults in the society because if we can’t stop drug abuse at the root of the evil, it will grow and get entrenched into every aspect of our lives.
Statistics show that illegal drug use affects every aspect of our society. The very statistics have further confirmed that even drug rehabilitation programmes without the church’s spiritual intervention and nourishment fail. The programmes will hardly make our society, especially schools, drug free environments.
We must be cognizant of the fact that many successful drug rehabilitation programmes are spiritually blended. This in a way confirms that the war against drug abuse is a spiritual battle.
Our other focus in this fight should be our neighbourhoods where drug traffickers and dealers sell drugs to our unsuspecting school children.
We shouldn’t forget our schools. This is where the children spend most of their day. However, it is sad to note that instead of being educated, they are unconsciously poisoned with illegal drug abuse by agents of drug barons.
The Writer is a Communication practitioner and correspondent based in Kisii.
benoroko2000@yahoo.com
