2Sense: Drugs, My Escape

1. The term drug refers mainly to chemical or plant-derived substances that affect psychological, behavioral or physical functions and lead to varying degrees of dependence or addiction.
2.  Psychoactive Drugs are chemical substances that act on the central nervous system to alter mood, perception, behavior, and/or consciousness. These drugs include sedatives, stimulants, hallucinogens, opiates, and psychiatric medications.

I remember going home for December holidays once and since i had not been there for close to a year, i was actually anticipating my arrival. Don't blame me for not going home frequently, i believe home should serve as a place you can use to get away from all the madness that goes on in the city, to recollect your thoughts, to catch up with family and old friends but home is not where you should be living.

Well, at least that's how i see it. 

You might have a different opinion and that's okay, but this isn't about you so we'll stick to the above mentioned.

Upon my arrival, as i passed one of the corners in the neighbourhood, what my eyes had caught sight of was just death feeding on people's souls drug after drug. 

I'm not talking about weed, pot, marijuana or whatever name you call it by. Weed is actually the least of our worries. 

The battle our society faces is bigger than the political billboards that hang from light posts. We face a much more scarier battle, the battle of hardcore narcotic drugs. These are your Heroine, Cocaine, CAT and our very own Whoonga, also known as Nyaope. Drugs are used for countless reasons, to name a few, some use drugs to distress, others use it as a stimulus, to escape the reality world in exchange for a trip of hallucinations, others to "make life easier", which I still don't understand how that can be accurate because if there's one thing for sure, by the time its done with you an easy life won't even exist.

If you've seen a Nyaope addict before, you'll know that this substance takes a soul out of a person and leaves them lifeless, just a hanging body deteriorating with every puff. 

It's actually a scary sight for any mother and father to see their child patching street potholes for some change, if not that, they selling people's valuables for some more change, you see what i'm getting at?

They basically don't care if they selling an iPhone 6S for R100 or if they selling a laptop for under R1000, so it fucks up a person's psyche so badly that they would sell their whole lives away just to get a fix for eternity, doesn't that sound like prostitution to you?

That actually all sounds quite accurate and horrid at the same time.

People always think these things will never come knocking on their doorsteps, I for one, also thought so until I realized shit really does happen. In more ways than one.

My family has personally been a victim of drug abuse, so i'm not saying all this shit because it sounds cool for people to read about but because i'm a concerned brother, worried that those we love so much might one day take a sniff too many, a pull too many, a syringe shot too many and then Poof , we back to kicking buckets again. 

I have seen people I used to call friends, class mates, team mates being taken away by drugs. Now i don't know whats more frightening, seeing these substances penetrate our homes or us losing hope in those we say love.  

I'm sure we all know what they say about peer pressure and all that bullshit. But unless you have a gun put to your head, you always have a choice. And sometimes it might not be the right one, but it is a choice nonetheless.

My concern is, why can't WE as a nation come together and find solutions for this epidemic because we can't leave it all to the rehab centers to figure out. But instead of helping them we want to shun them for all the bad they have done forgetting that these "drug addicts", as we call them,  are actually our brothers and sisters even someone's mom or dad.

The Kids, 

The Future,

That's where our focus should be. 

How do we keep them off the streets? If that's impossible, let's educate them and show them that the path of drug abuse is a one way flight with no return ticket.

Am i making any 2Sense?

But we either lazy or we just don't care. 

We want our neighbours to raise and educate our kids and that's how they end up on street corners, educating themselves courtesy of Nyaope and friends.

At some point these people had talents and aspirations but because of the communities we get brought up in, none of these talents see the light of day and so the best way I can find comfort for my failing aspirations is by doing drugs.

And now my life in this world is easier. 

Thank You Heroine. 

You really saved my life.

By: | Nceba Thabethe |