By Staff Reporter
Drug and Substance abuse has hit the spotlight in Zimbabwe with an increasing number of young people falling prey to the scourge. After long spells at home during the COVID -19 induced lockdowns, we emerged with a huge drug problem especially among school going teenagers. The kids have become so sophisticated and are using available resources turning them into Intoxicating substances.
Parents and guardians alike must be on the lookout for their children’s consumption rate of some of the items we have in our homes including edible ones as some of these are being converted into drugs.
Most of these substances consist of Petrol, spirit, sherbet, paint, thinners, used pads, and used diapers, prescription tablets. Groceries are inclusive of cerevita and mazoe mixture, soya mince and water mixture, bread and mazoe mixture and fermented yeast
Boredom and sometimes abuse is said to be the leading cause of drug abuse among teens and the desire to experiment. Children in boarding schools are particularly vulnerable as they have access to these grocery items and most of them have all the time in the world.
Some of these mixtures are said to be highly intoxicating to levels of Crystal meth and Methamphetamine. Side effects of these different but include brain damage, sudden death, mental illness, mouth blisters, bleeding gums,
Drug and Substance abuse has become a national disaster and the government has activated all systems to try and curb the menace including campaigns and punitive measures to drug lords and peddlers. But these are not enough if the spirit of community hood which espoused us as African people is not ignited. The our child mantra, where children belonged to the community as a whole, and their protection was a community duty should be the order of the day if the country is to make significant headways in this fight, laws alone will not achieve desired outcomes