Why we use drugs? 

There’s a lot that’s been said about the people who do drugs. They’ve been called druggies, cheapjacks, tomfools and so on. Over time, a general consensus has come to agree on one very strong notion—that those who use drugs are not serious about anything. An elderly woman’s opinion about drug use would differ hugely from the views of a well-settled millennial with a penchant for substance abuse.

“Drugs don’t really fix anything, except for everything.” – Ashley Lorenzana

But, maybe we’re asking the wrong question. Maybe we shouldn’t be asking why, as much as we should be asking how and to what decree. We need to change the question in order to see the reason.

The answer to because doesn’t always start with why.

How are we consuming drugs? How are we getting it? Where are we consuming it? Under what circumstances?

© MensXP Illustration by Aastha Mittal

To be able to get deeper insight into a specific picture, we need to curate a lot of information to see the bigger picture, first.

© MensXP Illustration by Samiksha Sharma

On reading the entire report, one learns that India doesn’t feature all that prominently. We are only mentioned in fragments—around the opium and parts of the synthetic drug studies mostly. To a layman, this would seem that India’s drug culture prevalence is inconsequential. But, reading between the lines will shed light on the fact that the lack of evidence, or mention, thereof is only a tip of the iceberg. The deeper problem is that while drug use in India might not be in numbers consequential enough to find prominence at the UN, our numbers are substantial enough to become a staggering problem in the very near future.

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WHY YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS?

India is one of the youngest nations in the world, in terms of our age demographics wherein most of our population is between the ages of an average 15 to 40. Most of the drug consumption in the country is by individuals and groups that fall largely within this age group; statistical evidence is not required to quantify this fact.

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(Above: Okankwo Basil Dubisi, 28 a Nigerian, Vaishakh KR, 26, a native of Kerala, Ahmed Luhul, 24, a former student of Jain College, and Sajir NC, 22 also a native of Kerala, was arrested for selling drugs to students. Mico layout police seized 2 kg of ganja, 100 gm charas, 100 gm cocaine and other narcotics from them.)

If we merge these two metrics, what is absolutely infallible is that in the very near future, we will be a nation of young adults with a considerable drug problem, if the issue is not addressed at the initial stages. The only way we can realize the issue at hand is by talking about it; addressing it in an understanding manner, without pointing fingers and calling drugs and drug use taboo. The more open the discussion is, the more likely are we to prevent the use from turning into an abuse; courtesy of peer pressure, the age of experimentalism and the influence of pop culture references.  

© MensXP Illustration by Samiksha Sharma

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(Above: Excise officials with district administration destroying ganja wieghing 18.170kg worth Rs.5 Lakh at Deputy Commissioner Office in Mangaluru)

How Do Most Drug Transactions Work?

Cultivation/Organic

More than 50% of our population is involved in cultivation of opium, heroin, poppy seeds and weed grows in most of the hilly regions of the country. Cannabis happens to be a native crop; albeit illegal, in nature; yet, farmers who are poverty stricken rely on its cultivation as a livelihood.

© MensXP Illustration by Samiksha Sharma

Friends/Network

According to a survey conducted by us, 56% of the subjects scored their stash from a friend. Given the easy accessibility of options and availability of every resource under the sun, scoring drugs today has become as easy as placing an order online.

The Web

A comparatively lesser known method, yet, known by a substantial number is what is known as the Dark Web; available to be browsed through an Onion Router; better known as TOR—it functions like an Internet Explorer for the Dark Web. The purchase and sale of drugs are easy on the dark web due to the level of anonymity it offers. The IP addresses are blanketed and the routers keep changing. Through places like 4Chan and the Silk Route, purchasing drugs on the dark web becomes increasingly possible.

© MensXP Illustration by Samiksha Sharma

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Dealers

For substances like weed and hash, your friendly neighbourhood panwari, or the autorickshaw guy is the local dealer and source of the best quality cannabis. A set of friends from Bangalore deal through a woman, dressed in a burqa who drives around on her bike and calls herself Mona. Sources in Mumbai mentioned another such lady they knew, who ran a local cigarette stall, until the police raided the whole place down. For stronger substances, like Cocaine, most traffickers come from outside and use India as a transit point for their trade and so, make money along their way by selling to a class of an urban youth with a certain socio-economic standard. According to the UN World Drug Report 2016 opium and cocaine comes in to the country majorly from Afghanistan and the African countries, respectively.

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We take this initiative because watching ‘Udta Punjab’ alone does not bring you up to date with the “drug problem” that the country is going through.