Dispatches International
EASING THE PRESSURE: STUDENT DRUG ADDICTION
Zahida Ishrat Khan “D
rugs have ruined my whole life. My educa- tional life was almost
destroyed by my drug addiction. I had no future,” says Didarul Alam, a 32-year-old unemployed Bangla- deshi who had been addicted to drugs for more than fourteen years before he was admitted to a private rehabilitation center. His habit started when he was in tenth grade. “I could not do my exams properly. I was not able to study before my exams. I used to attend classes but it was irregular. I used to forget ev- erything that I had studied.” “I was interested in doing
drugs, not in concentrating on my studies. I used to run after drugs,” Alam says, seeming both wistful and ashamed. “I have killed a lot of time doing drugs. I wasted most of my time after I did drugs.” There are thousands of
young men like Alam in Bangla- desh. Their promising educational careers are often destroyed be- cause of addictions to drugs like opium and heroine. Too frequent- ly, narcotics find their way into the school system and increase in
8 Asia: Bangladesh
popularity as greater and greater numbers of students are exposed to their effects. Most students fall into addiction after they are intro- duced to drugs by a close friend. Some students start off by abusing refined pharmaceuticals like co- deine.
Alam quietly and morosely
explains the reasons behind his addiction. “I got addicted to drugs because of curiosity,” he says. “My friends used to do drugs. When I saw them doing drugs, I became fascinated with the narcotics. I felt good after taking drugs for the first time, and after that I continued.” This story is not uncommon,
as thousands of similar stories qui- etly come to pass daily, often un- noticed. In this way, Bangladeshi students become entangled with drugs and fall into a slump. Alam discloses that almost every one of his friends were addicted to vari- ous opiates, such as heroine, cre- ating a climate where his addiction became nearly inevitable. Hasanuzzaman Talukdar
Shemul, the Executive Director of the Bangladesh Development Ac-
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