Intubated and senseless, I was hanging for my life with a life-threatening disease a few years ago. I experienced the worst. But watching young adolescents die of drug overdose or withdrawal was possibly infinitely worse.
Paranoia and hallucinations followed by twitching and gasping for air, with blood streaming down from the nose and bubbles forming on the mouth of a young healthy body – the sights left a life-long scar.
I was exposed to substance addiction through my older brother from a young age. While I never saw heroin then, spasmo-proxyvon was common – crushed and injected. My brother was as depressed as he was brilliant. Thinking back now, I feel he was very lonely. He left us when I was still studying.
Life went on and I left home for studies, first in St. Edmunds in Shillong, then to Delhi and Europe. After my education, I worked many odd jobs to support myself; tutoring, writing, even working for a while as an Assistant Professor at the University of Kannur.
Over time, I saved enough and after paying off my student debts, I invested all that I had earned in stocks and real estate. A few years ago, I moved back home.
Home again; I thought the world of drugs was a distant memory and that I would be able to pursue my lifelong dream of becoming a writer. But it wasn’t to be.
A year ago, a young man in his early 20s occasionally helped me out with common labour. And while I assumed he was on marijuana, his death due to overdose within a few months of knowing him made me realise that “substance crisis” was getting unruly in Ukhrul district.
I had to intervene and do something to save the many young. Ever since, “the world of drugs” has transfigured and enveloped my life. I started and registered Bredwell Correctional Facility to help give the young addicts a place to reach out to and confide in.
Bredwell Correctional Facility is registered as a counselling centre and we are the first point of contact for many young addicts looking to recover. From here, we get in touch with Living Hope and Holistic Vista of Imphal for rehabilitating the substance abusers.
Once they are rehabilitated, we send them to Asha Bhawan (across India) and other correctional facilities for relapse prevention and other further treatments.
Many of the substance abusers among the Tangkhul Nagas – a local tribe – come from sociologically unhealthy families. Most people in my community have children in order for them to have someone to take care of them when they are old. They forget children are individuals, and that it is not just about the parents.
Most addicts are high school dropouts who live without hope or dreams. Most die in absence of rehabilitation. Substances range from inhalants to tablets to injections. Many adolescents engage in heroin and Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST) as mainstream drugs.
As a woman, fighting drug abuse hasn’t been easy. There has been a barrage of criticism. I have also been subject to mockery and belittlement. Many of my close ones tell me, “You brought this upon yourself”.
It’s true, I did!
I am constantly pressured by individuals and organisations to submit the names of substance abusers and drug dealers. I always tell them there is no need to go into who did what and who sold what. Drug peddling and addiction go together.
The true solution towards solving this crisis will be the society coming together in opening centres for parent counselling and narcotics support. The need is for rehabilitation and Alcoholic Anonymous centres, and Juvenile Correctional Facilities amongst others.
At the moment, too much of our community’s resources are spent on jamboree festivals and merriment.
One funny comment I always come across in my work is this: “…apparently, you get plenty of money under governmental schemes, and you spend a meagre amount on them…”
I wish to clarify that I have never taken governmental money in this fight against drugs.
Bredwell Correctional Facility cannot apply for government assistance as we are registered as a counselling centre and not as a rehabilitation centre. I have either sold my land or withdrawn my stocks to pay the employees and run the daily administration of the office.
However, some help has come our way as well.
The Hunphun village authority is in the process of granting Bredwell Correctional Facility land to set up a Juvenile Correctional Facility and Skill Development Centre this year. I am also hopeful that a room at Hunphun Baptist Church will open up as an Alcoholic Anonymous Support Group Centre.
Churches such as Meizailung Baptist Church and Hunphun Baptist Church have worked with our counselors to help mediate with the substance abusers. I am grateful to all of them for walking alongside my work.
War against drugs never works, they say. Sometimes I feel I am simply grasping at straws.
But if there is a one in 100 chance of re-inventing a person’s life, I am happy to do it.
A client who succumbed to drugs recently confided in me before dying. “No matter how much the peer pressure may be, I don’t ever want anyone to try drugs,” he said.
I was so emotionally invested in him that his death broke me, and I considered quitting for good! But hey! He would have wanted me to help others who are suffering from this chronic disease.
After all, love and compassion are the core to building humanity.
Reporting and photography by Worngachan A Shatsang. He is a freelance journalist based in Ukhrul, Manipur. He writes about football, rural life, farming and environmental issues. He is a Rural Media Fellow 2022 at Youth Hub, Village Square.