Destroy Drug Users (!?)
By now, you might sense this bitter tone lingering around randomly in my post. Its not a random bitter tone. I am utterly frustrated at the way drug users are treated.
"No Manisha, drug users are bad and evil people. They deserve to be punished, publicly humiliated and have their pictures printed in newspapers. They do not deserve a respectable future, because they DID DRUGS."
All those who think like that^ may stop reading, because I might just ruin your day for you and vice versa.
Temporarily setting aside the ‘sin’ these youngsters have committed, let us look at their lives. Their normal daily lives.
Many of these 'revellers' are either normal working people or students.
Competition redefines itself with every passing day.
They have problems - big ones, small ones.
They may have busy parents who rarely have time to sit them down and talk to them, leave alone discuss life's problems, complications and hurdles with them.
Stress is a disease running through every cell in their body.
The only cure they see, are easy stress busters.
That, unfortunately, includes alcohol and cigarettes and drugs.
Even worse, they aren’t as strong willed as you are, to not give in, or as chicken willed as I am, to not take a risk and find temporary peace and happiness.
This was no justification. This was just a backdrop. Some of the ‘guilty’ may not fit the category described above. Some may have just been there, because they wanted to spend the evening with friends, they may have known about the drugs, they may have not known. Some might have been there to have a good time and actually ‘dance’. Anyway, their fault.
Now let us take a look at what damage these youngsters have done to society.
- They have consumed drugs, gotten addicted.
- They have hurt their own bodies (needles aside).
- They have dozed off on sofas and chairs thus violating the rights of sofas and chairs to not be used to by drug users.
- They have blabbered rubbish, thus insulting the language in which they blabbered rubbish.
- They fallen asleep, danced like no one was watching, felt good and enjoyed themselves.
- Because of them, the world will end sooner than it was supposed to.
What they could have done instead, was consume large quantities of alcohol to get a similar high and go around vandalizing property, picking fights or creating a ruckus to vent their pent up frustrations, which would eventually lead to their arrest.
OR
They could smoke a pack of cigarettes, somewhere where smoking is allowed (since the ban was imposed), like their homes, but when their parents were away, since no Indian kid I know, would smoke in front of his or her parents, for reasons other than getting beaten up black and blue and a few rainbow colors. Then, they could spray the room with air freshener and deodorant and pollute the atmosphere further.
No! These foolish ones decided against hurting anyone else (physically) but themselves.
What was even more amazing was the newspaper report. The first page brilliantly flashes a picture of one of the detained with Kiran Hundal. Yes, the detainee’s face can be seen. They should have printed her name too, just for kicks. Pictures of the detainees have been splashed all over the eighth page of the newspaper, even when they didn’t know that they were being photographed. We can see loads of faces there. Oh, and names they did print, especially the celebrity offspring names or those who are "somebodys" in society. They make the best paparazzi targets ever! Looks like nobody at the Mumbai Mirror office knows to use the blur tool.
Thanks to the bust, we have loads of detainees, whose futures are close to ruined. We have drug peddlers going underground temporarily. We have drug prices hitting the roof, since a bust has its own sweet butterfly effect on everything, which will lead to a harsh hard earned money drain, for the regular patrons (we can live with that). We have parents, who will never dream of trusting their children out at night, but they won't sit them down and console them (they deserve it, no?). We have a society that will remind these youngsters of their ‘sin’ forever.
Conclusion:
Drugs are bad, they ruin lives. They also hurt those whose lives are connected to the drug users. DOING DRUGS IS WRONG. NOTHING ON EARTH CAN JUSTIFY IT. That does not give the law, the right to humiliate and destroy drug users, even before they realize that they want to opt of drugs and head for rehab.
Society was meant to heal and help people improve, not punish and cut off all escapes, other than suicide.
OH DARN IT! That's illegal too!
Pictures.
Tags: blah, drugs, insensitive, media
Comment
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Comment by Manisha on October 20, 2008 at 7:03pm -
Thank you for the cartoon MacD.
Anurag, we could always use another article on the same issue. There's so much more to be said.
Thank you for the comment.
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Comment by anurag sharma on October 20, 2008 at 7:29am - i agree! and the captions dey gave below da pictures was-(still on a high these teenagers finally get the gravity of the situation) -wat bullshit , if manisha had nt written this article , i would have!
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Comment by MacD on October 19, 2008 at 11:08pm -
A witty cartoon on the same issue by eminent cartoonist Satish Acharya... and the text as it is on http://cartoonistsatish.blogspot.com/2008/10/media-savvy-mumbai-police.html
Mumbai police raided a 'rave party' at a pub and arrested around 240 youngsters for taking drugs in the party. These youngsters were paraded before hungry news channel cameras and newspaper photographers like criminals. I wonder how fair is it to parade these youngsters on camera without conducting medical test on them and proving that they did consume drugs!
May be most of them were not into drugs. Some are into drugs, I'm sure.
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Comment by Illusionist on October 18, 2008 at 9:09am - What no?
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Comment by Manisha on October 18, 2008 at 9:08am
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Hell no 0.o
@CruciFire and DecoderDesi:
^_^
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Comment by Illusionist on October 18, 2008 at 9:03am
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Umm.. Ok... Since all's well.. we can go on then....
So, angel,
Exactly where is that line where you state to devote your life towards betterment of our society?
:P
As I said earlier, fun never stops wid me... Its upto you if you all wanna be a part of it!!!
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Comment by Manisha on October 17, 2008 at 8:37pm
- Peace? :)
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Comment by Illusionist on October 17, 2008 at 8:06pm
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He he he.. (that’s suppressed laughter if you guys dont get it... :P) Looks like my way of conveying my thoughts has taken a hard beating... and probably me too... :P
Hmm.. where to start... (or should I say.. where to stop, just to save my ass!!)
OK.. dudes and dudettes alike... :P we all are starting to sound like some tribal war going on between.. umm... two tribes... :P
I have been taken completely wrongly.. my mistake... I have not been to express my views in a fashion more savvy to my fellow friends.. and I apologize profusely for that..
By whatever I state in CJ... I mean by all of us... and that includes me.. and there’s no exception to it whatsoever.. I I don’t have the character to make really solid personal statements.. :P
Look fellas, we all are arguing on a same platform... No matter what, or how ‘out of hand it goes’, it can just be termed as a discussion or a heated discussion based on the blog or its comments alone and nothing else... How can it be sensed as something ‘insulting’ (that phase of mine is gone...)? Afterall you all are my own brethren.. my countrymen.. (Look, I have to take a teaching lesson now :P)
Bro, having a right and being ethically correct are two totally different issues.. whether to use it or not depends on the circumstances and the exercising person’s conscience alone..Law has its loop holes, Salman Khan was proven innocent in spite of his drunken massacre... He exercised his right of providing evidence to prove he was not guilty.. If doing that makes the dead fellows being branded of a natural death.. I rest my case.. I deeply apologize that I even tried to express my opinions in this forum...
NGOs... hmm... dude.. the role of NGOs and that of Police is like one target but two different types of weapons.. One (police) has no other choice than hitting the target which it does, ignorant of its repercussions and the other chooses to hit the target by going out of its way... Its something that does not come professionally to the individual.. All’s that started with a noble aim does not necessarily end well... There are some instances where things don’t go as planned but just due to that, should we criticize the act that the next time the individual thinks of dropping the desire to simplify his society? Is that acceptable friends?
Hatred??? Is it hatred dude??? If it was anything else than fun, shouldn’t it be better to just read the comments and ignore it? Why should I be pelting anger by replying in any manner? Doesn’t just sitting polite sound much better?
Insults.. lol.. Fellas.. I never meant any insult to anyone whatsoever.. I mean, You fellas are what you are now is all due to your own persona, due to your own efforts.. how can I disagree with the reality? Its not always that our writings reflect our true selves... Also, I do not ad should not have the moral leverage to state anything against anybody..
Tangent.. lol.. dude, please take it that this is a mode of discussion, a place where everyone is of a unique ‘type’ If I or you is potent to disseminate information to others, it should be allowed to do so.. aint it? In the process, we all get to know a bit more.. and also fun in that... (Though a little bit of fight looks inviting to me.. :P) But still, in the process, you guys look uncomforted... and I apologize again (that’s the third apology in all.. :P).. Ideas then may go in totally opposite directions.. (Sometimes knowingly.. :P) but it would be funny if the individual would be criticized for it...
There.. woah.. I typed that much!!! Now, my fingers hurt... :P
Chill guys.. take all this as fun.. nothing else...
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Comment by CruciFire on October 17, 2008 at 11:07am -
@ shmoo - awesome reply babes..
@ DD - point very aptly put..
@ ill - my comment about u (long time back on other blog posts) is once again exactly echoed by DD in the last line of his comment.... chill dude
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Comment by DecoderDesi on October 16, 2008 at 10:02pm -
@Illusionist. Brother I think your name calling and hate filled replies are way out of line. What I gather, the central theme, from your comments is that "if you are not doing anything about it, shut up, don't critize it". However, being able to speak freely is the basic principle of democracy. You say don't critize the cops or the media or the NGO for what they are doing. But its their *job* and they chose that profession and they are going to have to answer questions from ordinary citizens like us, even if what they did could be right. That doesn't mean that rest of us are useless and doing nothing for our country. That is just baseless. Every working professional, every writer, teacher, whoever, contributes to the country. They all have some skills and are using them to earn a decent livelihood and that is what forms a healthy progressive country. Working class. Being patriotic is not the prerogative of cops or NGOs or people in action a.k.a politicians. And every Indian has the right to comment on India irrespective of what they do. And yes, criticize as well. Only from a healthy reasoning can arise a well informed society. Nobody should be asked to just "shut up".
Also, your talk about *my country* sounds extremely jingoistic. Its our country brother. Yours and mine. After all what is India? Its people like you and me.
You write very well and pack a solid punch but at times you go off on mean tangents :)
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