How very sad! The reality of this is that our children, the very people who we expect to grow up and become the leaders of the future, don't have very much future if this article is a true indication of what is happening.
Again I say, How very sad!
'One in three SA teens is an addict'
August 05 2006 at 09:46AM
By Sheree Russouw
As many as one in three teenagers in South Africa is addicted to drugs and alcohol, according to the SA National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (Sanca). Shamim Garda, national executive director of Sanca, said this alarming figure was gleaned from the number of 13- to 18-year-olds presenting themselves for treatment at Sanca's 34 clinics countrywide. And experts believe that the age of first experimentation has dropped from the early teens to between nine and 10 years old.
Downward spiral
"What's so disturbing is the fact that these children are getting addicted to drugs and alcohol at younger ages," Garda said. "The problem starts with nine- to 15-year-olds who experiment with cigarettes, alcohol, dagga and mandrax. They start to use more than one drug and get addicted to drugs such as heroin, Cat and crack cocaine."
Schoolchildren, she says, are the drug peddlers' market. "Teenagers that are hooked become adults that are hooked. They stay addicts for a long time or die of it. It's just a spiral downwards - and ruins their lives. "Drug use was "exploding" in township communities, she said. "We are seeing more drugging among children and teenagers from poor communities. Drugs are coming from township children going to urban schools and children in urban areas going into townships. On the weekends they have parties and take drugs - we're seeing a seepage of heroin and cocaine into the townships, especially in Gauteng."
Drug use 'exploding' in townships
Maria Gumede, of Sanca's Horizon Daveyton centre, said substance abuse in townships was seen as a status symbol. "It's quite common for an 18- or 19-year-old to have a drug problem, but lately in the townships we are seeing children as young as 11 not only using, but addicted," she said. "Children use drugs like mandrax to show they're cool and quickly become physically dependent. It has a sedative effect; children feel at ease about the reality of their lives." Families are losing parents to HIV/Aids and grandparents on pension are forced to support entire families. "This creates a vicious cycle of child-headed households, drug abuse, violence and crime.
In desperation, girls often turn to prostitution and boys turn to crime to support their families and drug habits. "The children call it compromise. If they receive transport money and food for the day, they will walk to school and go hungry, pool their money and share one tablet," she said. Captain Jan Combrinck, a co-ordinator for the SA Police Service's Gauteng drug enforcement programme, said up to 25 percent of schoolchildren were drug addicts in Gauteng.
Since 1994, he has been traversing the province, educating 500 000 school children, tertiary students and communities about the dangers of drug abuse. He has also trained thousands of police officers in Gauteng to identify drugs and keep abreast with trends in the illicit narcotics industry.
Drugs were becoming cheaper and more accessible: "Years ago you would pay R300 for a gram of cocaine. Now the dealers are packing it into smaller quantities - you can buy a R20 bag or R50 bag of what you want. "Drugs did not discriminate and struck young people from all walks of life, said Combrinck. Last year the provincial police commissioner called him to co-ordinate the province's drug enforcement team. "The biggest problems among schoolchildren are dagga, mandrax, crack cocaine, Ecstasy, tik, Cat, magic mushrooms, heroin and LSD." These drugs are all over - our suburbs and townships are full of them. Sometimes you'll find dealers focus on certain areas but the buying power is spread out now and everyone is affected. What makes it very hard to police is the fact that these children are supplied by other children, often at schools."
His proactive presentations were a great success among schoolchildren and it was his goal to stop demand: "A lot of the programmes are reactive and you can't always see the results. At one primary school I visited, I found 15 children on dagga and alcohol - two were sniffing heroin. I recently received a referral from a court in Pretoria that a nine-year-old had a problem with Cat. "These children are so young but are already so streetwise - they know what the drug does and where to get it. What angers me is that a drug merchant has the guts to sell to a nine-year-old child." Combrinck said there were not enough good role models for teenagers and that contributed to rising drug abuse. "Parents are just either out there to make money or keeping the pots cooking. They aren't there for their children.
"The drugs make these children feel better for the short term and that's the danger ... As adults, we take drugs for three years and drop dead but these are still young bodies - they think they'll live forever, that they can easily leave the drugs behind. "Society was "losing its values and beliefs", said Sanca's Garda. "There is a general breakdown in family relationships. We also need to have far more discipline in the home." Children should familiarise themselves with drugs to make an informed choice, said Garda.
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