I have no wish to pass judgement on anyone or on anything anyone does, but I have this advice for those who are dealing in drugs – all of them – right from those who are bringing it to Shillong and those that are selling it on the streets and those that are hooked on it. If you are that good in doing what you’re doing why don’t you try doing something that might benefit the people and the State instead, because you are doing a very successful job at getting people hooked and damning the future of the State…the kids of today are the future, and our generation old and young are setting a very bad example of the moral values for them – the future generations.
As a generation we have become the masters at inversing the good that our earlier generations passed on to us, we have devalued the most valuable things that our generation was handed down. Our religious teachings have changed in no way from then till now, but we have strived for another recipe in our race for wealth and in the process we have attained the opposite of what we were handed down, the opposite of what we sought after.
We have denied the younger generation the good things that were handed down to us and have made solitary souls of the younger generation. We have actually allowed them to stray onto the forbidden habits, habits that we ourselves denied ourselves, knowing that they were the most terrible and capable of the greatest damage to anyone. Everyone making business out of drugs knows full well that everything they are doing is not natural and that in but a short while everything will collapse around them especially their clients and then the same darkness that closed in on their clients will close in on them and extinguish every passion and hope for any growth in what they are engaged in because neither will they be able to think of what other business they can do nor will there be anyone interested in their wares. They are bound to burn themselves out.
Among all that which is going on in government and in our social lives perhaps none has proved harder to understand than the habit or the initiation into getting high on drugs. The inevitable result of anyone who treads on this path is well documented, well known to the one who is planning on using it for the first time and yet they still have a go at it. This attitude of the first time user is not naturalistic; hence it is widely felt and clearly believed as insane and to be disregarded ab initio. But this view has its hazards. The lack of common sense of the impending first user is not proof of insanity, but a triumph of those that are engaged in peddling it – salesmen with the best ability of the day since what they are selling is a known danger to one’s body and soul, to one’s personal and family life, to one’s ability to make a Shillong better than the one he inherited.
The sale of drugs does not fit any ordinary conception of salesmanship. It is not only remote and distant from the world of professional salesmanship it actually denies every chapter on creative professionalism in sales management, but that does not mean that we can ignore the modus operandi of this venture.
And towards getting a better understanding of this, the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) Nongthymmai Circle visited Risa Colony on the 2nd March 2024 to get a firsthand account of what is taking place in the locality since there have been too many cases of drug users reported from the locality in the past months…not that anyone in the locality is hooked as yet but that users from other localities find a perfect setting in this village, being as it is, far from any other locality and bounded on one side by the Laitkor Peak (Protected) Forest where one can easily melt into the thick jungle undergrowth. This is plainly the main reason why drug users believe the locality affords a perfect refuge and the main reason why the KSU Nongthymmai Circle decided to strategise with the locality authorities to formulate a plan to tackle the drug menace in their Circle area.
The Dorbar representatives from Risa Colony made whatever arrangements they could from the limited assets they had at their disposal and the meeting finally got underway at 10.00 o’clock with a brief welcome address by Bah Danny Pariat the village headman. The village is yet to possess a community hall and so the meeting was held at their hastily arranged impromptu Club House (an old garage) of an abandoned Forest Department quarter that was being used by drug addicts and other anti-social elements in the dead of night. The Secretary of the village Dorbar had apprehended some miscreants a few months back not even pausing, as in keeping with his own ideas which he could have done, to take caution, but acted at the spur of the moment and thus establish first hand photographic evidence that was incontrovertible.
Many of us were given a first time lesson on the legal aspects of drug sale and use and Kong Joy Grace Syiem provided some details on the legal aspects being a professional in these matters. 5 grams of drugs is the permissible amount a person can have in his possession as a detox dose. Those that are prescribed this detox dose get it from “Manbha Foundation” which is the legal dispenser of the substance.
It is a well established fact that drugs tie the user to its effects and to the company of similar users. The inclinations of a drug user, who is trying to break away from this pernicious habit, is tied to the feelings the drug arouses hence this detox dose is necessary wherever a user goes. In short he becomes dependent on the drug and finds solace only with fellow drug users.
Drug users are very diligent in making sure that they carry this detox dose wherever they go just as much as they become indolent in spirit, being content with their inadequacies and dependence instead. There is a cloak of contentment hung over them as they go about life with this 5 gram dose. That is how they live, that is how they would want everyone to live. They would have the whole day to themselves and ideal as this may sound it is absolutely the worst way to live. It is anyone’s guess as to whether they increase this quantity by adding some innocuous contaminant to it.
It was clear that in approaching a solution to this menace, locality officials and the KSU Nongthymmai Circle needed to play a more proactive role. As it is the Dorbars have now become a major factor in carrying out government schemes around the city and in this case the Risa Colony Village Dorbar members had much to offer by way of ground truths. They pinpointed the places and the remedies that were necessary to curb the threat of drugs in and around their village in particular. They drew the attention of the KSU members to the forest on the Southern boundary of Shillong – the Laitkor Peak (P) Forest.
Up in the higher reaches of this forest there are some old but sturdy structures put up by the Municipal Authorities way back in the 1930s and still in very good usable condition to this day for anyone seeking a hiding place from where they can organise their trade without the prying eyes of the law and the society in general. These abandoned structures are a haven for the druggies and their thwarted plans. Junkies actually spend the whole night in these places and it’s anybody’s guess as to what more really goes on up there.
The suggestion that the Risa Colony Village Dorbar offered was that the only way to prevent the forest and these structures from being used for nefarious purposes was to close the entire forest from vehicular movement along the Inspection Paths that really are no longer used by the Forest Department but amply used by anti social elements in the dead of night…”dig deep trenches all along the Inspection Paths at close intervals” was their recommendation at the meeting. The main entry point to the forest was from Lumpyngngad (Motinagar).
It was decided that this recommendation would be taken up with the authorities so as to bring a complete closure of the forest to vehicular movement. It was abundantly clear that the Forest Department’s meagre staff was not able, on its own, to check vehicular traffic in the forest during the daytime or nighttime and checking the anti-social activities that go on was an even wilder dream though the department thinks it knows what it actually does not know.
There may be those in the Forest Department who would accuse the joint effort of the Dorbar Risa Colony and the KSU Nongthymmai Circle of impropriety and a baseless condemnation of the Forest Department’s failure to guard its own resource, but the truth is plain to see. In fact the proposal that the two work together would actually be the greatest benefit the Forest Department has ever received from the people and deserving of the highest praise and merit. It cannot be argued that the localities bordering the forest can offer only as much as they can afford and they would still be insufficient to match the threat from the numerous drug users that frequent these lonely tranquil spots unless the Inspection Paths are totally closed to vehicular traffic.
