A 13-year-old girl, traumatised by her parents’ separation, began sniffing whitener to ease her tension. Slowly she became addicted to it, started neglecting her studies and lost her appetite. After being suspended from school, her mother found over 400 empty bottles of whitener in her room.
The girl is now under constant medical attention in a rehabilitation centre to wean her off the drug.
In another incident, a teacher in a prestigious English medium school happened to take water from one of the student’s water bottles and found to her dismay, that it contained Vodka. A surprise inspection the following day revealed that water bottles of seven students — all in class VI — contained Vodka and the girls had apparently been mixing the drinks from their fathers’ bars.
A recent study on “Substance abuse in children and adolescents” by Dr Manu Agarwal of the King George’s Medical University has revealed an alarming trend of drug abuse among children. The study says that over the past three years , there has been an alarming increase in cases of drug abuse among children in the 10-16 years age group in the state capital.
As per the data of city-based drug de-addiction hospitals, the number of cases of child drug abuse was almost negligible till about four years ago. However, in 2012, more than 72 cases were reported at a leading drug de-addiction and psychiatric hospital in Indira Nagar while at another such medical facility, the number of reported cases was 66.
“There is growing peer pressure among children and pressure from parents to match up to their expectations makes it worse. Moreover, there is a lack of communication between the child and parents and the child, who now has easy access to internet, finds out ways to ease the tension. We have had cases where the child has started drinking a popular rand of cough syrup to induce sleep or is even eating a muscle relaxant as a sandwich spread. They are using whitener as a drug and some are consuming alcohol on the sly,” the doctor explained.
He underlined the need to sensitise teachers and parents on the issue so that they can detect behavioral changes in the child at an early stage.