The plight of Afghan narcotic addicts is rapidly increasing in intensity. Afghan men resort to addiction to help themselves to cope with life’s vicissitudes. They smoke because of financial pressures, incompatibility, frustration and related reasons. Some also attribute their addiction to adopting evil partners. Although, the addicts realize the harmful extent of the cumulative effect of narcotic addiction, they never taper off in their public and recondite smoking. All the narcotic addicts suffer several diseases in one way or another without anyone to take care of them. The escalation in narcotic addiction among Afghan men is a matter of great concern. It is believed that social acceptance and indifference to the addiction’s potential danger are contributory factors.
Resorting to narcotic addiction to get rid of financial problems or mental stress is a wrong approach among Afghan citizens. Finding a fleeting solace in addictive drugs, especially in cigarette, opium, heroin, etc. will compound one’s pain and pressures rather than alleviating them. Since most men demur at the appellation of “addict” and endure derogatory remarks, they realize the negatives of the addiction.
Children hurl insults at the narcotic addicts on the streets, pelt stone at them and make derogatory remarks about them constantly. They have a reputation for begging, theft and crime. The addicts suffer from children’s booing, whistling and being inundated with vile epithet. As a result, a 25-year-old opium addict, who intended to go for medical treatment, was complaining painfully about the bad reputation in his neighborhood. He said, “Wherever I go, people call me ‘addict’ and make fun of me. They beware each other to hold their pockets tight so that I do not pick them.” He was exhausted from that condition, saying that he was working well on his father’s land but his addict friend lured him to opium addiction. When a commuter asked him how he gets opium, he answered, “I am still working on my father’s land but I have lost my energy to work. Shoveling for only five minutes, I get out of breath. I sell some fruit and buy opium but I return a small amount of money to my father saying that it is all the money. Although my father knows the fact, he does not breathe a word.” I asked the motive behind his intention to be treated, he replied, “My father beseeched me tearfully to abandon the addiction. My whole family suffers from my condition and I have blackened my family’ name too. So, I have decided firmly to abandon this lethal habit.”
Narcotic addiction breeds many challenges in one’s family life. It leads to poverty, conjugal strife and divorce. Since a narcotic addict loses his zeal and manly characters, he would also resort to selling all his properties, including his wife’ jewelry, and even embark on selling his daughter just to get drug. As a result, the local media broadcast last year that a man addicted to opium lopped off his wife’s nose as she denied to offer her jewelry to her husband.
Who wishes to wander the streets desultorily being mocked and insulted by children? The addicts sought peace and comfort in drug but now suffer from misery, destitution and excruciating pain. They prefer death to their current plight and realize their egregious mistake. They have not only lost their reputation and physical health but also their humanity, morality and spiritual health. Their only claim to fame is to take drug so as to find a mendacious and temporary repose. In short, they have lost both the world and the hereafter.
Based on Islamic ideology, man is created to accomplish moral goal and nurture his soul by acts of virtue. One is supposed to seek solace in Mosque, Church, Monastery, etc. Men will achieve bona fide peace and salvation through nurturing goodness. A tearful communication with God with pure heart will get one out of loneliness and depression not rather than resorting to addictive drugs.
It is believed that we feel a strong spiritual vacuum and virtual emptiness in ourselves. Therefore we resort to many acts either to find solace or to escape our spiritual loneliness. If you observe, you will see that people are becoming more and more distracted, increasingly sophisticated and worldly. The multiplication of pleasures, the innumerable books that are being published and the newspaper pages filled with sporting events, surely, all these indicate that we always want to be amused. Because we are inwardly empty and dull, we use our relationships and our social reforms as a means of escaping from ourselves.
Unfortunately, we are being estranged from our moral characters and spiritual health. The main reasons behind this fact are worldly temptations, physical pleasures, carnal desires, etc. Being pressured by economic constraints, mental stress or physical discomforts, we succumb to smoking cigarette, taking drugs, etc. rather than resorting to worship or spiritual comfort. I emphasize, let us not seek refuge to addictive drugs from our life vicissitudes, financial problems, etc. This act will compound our challenges more than ever before and alienate us from our humanity, manly characters and moral values. Besides resisting the difficulties, let’s seek mental peace in the houses of worships through virtual communications with our Lord. It seems the only remedy for our challenges.