Chavda realised he had become a drug addict when he found it difficult to live without his daily fix post the Godhra riots.
Much has been written about the threat posed to society by drugs as also about the plight of drug addicts. But not many people have a first-hand experience of the hell that life becomes when one turns into a drug addict.
As Friday (June 26) happens to be the International Day against Drug Abuse and Its Illicit Trafficking, it may, therefore, be more instructive to introduce the reader to the hell from which few addicts escape.
Manish Chavda used to be a patient at ‘Naya Jeevan’ drug awareness counselling centre run by the state ministry of social justice and empowerment.
Chavda is a government employee. “I began taking brown sugar more than 10 years ago,” he said. “It began as a casual indulgence, something which I would occasionally have with friends. I used to earn enough — both as salary and from bribes — to pay for the drugs I had started taking.”
Chavda realised he had become a drug addict when he found it difficult to live without his daily fix during the post-Godhra riots.
“There was curfew in the city, and I couldn’t get hold of some brown sugar,” Chavda said. “I was in such a bad shape without the drug that I travelled all the way to Mumbai and stayed there for over a month till everything was normal here in Ahmedabad. And all that because I couldn’t live without brown sugar.”
Chavda said Avani Mandi, Chabda, Chipdao and Nimaj are the four places in Ahmedabad city where brown sugar is sold. Dariyapur, Mirzapur, Pragatinagar and Gomtipur are other localities where drug-peddlers are active, he said.
Chavda said that after de-addiction at ‘Naya Jeevan’, he wants to start a new life. “I have age on my side,” he said. “I recently got engaged because I want to live again.”
Another drug addict, Mahendra Thakore, who is still under treatment at Naya Jeevan, is also a government employee. Chavda and Thakore, along with many others like them, are undergoing treatment at the de-addiction centre to break free of drugs. Natu Patel, honorary director, and Dr Shraddha Rai, honorary project co-ordinator, ‘Naya Jeevan’, along with the centre’s other staff, have been helping the patients in their efforts to give up their addiction.
(The names of the addicts have been changed on request.)
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