The number of people using drugs worldwide is spiking. A 2024 report by the United Nations put the number of people using drugs in 2022 at 292 million, a 20 percent rise over 10 years.
The majority of the users (228 million) were on cannabis, 60 million on opioids, 30 million on amphetamines, 23 million on cocaine, and 20 million on designer drugs (link).
Experts link drug abuse to health, financial, and relationship problems; depression and anxiety; shattered dreams; crimes; and death.
This growing and alarming threat to the young prompted the Fourth Wave Foundation, an Indian civic group focused on children’s issues, to keep them safe through education.
In June 2021, on the occasion of World Drug Day, the foundation launched Project VENDA’s S.A.F.E. (Substance Abuse Free Environment) Programme in six districts of Kerala, a southern Indaian state.
The group reached hundreds of thousands of young people in India in just a few years.
“Through Project VENDA, we educated and empowered over 300,000 children to say a firm 'NO' to drugs and help them make responsible choices using a range of well-planned initiatives, which have been recognised by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) as the best practice for evidence-based intervention,” the foundation stated on its site.
Kerala comes next to Punjab state (nothern India) in terms of number of people using drugs, the foundation said, expressing alarm over the deadly impacts of drug abuse.
“The number of children committing suicide is very high,” the foundation stated. “On the other hand, the number of sexual, physical, and psychological abuse cases are high and are growing steadily.”
The foundation saw a spike of 125 percent in cases related to narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances cases “in the last five years in Kerala.”
It noted that the average age of initial exposure to “gateway substances and illicit drugs” is 11-14 years. An estimated 3.1 crore people in India have reported to have used cannabis. About 25 percent lakh people were dependent on cannabis. Also, 2.26 crore people used opioids.
The National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction listed 382 districts in India, the foundation stated.
“But there are no prevention programs to address this across the country,” it said. “The sad part is that there are no effective functional models or facilities yet for recovery, rehab and de-addiction programs focused on children and adolescents.”
The foundation also expressed concern over the growing normalization of drug abuse in India as a result of liberal measures on drugs being undertaken in parts of the globe.
“And to make matters worse, there is an increasing social acceptance of the use of substances and narcotics – especially with more and more countries legalizing the use of recreational drugs,” the foundation said.
Based on their experience, the foundation saw, “It is quite easy to empower children with the ability to say a firm 'NO' to drugs.”
“Our children live in a world where lifestyle norms are being created by people with vested interests,” the foundation said. “Children need to understand these lifestyle norms in the light of wellness over pleasure, health over high, misinformation over truth.”
The foundation believes young people must be equipped with the ability to “resist peer pressure.” Identifying and creating appropriate recreation activities that promote health over dangerous leisure is important.
“Only a community that works together can effectively phase out the use of substances – including alcohol and nicotine – and make it into a health standard, as seatbelts are for vehicles or vaccination is for children,” the foundation said. “This is all the more important because we have not yet given adequate importance to health in the curriculum or in daily life.”
Project VENDA is working on stopping drug abuse in India, especially among the young. Venda means “stop” in the local tongue.
The foundation looked at having positively impacted “the lives of half a million students” in India by 2024.
