There’s a dangerous trend going on these days among juveniles; especially young boys, and I believe parents must be on their toes and be very vigilant.
I have heard people talk about it and watch some instances on social media, but you know this feeling of maybe people are exaggerating or taking issues out of proportion.
But I was shocked to my bone marrow when I saw it live and direct!
I visited a popular fruit and vegetables market in town to shop, and it’s always advisable to shop at this market early in the morning if you want to get good fruits and the best bargain. Usually, once you step out of your vehicle, you are immediately surrounded by young school age boys who want to help you carry your goods for a token ( this is a story for another day). When I say young, I mean they are really young. I asked one of them his age once and he told me he is nine years old. I commented that he was too young to be out in the cold doing such a job; he told me without blinking that he sometimes come with his seven-year-old brother. Where is their mother? One would wonder.
Not to digress from the main issue though. As soon as I got out of the car, I noticed a boy lying on the floor. He was stiff and jerked intermittently. I was scared and thought maybe he was dying. I asked why no one was helping him because everyone was minding their business like he wasn’t lying there. My customer answered me that they are used to such occurrences. She said nothing is wrong with the boy, (” ayo lon pa”). She said the boy took “colos”. Colos? Colorado. Ha! As early as 6.30am in the morning?
The woman just shrugged and said they have seen worse. This boy couldn’t have been older than 13 years. I was shocked.
Then my customer told me that even younger boys take it too. But why?
Colorado, popularly called colos, K2 or spice is a group of potent synthetic cannabis, it is a human mind altering chemical that is either sprayed on dried shredded leaves/ leaves or materials so it can be smoked. Why would a 13-year-old boy want to smoke or use this in whichever way. What for?
I couldn’t get the incident off my mind and once I got back inside the car I spoke about it with the driver who took me to the market because he also saw the boy lying on the ground. I was more than shocked when he also told me the things that young boys and, in some instances, girls too do to get “high”.
He told me some of them sniff soak away pits, ingest vulcanizing glues and some even vaporize paints. This is shocking. Not that I am not aware that some people do drugs, but kids of this age. Mind you, the situation is not peculiar to out-of- school kids alone.
There was an incident of a boy whose teachers thought fainted in school on a Friday afternoon assembly. Teachers who were on the school assembly ground rushed to his aid and they discovered something in his mouth when he was a little stable. He was asked to spit it out and one of the teachers identified it as a form of colos. The boy was asked where he got it from because the sick boy himself didn’t know what it was. He said his classmate gave him to take it when he complained of a headache.
His classmate had given him a hard drug which led to a severe reaction because he hadn’t taken it before. This is one of the ways young people get introduced to substance and drug abuse.
Colorado is not the only form of substance that is being abused. There are different grades and types ranging from depressants, stimulants, opiates, hallucinogens; these come in the form of cannabis, cocaine, hallucinogens heroine, methamphetamine, alcohol, bath salts, inhalants, steroids, prescription drugs and cold medicine.
The majority of these kids cannot afford the really expensive ones I learnt and that is why they concentrate on Colorado, a synthetic cannabis, others go for alcoholic spirits in satchets which are very affordable and some on particular prescription drugs and cold medicine to get high, live in Ecstasy and in a world they have created for themselves.
My question still remains why? How did we get here? A lot of social factors brought us here, these include, majorly, a big decline in the family value system, where parents are not playing their roles properly, ( I heard a mother complaining that her 12- year-old son does not listen to her. How?) peer group influence and pressure, social media influence, unresolved trauma at an early stage, low self esteem, loneliness, family history, curiosity, the feeling of good feeling, relaxation and fun, lack of appropriate law enforcement amongst others.
Parents, please, let us be very vigilant and watch our children. This trend isn’t all about out of school children alone or as some will say children in public schools. Even pupils in the most expensive private schools too are said to indulge in this dastardly act. Let us be watchful.
We have a future to build.
When you notice some of these about your ward or child; sudden mood swings, change in friendship circle, ( it is important to know and get to know your children’s friends) sudden withdrawal, sometimes unnecessary aggression, hyper activity among others, ask questions, don’t sleep on it.
So, me or even all of the above may not be as a result of drug or substance abuse but we have a duty as parents to be vigilant.
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