In the backdrop of increasing drug related crime, the pledge of thousands against drug proves there is hope

By Sonam Yangzom

A new promise >> Lyonchen Jigmi Y. Thinley receiving the 1,140-page document containing the pledge and signatures against drug

Nov 19, 2008-Thimphu: In the biggest signature campaign in Bhutanese history, more than 23,000 people from across the country promised to shun drug.  

Prime Minister Jigmi Y. Thinley on Monday received the 1,140-page document containing the pledge and the signatures from three school students who represented the youth of Bhutan.

The campaign, spearheaded by the Citizens’ Initiative for Centenary and Coronation Celebrations (CICCC), is significant in the backdrop of rising drug abuse and related crime in the country.

Latest figures with the police show already 324 abusers have been arrested this year, a rise in 38 cases compared to 2007.

In just the first two weeks of September, the police recorded 24 drug-related cases. Most arrested were young men and women.  

“We worry that there is so much going wrong,” a concerned prime minister said.

The youngest ever arrested for a drug case in the country is an eight-year-old boy and the oldest is a 53-year-old man.

Studies reveal that around 5% of the country’s youth below the age of 24 abuse drugs.

The first drug-related arrest was in 1989 after a home ministry notification on narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.

Nineteen were arrested in Gelephu that year and the youngest was a 13-year-old boy.

Gelephu was again in the news recently after youth gangs high on drugs attacked and threatened people.

An Indian para-military official said that on his regular rounds he caught at least five to seven Bhutanese students buying drugs from medical shops in the neighboring Indian town of Dhatgari.

Since the first arrest, the figures kept increasing.  In 2004, the police arrested a person involved abusing brown sugar, the only brown sugar case reported so far.

The use of tablets like Relipen and Nitro-Sun10 became rampant only after 2000. But cough syrup abuse was popular as early as 1993.

“Where have we gone wrong?” the prime minister asked Monday.

But along with the increase in drug-related cases, corrective measures are also being instituted.

There are two drop-in centers in Thimphu and Phuentsholing to help recovering addicts. The center in Thimphu has about 35 patients at a time. There are three peer counselors including a woman who were drug abusers once, said the project officer of Bhutan Youth Development Fund, Kinley Tenzin.

Four former addicts have been sent to Siliguri for counseling training. 

A recovery center is under construction in Gidagom, and three more are on the cards in Samdrup Jongkhar, Trongsa, and Punakha.

“The center in Punakha will be like a vocational training center for recovering addicts,” said Kinley Tenzin. 

Meanwhile, the prime minister said the signing of the pledge gives reason to the parents and teachers to believe that their children will come to the right path.

He said the pledge document containing the signatures will be presented to His Majesty.

“The pledge book is the greatest gift His Majesty is receiving from the people,” Lyonchen Jigmi Y. Thinley said.

The Say No To Drugs, Say Yes To Life campaign, sponsored by Save the Children Bhutan concluded on November 12.

Thousands of posters, banners and leaflets explaining the campaign were distributed across the country.

“One person who signed the pledge might influence at least three to four people,” said M.B Ghaley, the country director of Save the Children Bhutan.