Due to the prospect of joblessness and the hopelessness that develops after looking for work for an extended period of time in an economy in which jobs are hard to come by, many of our young people have picked up the dangerous habit of drug addiction.
Today, the youths of Sierra Leone are treading the dangerous terrain of drug addiction in a society that is not built to cater for drug addicts. Many social workers have blamed the lack of prospects, hopelessness and joblessness for the rise in the use of recreational drugs by the youthful citizens of Sierra Leone who are expected to carry the mantle of public leadership forward.
Speaking to this medium on conditions of anonymity several social workers that commented on the dangerous trend of drug abuse by youthful Sierra Leoneans alleged that our education system gives cause to the youth to get involved in drug taking.
The social workers say the government lacks a vision for skills training for the youth with the expectation that after WASSCE they will all go to college.
“But not every student will make it to college. Apart from not having the money to further their education passed high school not many students will have the credit to make it to university. Therefore after passing or failing WASSCE there is no other option for our students: it is either you make it to college or you find something to do with your hands. There are no skills training centres or TVETs where those who didn’t do so well at WASSCE will be trained with skills for the job market. It is not every student that will perform well; neither all of them will do trade. Therefore government must make provisions for such students. It is either the government makes provisions or the only way out for many of these students is the new way to escape their problems: drug addiction,” the social worker informed this medium.
Skills training in an environment like Sierra Leone, works wonders. However, the nation lacks these training centres to build up our work based skills deficiencies. The social workers blamed the strict or stiff application requirements into some of the available training centres as one of the factors that also drive students into drug addiction.
“Some students are not good at taking exams. But it does not mean that they are stupid. Far from that many of them are functional geniuses. However, our teachers don’t have the patience to see what areas these students are good at and to make the necessary recommendations for their education going forward. With everyone expected to go to university and with limited spaces many of our talented students have taken solace in drug use and abuse. Many of these students would have done well at TVET institutions which give them an option and even hope for job placement in the future. The wonders of TVET education is that it helps develop the nation from a human resources standpoint because knowledge transfer is being accomplished locally. The hope is that after a student masters his course work he should be in the position to train a fellow citizen thereby transferring knowledge without the huge price tag that we attach to people we import to transfer knowledge to our people,” another social worker posited.
Without skills training centres to cater to our youthful population there is no hope but the hopelessness that comes from whitewashing our problems when we ingest recreational drugs.
“Today drug abuse is rampant among the youth. The real reason is that they don’t have hope in the future. They don’t have hope in our leaders nor our educational system. The only hope they have is either to leave the country for greener pastures of drown their sorrows and disappointments using drugs. Even with the problem of drug addiction the government still lacks a measure of control on the importers of these drugs into the country for the protection of our youths. Sadly our hopeless youths have picked up a dangerous habit for which the government cannot sit back and watch this scene unfold without making or doing something impactful to sort out this mess,” the social workers implored the government of Sierra Leone.
Giving a short history of the rise in drug addiction among the youth of late the social workers say it started with kush and is now heavily tilted to tramadol as many people are afraid of the stereotype that comes with being a kush addict.
“The problem with kush is that it is manufactured locally. But we can stop the importation of tramadol. The Inspector General of Police, Fayia Sellu has played his part. He came in with sensitization marches and speeches and the arrest of many drug dealers. However, IGP Sellu’s fine work is being dismantled at the court houses where known drug dealers were recently given bail by no less than Justice Stevens with all of them now on the run. Bigitel and two others are still on the run. What is the hope for our young people on drugs in light of such careless dispensation of justice?” the social workers asked.
Meanwhile, social workers have posited that Sierra Leone is heading for a very dark episode in her governance narrative as the people expected to take over the mantle of leadership in the future, the youths of today, are heavily addicted some of the worst recreational drugs known to man with the government doing nothing to assuage this nation killing trend. At present hundreds of young people have lost their lives and continue to lose their lives to drug addiction simply because they do not have an option. Lonta!