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Tafadzwa Chibukwa, Chronicle Reporter

VARIOUS stakeholders in Bulawayo last Friday teamed up and conducted an awareness campaign as part of efforts to address the issue of substance and drug abuse amid worries that the number of youths abusing drugs keeps rising in the city.

The campaign, which was held at the National University of Science and Technology (Nust), was organised by UNESCO, Nust students, Ingutsheni Central Hospital, police, Justice for Children and First Mutual Life among others.

The purpose of the campaign was to conscientise the local community and educating youths on the dangers associated with drugs and substance abuse, including their long-term effects. 

The campaign, which ran under the theme ‘One choice, one life’ was presided over by the Nust Dean of Students, Mr Charlie Ncube.

He commended the organisers of the event for taking it upon themselves to spread the message to students on drug abuse.

Substance abuse

“We have marched, we have listened to lively discussions and vibrant presentations, the ball is now in our courts to see whether we will take the advice and lessons drawn from this campaign,” said Mr Ncube.

He said drug and substance abuse doesn’t only affect those who abuse them, but also the generality of society.

“To show that as the Nust society we are concerned about drug and substance abuse, we have come up with research programmes to look into the effects of substance and drug abuse to formulate knowledge regarding the battle we are fighting,” said Mr Ncube.

He said he looked forward to similar events being hosted every year to address the issue of drug and substance abuse. 

Statistics from Active Youth Zimbabwe, a drug treatment and rehabilitation organisation show that the average age of substance use initiation is between 13 and 14 years old in the province.

The illegal practice has been worsened by the fact that there are no rehabilitation centres locally and addicts are likely to relapse even after treatment at Ingutsheni.

Ingutsheni-Central-Hospital-in-Bulawayo

This comes at a time when Zimbabwe is working towards a drug-free society through a drug master plan which will help the country achieve Vision 2030. 

The master plan aims at dealing with drug and substance abuse in society.

In Zimbabwe people mostly abuse alcohol both licensed and unlicensed brews, tobacco, cannabis and non-medicinal use of controlled medicines such as codeine containing cough medicines and benzodiazepines. 

Ingutsheni Central Hospital clinical director Dr Wellington Ranga recently told Chronicle that the institution attends to about 250 drug addicts every month. – @Sagepapie14