By The Weekly Vision
Kenyan parents have reacted in pure anguish at the latest reports from the National Commission Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA) showing that children as young as 6 years were abusing both tobacco and bhang! A parent who spoke to The Weekly Vision on condition of anonymity called for a national conversation on the issue that will involve all county governments, schools, colleges and parents to craft a national strategy in the fight against the growing scourge of drug abuse that has escalated in society.
“The parent was alarmed at these findings and asked NACADA to go beyond periodic reports that later gather dust on book shelves and work on a comprehensive strategy that will help the fight especially against bhang which has adverse health reactions on smokers,” he said.
The parent said this situation has been worsened by the presence of thousands of homeless street children who are not only abused but are further led into all manner of moral delinquency that involves cigarette smoking, doping and bhang selling. He said that he had witnessed many Wines and Spirit Pubs that deal in hard drugs and bhang. “We must work to rescue the future generation which is headed in the wrong direction and urgent measures must be taken to fight the menace.
Another parent said ‘’Matters are further aggravated by the proliferation of illicit alcohol where hundreds of youth are drowning in deadly substances that have killed and blinded many yet they still refuse to quit having become hardcore addicts’’.
The NACADA findings, he said, paint a bleak picture of Mount Kenya and Uasin Gishu as leading consumers of alcohol and smoking bhang. “We would like to take issue with a well-known opposition politician and also former presidential candidate whose August 2022 manifesto advocated for legalizing growing and smoking of bhang”. Adding that many youths had been carried away by remarks purporting to claim it was okay to smoke bhang and grow it for export. Export to which country?” He challenged the opposition leader who had also talked of exporting “packed snake beef” to China to offset foreign debts to stop misleading young people trying to build families and grow their careers. “Kenya is a young nation where youth below 30 is 80 percent of the population who must be protected”. The parents warned parents to stop smoking before their children or send them to shops to buy cigarettes.
The time for playing games with the future of our children is over. We must reject such bizarre ideas by old men whose families are abroad safely away from the detrimental lifestyles they are advocating.
