NO normal home is culturally trained to heal or understand the turmoiled parallel dimensions of an addict’s mind. I have had, and still have that challenge for the past seven years. Families are constructed on discussions, punishment and rewards towards the redemption into the normalcy of members, with consistent and threatening practices that border as an open adversary, especially at a vulnerable time. Then tough love must be applied towards the survival of the collective entity we call the ‘Family’. Thus, the casting out and down of some family members is a reality that is necessary to save others.
Of all the non-local negative practices sucked into ‘Things Guyanese’, addictive drugs, cigarettes, marijuana, cocaine etc., marijuana and cocaine are the worse, followed by cigarettes and alcohol. The abuse of alcohol, especially during pregnancy, can result in Foetal Alcohol Syndrome. It’s a terrible addiction that is called the Jekyll and Hyde of the drug world. The alcoholic heart can be enlarged by ethanol-induced blood pressure. The brain can be affected too.
Don’t blame ‘jumbie business’ when you see a child born with abnormalities; excessive alcohol in the mother’s bloodstream can be toxic to the developing fetus, thus resulting in deformities. The word, ‘hallucinogen’, was outside of my school vocabulary until an incident in West Ruimveldt forced me to explore further, inquiring how did marijuana usage result in mystic visions (I have written in detail about this in a previous article Sun Nov.17, 2019). The result: Becoming aware of marijuana as a useful herb with a terrible disabling compound, ‘Tetrahydrocannabinol or THC’. It is the mind-altering ingredient that can induce psychotic alterations. Too long a list compiles in our Guyana; the death of elder relatives at the hands of the irritant addicted especially to cocaine.
Now there is the worse with ‘Frankenstein Marijuana’. A lab-created offshoot of synthetic marijuana has penetrated the market. Yes, drugs are a market commodity!
Most of this plague had emerged and was in full force by 1985, coupled with the first collapse of mass employment in 1978-9 of waterfront jobs. Many had turned to trade because of the oil crisis. Suitcase traders became the first new wealth, followed by the development of the local Rastafarian movement and the advent of marijuana. Soon enough, cocaine was competing, and the addicts followed. Between1980 and 2020, there seems to be no real answer for the scourge of drug addiction.
THE TROUBLED TIMES
This was the fuel that fired ‘the troubled times’, and though some efforts are in place today, the State has no rehabilitation facility. Addicts more or less remain the responsibility of the home or inadequate ‘rehab’ facilities.
I mentioned before that generations of managing family systems had developed norms that are not consistent with drug addiction. The habits of the addict have to be monitored towards forced accepted hygiene practices; then the effects of drugs seem to alter taste and preference towards what is normal food. Further, with the drug’s effect on the nervous system, they will inveigle sympathetic friends to buy restaurant food, and even slip sleep-aid pills with it.
Sleep-aid pills, unless prescribed, are as dangerous as cocaine, and many pharmacies defy the law, and, with some familiarity, do sell what should not be sold over the counter. Get to know all friends who visit; it is not unlikely that the very drug dealer may be masquerading as a school friend you have never met. Parents can be worn out and stressed enough by bills and ordinary living, but with the in-house addict, everything has to be hidden that can disappear when the ‘cravings’, as the urge for drugs is called, begin.
Whether you believe in demon possession or not, drug addiction comes a close second in terms of deception and hostile torment of families. So many parents and guardians follow the Biblical course with Yahweh, the Father, and Lucifer, the addicted son, and cast their loved ones out. This act, however, is far from an easy solution; the victim seldom finds peace in the mind-altering pits that the Drug Yards are. How do families reconcile with this act?
It had better be all involved, with a resolve towards a show of redemption if the addict can summon the inner strength to rise above the ‘jumbie’, as cocaine is called in the culture. Then long-drawn-out rules must be implemented, seek what the medical and legal system can offer in support. Remember, there’s a drug court with professionals who can help.
In closing, as a parent and one who is vulnerable to the human world with my vexations and expectations, drug addiction is the one thing that I would not wish on my worst enemy or his close kin in retaliation.
