Drug dealers clash in city shows police aversion to halt the trade

A REPORT in a daily on Friday said at least 30 people were injured in a clash between two groups of drug traders at Mohammadpur Geneva Camp over who will control the area. Its clash is related to selling drugs in which another group should not claim shame in local market. They pelted brick chips and used sticks in the turf war in the heart of the city not far from Mohammadpur Police Station. Drug dealers are desperate warlords where police are onlookers because they benefit from the trade. So it appears that they are uncontrollable when the drug menace is spreading and destroying our youths. It is escalating crimes and violence in the society derailing young people from schools to become burden on the families. Bangladesh has become a regular route of drugs trafficking as the number of drug users is surging in the younger generation. As per some estimate drug addicts now run over 50 lakh in the country with an average age is 22. Students are mostly falling victims to drug abuse, which eventually lowers their standards of education and attendance at schools and colleges. Most young people are becoming drug addicts from despair and frustration for failure at schools or in getting jobs for economic insolvency. A number of other reasons include poverty, easy access to drugs, dejection in love and mental stress due to family problems. Local dealers sell opium ganja, sleeping pills, Yaba and phesendyl to overcome stress. Research finds that in capital Dhaka 79.4 percent users are male and 20.6 percent are female. Another study shows 64.8 percent drug users are unmarried, 56.1 percent are either students or unemployed, and 95.4 percent.Bangladesh’s border with India and Myanmar has become porous and inaccessible where both weapons and drugs are traded with almost no obstructions. Myanmar supplies Yaba while phesendyl producing plants on the Indian side of Bangladesh border is supply the liquid drug without much impediments as border guards on both sides are extending helping hands for their own financial benefits. It appears that drug dealers are active at all level of the society and since it is a highly profitable business that makes some people rich overnight the trafficking and its distribution are spreading almost unabated in the capital and other towns and cities. Powerful persons and members of law enforcing agencies are also involved and their involvement has made it difficult to stop the trade. The fight at Mohammadpur in the city showed that the drug trade has developed on the very nose of the police and other law enforcers. It can only be stopped if politicians take the commitment and police take active interest to stop it.