The Zimbabwean social fabric is slowly eroding especially in major cities around the country. Our leadership is burying their heads in the sand pretending that everything is okay but deep down we all know that something is wrong. Nobody wants to talk about the drug issues in our streets but we wont stop until something is done to help our young people. First we need to look at the real causes as to why our young people are taking hardcore drugs ? Unemployment is a serious issues which lead to depression and social pressure from family and friends.
We have many people in Zimbabwe who are in their 30s some with degrees and they don’t have jobs, they have never worked in their entire lives and wont be married anytime soon. The social pressure is just too much for many of these young people , they want to start families and own houses and cars but they cant afford hence the resort to drugs to escape from their realities. To be clear I don’t have problems with marijuana (Mbanje) as an anti depressant or alcohol , you can smoke and drink.
But our main worry is the hardcore drugs flooding our streets, cocaine , meth and others we don’t know their names. These are highly addictive drugs and does no good to anybody, the abusers are sharing needles , spreading diseases such as HIV as well as Hepatitis. They steal anything and everything to feed their addiction and once a person is addicted they can not be employed because of their behaviors , including steal , time management , hygiene and adherence to instructions at work as well as respect of employers and managers at work.
It will be good if the successful influencer and musicians start giving ack to the mostly affected communities , creating free recording studios , Counselling centers , rehabilitation centers Innovation hubs, arts and culture hubs. I rarely mention names but Chillspot has done much more for the young people in Mbare, taking the rejects and destitute of the society and turning them into stars. I hope more people who are in positions of powers and influence will come together with a clear message that we can do better in fighting the drug epidemic in this country.
