Feature

Drug addiction in Bangladesh

Md.Nurun Nabi

DRUG abuse directly influences the economic and social aspects of a country. There are thousands of addicted people in Bangladesh and most of them are young, between the ages of 18 and 30 from all walks of life. Drug addiction in young Bangladeshis are mainly seen because of reasons like depression. People try to remove depression using drugs as a tool. And this is how they become addicts. Failed relationships and broken hearts are also major inducements of drug abuse in young people. Another cause of drug addiction is peer pressure.

Curiosity is a normal tendency in human beings, especially teenagers. Unwanted events and refusal can make one lose confidence resulting into the use of drugs.

Research shows that most people become addicted to drugs due to poverty. Different society has different cultural and religious traditions. In different cultural festivals a common tradition is to take alcohol, cannabis, and other drugs. There are some religious festivals where drugs are vital.

Young people belonging to the higher class of the society take alcohol and other drugs to maintain their status in the friend circles. Day by day they become more addicted to these drugs. Another important cause of drug addiction is the availability of drug. The law enforcement agencies are not being able to stop the drug dealing and trafficking. Unemployment is also another reason why many young people get frustrated and land into depression and eventually use drugs. Sometimes unemployed people are associated with criminal acts. People take different medicines for different diseases. The long-term use of these medicines can make them dependant on them.

Sometimes young people are motivated by the political people to take drugs. Many political leaders are related to drug trafficking. Long-term disease needs long-term use of medicine. So much so, drugs deter people from living a normal life.Hence say no to drugs!

(Department of Criminology and Police Science, Mawlana Bhashani Science & Technology University)

Discussion on 'Road to the White House' at Eastern University

Star Campus Desk

Adiscussion meeting on U.S. presidential election titled 'Road to the White House' was held at Eastern University (EU) on 13 July. In cooperation with the Eastern University the civic education and human rights organization Change Makers organised the meeting supported by the American Center, U.S. Embassy, Dhaka.

Brent Beemer, acting Director of the American Center presented a presentation on 'American Government and Elections', which represented the federal government system, checks and balances between legislative-executive-judiciary, elections in America, political parties, 2008 presidential election, congressional transition, presidential transition, presidential inauguration, the administration and challenges for Obama administration. Later, a question and answer session was held where the students and faculty members asked questions on various issues such as the U.S. elections, economy, foreign policy, constitution etc.

Main objective of the programme was to inform and educate students and cross-sections professional groups as regards to the U.S. political and electoral system with a view to giving them an opportunity of making an in-depth assessment as to the role of U.S. political system in developing an ideal democratic regime.

Professor Rahim B.Talukdar, Vice Chancellor of EU, presided the discussion. Prof. Saiful Majid, Chairman, EU Foundation, Sabreen Rahman, Program Development Advisor and Erin Boeke Burke of the American Center, Advocate Tanbir ul Islam Siddiqui, President of Change Makers were also present in the meeting. Imdadul Haque, Lecturer, Faculty of Law conducted the programme.