Angul: Several nomadic minor children in this town have fallen prey to sedatives and have become addicted, a source reported, Sunday. These urchins beg during the day. However, they also collect remnants of sedatives and then at night consume those to go into a stupor. One of the most popular sedatives among the kids is glue which they sniff. It then turns into an addiction. Most of these kids sniff ‘Dendrite’ the tubes of which are thrown away after use.
However, addiction leads to a different problem. It lures the street kids to indulge in criminal activities. Many intellectuals observed the number of injecting drug users (IDUs) has gone up considerably. This is a matter of concern because drug addicts often take injections in groups.
This may lead to HIV infection as multiple users use the same needle. Addiction also leads to various forms of illness like depression, apathy, withdrawal, personality disorders, short-term memory loss and violent mood alterations., they observed. Consequently, they end up committing petty crimes and more often than not get arrested, or dealt with by the juvenile justice system in the case of minors.
Senior residents of the town observed that the retailers do not hesitate to sell such products to minors. They pointed out that the police and district administration should be proactive to prevent such sale. When contacted, Angul child protection officer (CPO) Gouri Shankar Behera said, “We have been conducting awareness programmes from time to time for nomadic minor children in the slums. Town police will be requested to carry out raids at different retail outlets soon.”