Experts have charged parents to challenge to protect their children and wards in the fight against drug abuse. This is even as the experts declared that the fight against drug abuse in the country must start from the parents.
This declaration was made at a lecture with the theme, ‘Effect of Drug Abuse, Who Suffers Most? The Society or The User’, organized by All Youth Reoriented Initiative. The event was to mark this year’s edition of the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.
Speaking at the event, the Deputy Director, Addiction Therapist, Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Aro-Abeokuta, Dr Solomon Abiodun, cautioned parented to the proactive. Delivering the lecture on ‘Mental Health’, he said parents should not follow the old training method of bullying their children.
Abiodun also advised parents to draw their children nearer and counsel them on the dangers of drug abuse.
He, however, warned parents against getting involved in drug abuse.
“We need to warn the parents themselves against drug abuse. What you don’t have, you don’t give. There are some parents themselves that are using drugs.
“So, if you are using drug as a parent, what message do you want to give to your children. It won’t be meaningful. So, the fight against drug abuse starts from the parents. Let them first know the consequences of their actions. If they know the consequences of their actions, they will stop. And they will be able to educate their children on the evils of drug abuse.
“Some parents want to train their children the way their parents trained them. They should note that this generation is quite different. In those days, children were bullied to toe the right path. But if you bully any child now, you send him away.
“Parents need to do everything possible to draw their children closer. So, that whatever they are telling them, they will be able to internalize it. Doing otherwise will lead to a terrible error. So, we implore the parents to do more of advocacy of taking away of drugs from our society.”
On her part, officer of the Drug Demand Reduction, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, (NDLEA), Ogun State Command, Sarah Afolabi urged parents to keep watch over their children. She stated this while speaking on the topic, ‘Dealing with drug abuse,’
Afolabi warned that parents should not leave their children for schoolteachers alone. She, therefore, urged parents to create good and positive environment for their children.
She said, “This will make your children to be your friends. Unnecessary pressure from some parents makes some children to take to drugs and join bad gangs.
“Parents must be there to support their children. Education begins from home. It is the habit of the home that children carry to school. Parents should therefore, pay attention to the attitudes of their children and stop shifting responsibility.
“They should know that the children are vulnerable. So, their attitudes and actions should be monitored constantly.”
Making his contributions, the Chairman of the occasion, Dr Adebayo Oluwatosin, stated that parents have a very serious role to play. He maintained that parents should ensure that their children are not dragged into drug abuse.
“My own candid advice to the parents is to keep watch over their kids. This is because when the problem starts, it affects the parent too.
“The parents should keep constant watch over their kids. Talk to them regularly and let them know the disadvantage of even taking alcohol. Which most of them think is a normal thing in the society,” Oluwatosin said.
source: Daily Post
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