Expressing growing concern over consumption of drugs among students, the Goa State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (GSCPCR) has advocated forming of vigilant clubs in educational institutions as well as urged the formulation of a school drug policy to combat drug use, which the Commission said was a bigger menace than alcohol consumption.
According to the chairperson of the Commission, Peter F Borges, Goa also needs a well-coordinated, sustainable response to reduce the harmful use of alcohol and drugs in order to improve the health and social outcomes for individuals.
"Strengthening prevention is very vital as the drug abuse problem is now eating into the Goan society and is doing much more damage than even alcohol. Drug and alcohol use affects health outcomes, job opportunities, family life, and academic outcomes. The problem is grave and continues to wreak havoc in the state, resulting in tragic consequences for young adolescents, their families, and communities," Borges said.
The Commission, Borges said, was in the process of pushing several preventive measures in order to curb the menace, claiming that "prevention programmes in educational settings offer a window of opportunity for the establishment of neural pathways that may protect against the development of drug and alcohol use problems."
The Commission is keen on promoting setting up of Prahari (vigilant) Clubs in educational institutions to "ensure a drug-free campus by imposing a total ban on the possession or consumption or use of drugs and alcohol by students at the school, within or outside the campus".
He also also advocated the formulation and adaptation of school drug policy to set normative values and expectations for student behaviour as well as to document procedures for dealing with drug-related incidents in schools, while also leveraging on capacity building of stakeholders, namely counsellors and nodal teachers, in order to create a cadre of professionals to provide range of substance use prevention and early intervention services and support.
Apart from being one of the leading beach and nightlife tourism destinations in the country, Goa is also notorious as a narco-tourism destination, with its tourism savvy coastal belt infamous for easy availability of drugs and narcotics products.