Sythé War

The drugs are taking on the youth as if the pollution of our planet is not enough to endanger our future. Mauritius has become a place where drugs are becoming readily available to any person as from the age of 12. Youngsters buying drugs on the streets and going to school completely out of the world but the real issue is how these students are getting the drugs.

One cannot imagine how readily drugs are available in Mauritius especially the infamous ‘Sythé’. If you did not attend the secondary school in the last 5 years you are not aware of the situation in Mauritius and how the drugs are affecting the youth. Many teachers and stakeholders in the Minsitry of Education do not know the system of the ‘ti baron’ in the schools which is one of the key problems in the spreading of drugs in these institutions.

‘Sythé’ which comes under many names like ‘bat dan latet’, ‘crocodile’ and others, have become so cheap that a dose of these can be bought by anyone. The average price of a dose this dangerous drug is Rs. 50, which can be easily bought by any student even if they do not have enough money the ‘met un coster’ system is applied to buy the drug. The price of the drug is one of the issues that is encouraging youngsters to fall in this trap as it may be cheaper than a packet of cigarette but gives more pleasure. At this rate this dose can be bought even with the average daily pocket money of three primary students.

Synthetic drugs are far more dangerous than cannabis. If someone argues that cannabis is as dangerous as synthetic drugs, I request that person to please visit the Brown Sequard Hospital to see the number of patients treated due to the consumption of the synthetic drugs and on the hand if there is any case of canabis consumers. There has been some cases where it is rumoured that there was the need to resort to electric shocks to treat the patients who are mainly youngsters. 

Still we can clearly see the that the synthetic drugs are much more available and cheaper than cannabis which encourages the young people who are financially restrained to consume them.

This is what prompts me to ask to the people of Mauritius whether is it the time to legalise cannabis and stop treating it as a hard drug?
This problem is very dangerous and affecting our society and drastic measures should be taken to help our beloved youth. Being one of the youths of this country, I can clearly say that there are measures that could be taken to reduce the gravity of the problem. Our first aim is to stop the use of synthetic drugs especially by the youngsters and eventually destroy this drug completely.

One of the best measures to be taken is to educate the youngsters about the drugs and to show them the aftermath of the synthetic drugs especially. Campaigns should be run in schools to educate and guide the students, there is a big lack of education about drugs. I believe that this has become as important as the academic education and if not more important. Without being educated on these subjects  how can we hold the youngsters accountable of falling in this sophisticated trap of synthetic drug.
(I have recently left the secondary school and in all the years I have never been really taught the effects of drugs especially of the synthetic drugs. There is indeed a lack of education, all I have learnt about the drugs and how dangerous it is was on the media especially L’Express.)

Another measure is to have a discipline master in each school. The discipline master should be specially trained for this job and be a full time employed person. The duties of a discipline master cannot be delegated to a teacher who already have a full or half timetable. This will change the school for sure and this will clearly regulate the misbehaviours in the school at the same time.

There are other measures which could be taken but I believe that these two main measures if they are adopted will yield incredible results.
I have not talked about taking down the dealers and other stakeholders in the distribution and manufacture of the drugs as the Government of Mauritius is doing a rather great job during the last five years. They are doing the best they can but this fight against the synthetic drug is really difficult due to the fact it can be manufactured locally.

Mauritians should understand that the relationship between the ‘Sythé’ and the youngsters is a complicated one which will destroy our youth. This phenomenon will also affect Mauritius on the long run as the young workers of the country will not be at their top of their potential.

Yovesh Gunnoo