What is an addiction? It is a sign, a signal, a symptom of distress. It is a language that tells us about a plight that must be understood.
– Alice Miller, Polish-Swiss psychologist, psychoanalyst and philosopher
Only those who are affected in one way or the other would know the true scourge of drugs, especially if it involves an abuse or addiction.
An addict may think that drug abuse is his private matter but Malaysian laws say otherwise.
My own experience and encounter with marijuana (pronounced as ‘marihuana’) dated back to our innocent days staying in the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) hostel in Minden, Penang, especially in the then Desa C where rooms on the ground floor were more susceptible to such afflict, thanks to easy access by the groundsmen who would call from outside asking for a stick of fag.
I first encountered such ‘nuisance’ when squatting with a friend in Desa C after a tempting night of booze in the third quarter of 1975 – my Desa A wooden ‘longhouse’ hostel was safe from this bother. In the friend’s room, an Indian groundsman poked his head through an open window one Sunday afternoon and asked for a cigarette.
“Aiyo yo tambi ada rokok ke? Tolong bagi satu!” (I was shocked that he addressed me as ‘tambi’ because in Iban we use ‘tambi’ to refer to Indians and yet I was very sure he did not mistake me for one of them).
So I searched for one stick from my friend’s packet – at that time I already quit smoking – and asked his permission to give one to the ‘tambi’ outside his room’s window.
When I passed a stick of unfiltered Camel to him, the ‘tambi’ said: “Manyak terima kasi la. Tambi mahu hisap special punya ‘rokok’ kah? Satu batang RM3 saja. Ini dari Thailand. Tambi pasti suka.”
I heard news that these guys had been selling marijuana to USM students for a while at three ringgit per roll. So I told him to get a stick. But before passing the three bucks to him in exchange for the one roll of marijuana, I politely asked him why he called me ‘tambi’.
“Aiyo yo…itu tambi sama serupa ‘adik’ (younger brother) la, lagi pun ‘tambi’ manyak hensem la, heheh,” he told me, laughing happily after getting three extra bucks for the day. At that time in any USM canteen the three ringgit was more than enough for a decent meal of rice, vegetable and small piece of meat or fish.
That was my inaugural encounter with marijuana — also called weed, herb, pot, grass, bud, ganja, Mary Jane, and a vast number of other slang terms.
I remember it as a greenish-grey mixture of the dried flowers of Cannabis sativa. The one given to me was hand-rolled cigarette, one of those usually smoked by USM students at that time, thus giving it as a ‘trendy’ stuff then. Some people told me there were some of our campus guys who used marijuana to brew tea whereas some even mixed the stuff with their food, usually for medical purposes.
Because I tried a few times in smoking these hand-rolled items, it put me nearer into the ‘light user category’ in drugs abuse term, but did not fully qualify yet. It did not provide me the effects universally experienced and enjoyed by users and perhaps it was a good thing because it ended there. When I stopped after some rolls of light hallucinated smoking, there was no withdrawal symptom usually experienced by heavy users or addicts.
It was a good thing that I never made it into the grade of a light user, thank God. A friend, actually a cousin who was a heavy smoker – he later headed a state department as director – really enjoyed the hallucinating moments but was wise enough to stop after months of experimentations with various banned substances.
Drug abuse is still Malaysia’s serious enemy. Thanks to early exposure to marijuana and an attendance in 1980 of a national-level drugs seminar in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan for teachers’ college lecturers – my two colleagues attending the course together with me, namely Saidol Bolhassan and Sitam Abas, now have their sons as members of Sarawak State Legislative Assembly and the state cabinet – I was made key personnel for drugs in the Sarawak Education Department between 1980 and 1993.
As such during a number of ‘Tata Negara’ courses for Lower Sixth students in Sarikei and Sibu throughout the years I was always invited to give lectures on drugs abuse. In 1984 while heading SMK Sedaya, Kanowit I became a life member of Persatuan Mencegah Dadah Malaysia (Pemadam) and shared the knowledge of the drug abuse scourge with fellow teachers, government officials and community leaders. My life membership certificate was signed by then Prime Minister and Pemadam national patron Datuk Seri (now Tun) Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
For the benefit of readers, drug abuse is the state whereby the users of drugs are not using them to cure their illness or poor health or ailment but using the drugs to hallucinate or to achieve a state of euphoria or ecstasy – an addict told me she could see herself down on the ground from the sky during a ‘high’ moment. This could be the reason why The Beatles’ song ‘Lucy In The Sky’ is banned in Malaysia.
Actually morphine was already in use long time ago to cure illness. For example Madam Defarge in Charles Dickens’ book Tales of Two Cities set in England in the 15th century already used it to cure her illness. For that matter there have been a number of discoveries made pertaining to Dickens himself, all pointing to the fact that he was a heavy user of opium.
Back to the abuse of drugs and alcohol as well, family members are the real victims of such bane. Addicts and alcoholics, the culprits in such nuisance, are usually oblivious to their surroundings, including family members.
All they care is to get another dose of drug or alcohol to fulfil their addiction (‘to get high’) whereas their family members, especially their kids are left to suffer in seeing their father or mother or both parents getting slowly destroyed by the substance.
In the case that the addict is a bachelor or unmarried, his addiction will cause his parents or siblings to suffer in seeing him in such state of self-destruction and an early date with the grave.
For that matter, offenders charged under Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 and Section 39A (2) of the same act, face the mandatory death penalty upon conviction.
In the world of entertainment and celebrities worldwide, many stars were allegedly destroyed by drugs with my idol the late King of Rock n Roll Elvis Aaron Presley leading the list. Others well-known for drug and alcohol abuse were Richard Burton (actor); George Best (MU striker); pianist/singer Little Richard, guitar genius and legend Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Whitney Houston and many more.
In our present day scenario, pills such as ketamine and amphetamine are easily obtainable. Parents should always check on their teenage children, especially when they portray a sudden behavioural change, which is a typical symptom of such predicament.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
