Kohima: Nearly half of substance users in Kohima are unemployed, and most started using drugs before they turned twenty. Ketho Angami, President of NagaDAO, shared these grim figures at a Social Welfare Department event held at the Capital Conventional Hall on June 26. The data arrived as the region marked the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.
The ARK Foundation surveyed 51 people for this report. The numbers show the problem hits young people hardest. Over 40 percent of users are between 21 and 25 years old. Another 31 percent fall in the 17 to 20 age range. Only 14 percent of those surveyed hold jobs in the private sector.
Early exposure remains a massive hurdle for the state. Statistics indicate 55 percent of participants had their "first drug use experience" between the ages of 16 and 20. Another 29 percent started even earlier, between 11 and 15 years old.
Daily habit patterns are extreme. Every person in the survey admitted to injecting drugs, with nearly half of them doing so every single day. Most daily injectors hit the needle between two and five times per session. Users are also mixing substances, combining heroin, alcohol, sunflower, and yaba to get high.
Overdoses are frequent and often mismanaged. One in four users reported suffering an overdose. Many are dangerously ignorant about emergency response, with 39 percent believing salt and lemon can fix an overdose. More than half of all respondents simply have no idea how to save a life during a medical crisis.
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