GET HIGH ON LIFE, NOT DRUGS
GET HIGH ON LIFE, NOT DRUGS
“A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what’s going on”
SCIT, on 20th August, conducted a lecture on Substance Abuse – an informative session held for creating awareness among students about drug use and abuse.
Among the speakers invited were Dr. Brijesh Pillai, Faculty SCIT, Mr. S.B. Navale, Senior Police Inspector,Anti Narcotics Branch,Pune, and third and the last speaker was Mr. Sanjay Bhagat, Muktangan.
The first speaker of the afternoon was Mr. Brijiesh Pillai. He Started his presentation with the quote, ”Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it” – Albus Dumbledore. With these words he explained us the basic effects of drugs on mind and body. Students are most vulnerable to fall prey to the drug monster. Even celebrities are not out of the net; Elvis Presley, Bruce Lee and Whitney Houston are among them. Athletes such as Lance Armstrong, Ben Johnson were stripped of their gold medal for doping. He explained the effects of drug abuse such as anti – social behavior, criminal actions being taken and psychological harm. He ended his informative session by saying that “It’s a very crucial issue.We need to say no to drugs; we have to take this decision and have that kind of control on ourselves. “
The 2nd speaker was Mr. S. B. Navale , Senior Police Inspector, Anti Narcotics Branch, Pune. It’s been a long time he has been associated with Symbiosis University; this was his 6th lecture. He first explained his role and how his department needs to be on duty 24 by 7. One thing I noticed about him was he was very appreciative of little things and had a great sense of humor, like he applauded us for being in college formals and for our discipline; rare qualities seen in people of his profession. He elaborated us on the legal procedures and explained us all the sections under which people caught using drugs can be charged. One of the sections he explained was section 27 which was particularly highlighted because it emphasized on harboring i.e hiding information from authorities if you know someone is consuming drugs. People get under the influence of peers, face pressure from parents, they want to look cooler and maintain social status, these reasons and many more excuses are made just to have drugs.
The legal age for individuals consuming alcohol is 25 and even after that we need license to consume. In the end, it is you who has to raise above all these influences. He concluded his speech by saying that if we ever get caught in such malpractice, we won’t get a character verification certificate and that will affect our placements.
The third and the last speaker of the afternoon was Mr. Sanjay Bhagat, of the NGO Muktangan, which is managed by Central Government. His association with symbiosis goes all the way to 20 years back. He has conducted many activities with association to our university. He emphasized on the point of “Demand and Supply Reduction”. Police is working from the supply reduction of drugs part and NGO’s like Muktangan were concentrating on Demand Reduction of drugs. He advised us not to accept drinks from strangers, and told about a chemical Ketamine which is used as an analgesic drug and hallucinogen. It severely affects brain cells. He explained in detail how to help addicts to get normal and learning to say no. Do what makes you happy, community service, spreading happiness are all the things that can help you reduce addiction. He concluded his words of wisdom saying, “Let’s Build A Happy Place”
A question and answer session was held in the end and students cleared their doubts by asking about how to reach the police if they get any information and their concern over visiting police stations and doubts over dialing 100. Navale sir assured all of them about their doubts and urged everyone to provide information.
In the end the session was concluded by Lt. Col. Kadam Sir who asked students to be careful and not to harbor anyone because that will have disciplinary action taken against the one who is harboring and assured Navale Sir that you won’t find even a single case in SCIT campus as well as Symbiosis University Campus.
RISE ABOVE THE INFULENCE..!..STAY SAFE..!
