Nagaland’s drug crisis: A former addict finds her voice

DIMAPUR — Nagaland’s drug crisis has taken a worrying turn with a noticeable rise in female drug addiction, a matter often neglected and under-discussed. The inadequate availability of rehabilitation centres for women in the state is also an issue that is overlooked.

Narratives surrounding drug and alcohol-related stories and assistance for addicts, predominantly focus on men and inadvertently overlook the deeper human elements in each woman’s story, which often remain untold.

In this context, the CAD Foundation Centre, situated in Dimapur’s Westyard colony, also known as Railway Bazaar colony, has become a focal point in addressing this issue.

The centre provides Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST) intervention services, HIV testing and counselling, particularly tailored for Female Injecting Drug Users (FIDUs).

Among the outreach workers at the CAD Foundation was Jenny, a recovered drug addict. During Eastern Mirror’s visit to the centre, Jenny, who gave herself the nickname, volunteered to share her journey of recovery.

Jenny said her life took a challenging turn in 2004 when her husband left her with their three minor children for another woman. From then on, there was a spiral of events, which she admittedly ‘is not proud of.’

Excommunicated from her hometown for ten years and left without security or employment, Jenny found herself on a challenging journey to provide for herself and her children, the youngest being just a year and half old.

 “I started using drugs in 2004 after my husband left me for another woman. I went into a mental breakdown and a friend of mine suggested taking drugs in order to forget the situation that I was in and get an ecstatic feeling. I was desperate to break away from the mental breakdown and the huge responsibility that was on me, so I started using drugs,” Jenny shared.

In that very year, she, along with a friend, faced excommunication from her hometown due to her involvement with drugs.

Recounting the vivid memory of being paraded in the town alongside her friend on the day she was excommunicated, Jenny said she was instructed to leave her hometown on that very day. With three minor children, she sought refuge in Dimapur and stayed at her friend’s place. Unfortunately, she faced expulsion once again when it was found out that she was excommunicated.

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“Some church leaders and underground faction got to know that I was excommunicated, thereby I was asked to leave the colony that I was residing in. My children were too innocent to understand what was going on and I was getting drowned with substance use,” she narrated.

Jenny became entangled in drug addiction for nearly a decade, resulting in people cursing her, subjecting her to stigmatisation and leaving her unwelcome in any home. She recounted sleeping on the train station platform. But despite these challenging circumstances, she remained unwilling to break free from drugs.

Jenny admitted to seeking medical treatment, but her struggle with drugs was so overpowering that she consistently found ways to escape from the hospital.

In 2013, Jenny, already hooked on drugs for almost a decade, met a woman struggling with similar issues and the two became close friends. Encouraged by her late friend named Esther, she sought help from the NGO Community Awareness and Development (CAD) Foundation.

 “I remember I was on a walking stick, almost on the brink of death when I reached the CAD foundation centre located at Westyard or otherwise known as Railway colony. With the assistance of the workers at the CAD foundation I started taking OST but I was not sincere with myself, the treatment or with the NGO workers. I relapsed in 2015 but the workers never gave up on me,” Jenny recalled.

Through the foundation’s intervention and counselling, she finally recovered from drug addiction and is presently working with the NGO as a peer educator. Even in the midst of the undesirable situation that she had been in, she said her children did not leave her.

In 2022, eighteen years later after she was excommunicated from her hometown for ten years in 2004, Jenny revisited her hometown to pay her last respects to her deceased mother.

“When I visited my hometown after 18 years many people were in shock to see me alive and in very good health. People assumed I was dead all those years,” she shared, with a hint of pride on how far she has come.

Narrating her story, Jenny expressed the view that while there is a rise in drug addiction among women, many women do not seek help due to the double stigmatisation from society, compared to men who are drug addicts.

“As a recovered addict myself, who has gone through shame and condemnation, I can say that stigmatising an addict — be it men or women—in no way helps an addict,” she said.

Jenny asserted that she was “not defending our actions which we are not proud.” However,  “the Church, the many tribal apex bodies for women, instead of excommunicating or parading addicts, should extend their assistance to help an addict recover — for not many women seek help out of shame,” she urged. 

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