Sushil Khatri, 45, an ex-drug user from Kathmandu, lost most of his teeth due to his 21 years of drug life, but now he has now complete dentures which give him a new confident smile in his new life.
He left using hard drug at the age of 34. He is clean now since 11 years. Sushil makes a same commitment every day. He says “Every morning when I weak up first I make a commitment that today I will not have drug today.”
Although he spent 21 years of life in drug he is very positive about life. He expressed the importance of every day, “I am leaving for today, yesterday is gone and I do not know about tomorrow, this does not mean I do not plan in my life.”
It is now 8 years that Sushil knew that he is HIV positive. He is optimistic about his life. “If you want to change others, you have to start from yourself. Think positive, live positive, I am HIV positive that is why I am here now.” He added.
Thousands of youth in Nepal, especially in Kathmandu are addicted to different kinds of hard drugs. But in due course some users leave the drug totally and live a normal life.
According to the “Summary report of the survey on Hard Drug Users in Nepal 2007”, there are 46,309 hard drug users in Nepal. Among this number of drug users 92.8% are male and 7.2% are female. The highest numbers of drug users are found in Kathmandu, 17,458 drug users. The numbers has certainly increased by 2013 due to globalization, migration, service gap, poverty, unemployment, so-called modern life and other social and political factors.
Hard drugs entered Nepal in late 1960 with the Hippie movement. Now Nepal is used as a transit point for drug trafficking. There is no exact data available that tells us how many people have left hard drug use totally. Sushil Khatri assumes that there are about 5000 people who have left drug use in Nepal and among them about 2000 are in Kathmandu Valley.
Shanta Ghale, from Chitwan district of Nepal, is clean since seven years and living a new happy life with her family. She runs a small restaurant in Gaidakot. She is happy that her families, relatives and society are no more imposing the discrimination that she used to face during her drug life. She was in drug life for seven years. Drug was like disaster in her family. Her late husband was drug user until the end of his life. Her eldest son and the new husband were also in drug life. But now, everyone is clean. She says, “My family is Clean Family now”.
Milan Gurung and Bobi Thapa, ex- drug users, run a Brown Sugar Café in Kathmandu Valley. They met each other during their drug life, but now are clean. Both run the livelihood of their family from the income that they get from the Café.
Everyone does mistakes in life, but if you are able to correct mistake and go further, you can have a new life. People in society still do not accept that drug users can have a normal life like non drug users after leaving drug. The stories of these optimistic ex-drug users could be inspirations for the people to leave drugs and live a happy new life.
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