Drug-orientated generation a big problem
THE “silly season” has ended and daily work commitments for the new year have begun afresh. But for many the misdemeanours of the festive season are still to be accounted for.
Offences for the abuse of drugs and liquor and transgressions concerning things like driving under the influence of liquor and common assault, are now taxing the patience of South African judges and magistrates.
This morning, if I may, I would like to repeat the comments of one judge when sentencing a youth to a term of imprisonment for drug offences.
“Do you know who is going to serve this sentence?
“Not only you – your father and mother will also serve it. Your body is in the cells for a year, but their souls will be tormented for a lifetime.
“I have not spent one cent bringing you up. I don’t know you from Adam, but your father and mother have put their lives, their hearts, their sweat, their money and everything else they have into making you a worthy citizen of this country.
“Now they have to sit in this court and listen to a total stranger, who had nothing to do with your upbringing, scold you and put you in prison.
“This is a period when frivolous kids like you are yelling, ‘you adults have your alcohol, we want our drugs. You have polluted our water and air. You have polluted this and that’ – and the rest of the rubbish that comes out of your mouths.
“I want you to think of this during your time in prison and the reason why I say it.
“If you are sick, a doctor will treat you – and he won’t be high on drugs. The lawyer who represents you, won’t be high on drugs and the people in whose custody you will be in, won’t be high on drugs.
“Your scientists are not on drugs and neither are your legislators and your engineers who build the bridges you drive across and the tunnels you drive through. And those who build the planes you fly in and the cars you drive, are not.
“But in the world of the future the same may not be true. Teachers, doctors, lawyers, legislators, engineers – products of a drug-orientated generation may well be high as kites. You won’t know to whom to send your children or in whom to trust your life.
“Let’s see what kind of life you leave your children before you talk about the world we left to ours.”
