Drug traps surround young people - Part 3: Foretold consequences

At the provincial compulsory drug rehabilitation center, we witnessed and heard stories behind each patient that were an unending tragedy. VHS, a young man who had just been admitted to the center two days ago. S. started using drugs since grade 12. From trying them out of curiosity, to realizing that he could not live without them, it was too late.

When we talked, the addiction was still surrounding her, causing her body to not escape the painful struggles. The doctor treating her explained that for S. at this time, quitting was no different from a life-and-death battle, when her body kept convulsing, sweat poured out like a shower, and her mind was spinning.

During the conversation, her eyes could not focus, constantly darting around the room as if searching for something invisible. Sometimes, she would laugh foolishly, her hands and feet constantly moving with meaningless movements. A medical staff member gently asked about her health, S. answered incoherently, one sentence could not connect to the next, as if her mind had wandered into another world.

In the same area as S. is UHS, born in 2000, residing in Tan Lap ward (Thai Nguyen city). Compared to S., UHS's condition is somewhat more stable, having gone through the withdrawal stage. UHS recounts his story - a long slide into mistakes, starting from the competition of youth.

At 16, I held an electronic cigarette for the first time in my life. I thought it was just a trendy hobby for young people, but who would have thought that inside the sweet-smelling essential oil shell was marijuana. The addictive flavor seeped into every cell, making it impossible for me to quit.

UHS did not think of himself as an addict – until the cravings for drugs took over, causing him to fall into a state of panic, restlessness, and terrible nightmares every night. Without marijuana, S. felt like the whole world was spinning, his body was limp, his hands were shaking so much he could barely hold a glass of water. And then, UHS turned to synthetic drugs to satisfy himself. But from then on, S.’s life fell freely into the abyss, completely out of control.

In the story told to us, Mr. Nguyen Thai Nam, a medical officer at the Provincial Drug Rehabilitation Center, still clearly remembers the image of a young woman named N. with a pretty face. When she first entered the Center, this patient showed signs of psychosis, was thin, had pale skin, lifeless eyes, and was unable to control her words and actions.

When the Center's staff asked, he only talked about airplanes, sometimes imagining himself as a superhero flying in the sky. N. also often danced, shouted, and sometimes sat and cried, culminating in him taking off all his clothes and running around. After 10 days of treatment without progress, the doctors here had to transfer the patient to the Mental Hospital for continued treatment.

Confiding with many medical staff of the provincial drug rehabilitation facility, we learned that the use of synthetic drugs also leaves extremely dire consequences on the health of addicts. When used, MDMA increases blood pressure, heart rate, causes hallucinations, increases confidence, a feeling of well-being, physical strength, strong emotions, feelings of excitement... especially when there is loud sound. When used in high doses, it will cause very clear visual and auditory hallucinations, shaking, spinning, screaming, smashing, group sex, liking the feeling of flying, driving at high speeds. If used regularly for a long time, drug addicts will have dangerous symptoms such as neurotoxicity, brain and liver damage.

According to medical staff here, synthetic drug addiction is very difficult to cure because the brain is severely damaged. These damages persist long after the addict stops using drugs. There are many cases where addicts become mentally ill, suffer from severe depression, or have suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

Drugs not only steal youth and future but also take the lives of those who have made mistakes. The “debauchery” with drugs that temporarily entertains young people suddenly becomes a tragic ending, where the boundary between life and death is as fragile as a thread.

At 4:30 a.m. on August 19, 2023, at Bac Giang motel (in Dong Tien ward, Pho Yen city), small room 211 became the scene of a tragedy. Ly Cong Anh (born in 2000, in Van Yen commune, Dai Tu district) and D.TM (born in 2006, in Phuong Giao commune, Vo Nhai district) dissolved ecstasy into soft drinks, sipped them, and then immersed themselves in the music and dim lights.

In the high, they hugged each other and enjoyed the illusion, not knowing that one of them would never wake up. At 7am, Ly Cong Anh was shocked to find M. lying next to him, cold and stiff, her eyes closed forever. The autopsy results showed that M. was in drug shock, acute pulmonary edema, respiratory failure, and death – a quick death.

Similarly, the incident of a group of young people using ecstasy at a nightclub in Dong Tien Ward (Pho Yen City) also resulted in one death. On the night of February 13, 2021, at the X.one nightclub, Nguyen Viet Son (born in 1989, in Phuc Thuan Commune) and a group of friends decided to "increase the intensity" of the game by taking 5 ecstasy "candies" and swallowing them with soft drinks. In the flashing lights, in harmony with the music, they danced and screamed tirelessly.

But when the clock struck 2am, HVD (born in 1989, Phuc Thuan commune) suddenly collapsed. The convulsions lasted for a long time, his breathing was irregular, then he stopped. D. passed away right in the middle of the dance floor, where just a few minutes before, there was still a lot of laughter and happy talk. The forensic conclusion confirmed that D. was in drug shock, had acute respiratory failure and died - an unexpected death.

In fact, deaths from drug overdoses like those of D. and M. are just the tip of the iceberg. Drugs not only take the lives of many people, but also turn many people into bloodthirsty “ghosts”, spreading terror to both families and society.

The hallucinations of drug users are not simply delusions, but also open a door to hell, where people lose control and become puppets in the hands of the "devil". Even more frightening, many addicts in the heat of drug addiction have brutally attacked their loved ones.

Perhaps, many people are still haunted by the story that happened in 2023 in Tra Vinh, when VVT (33 years old) turned himself into a demon because of drug hallucinations. Initially, in a fit of mad excitement after using drugs, T. stabbed himself in the eye with an iron bar. When T.'s mother discovered it, she panicked and took her child to the hospital for the doctor to treat the wound. But drugs not only destroyed the body, they also distorted the mind, erasing T.'s humanity.

The next night, in his rented room, in a drug-induced hallucination, T., like a ferocious demon, took a knife and slashed his mother's neck, stabbing and slashing her repeatedly until she collapsed on the floor, covered in blood, and stopped breathing.

Not stopping there, T. continued to take a knife to commit suicide, but the blade was not sharp enough to take his life. In a frenzy, he rushed out, still holding the weapon, into his neighbor's house with only one thought: Kill! If the people had not controlled him in time, perhaps more lives would have been lost in injustice. At the investigation agency, T. with lifeless eyes confessed everything, without any remorse. It seemed that drugs had taken his soul a long time ago.

Drugs are not only the path to destroying the future of youth, health, and human life, but also the cause of many types of crimes such as theft, robbery, and even murder. The following stories are evidence of the degeneration when people are manipulated by drugs.

Once a worker at Diem Thuy Industrial Park (Phu Binh), Ly Dinh Khai (born in 2000, Van Han Commune, Dong Hy) is a handsome, gentle young man. Since June 2023, being lured by bad friends, Khai got hooked on Heroin. At first, it was just a quick "high" - playing once, then playing again a few days later.

But the soft trap called Heroin never stopped at just one try. When his addiction reached its peak, Khai had to use it three times a day to be able to endure it. His worker's salary was not enough for him to "burn" drugs for a day. When his wallet was empty, he had to go out and steal to satisfy his addiction. After only one year of falling into drug addiction, Khai transformed from an honest worker into a professional "thief".

If Khai chose the path of theft to have money to buy drugs, Ma Vu Duy (born in 2004, in Thanh Thinh commune, Cho Moi district, Bac Kan province) plunged into a bloody frenzy. One day in November 2024, while high on drugs, Duy wandered around like a soulless corpse. His eyes were red, his hands and feet were shaking, but he was frighteningly agile. Seeing a motorbike parked at the foot of the Quyet Thang commune overpass (Thai Nguyen city), he stole it and sped away.

In his hallucination, Duy also forgot that he was a university student, ready to steal the car keys of a lecturer at the University of Agriculture and Forestry (Thai Nguyen University). Then he opened the door, climbed into the driver's seat, and stepped on the gas. The car sped in the direction of Thai Nguyen - Hanoi, dragging a demon in human form with it. When he reached Dong Anh, he left the car behind, took a taxi to Soc Son district. Here, he continued to steal a car on the side of the road.

And this time, the crime reached its peak, he drove his car into a man on the street, causing the victim to suffer a traumatic brain injury, and was in critical condition in the hospital. But that did not stop there, the drug frenzy turned him into a real wild animal. He broke into a house, and when discovered, he used a weapon to fatally strike an elderly man in the head, causing the victim to collapse and never regain consciousness.

Reality shows that, with just one try, one drug high, people like Khai, like Duy, from being workers, students, or normal young people, have turned into criminals. To have money to satisfy their drug cravings, drug addicts disregard the law, resort to any means, are willing to steal, rob, even kill and rob. Therefore, drugs have long been considered a "companion" of other types of crime.