DRUGS KO CHHOOM LO AUR ZAMEEN PAR NARK BANAA LO APNE LIYE By Ali Peter John

Addiction is not a new problem for human beings. It has been a curse right from the time of creation, but it is only during the last hundred years that a gang of pharmacists, psychiatrists, the media and religious people and fake religious people have made it a major issue and a crime and a curse - Ali Peter John

Society at large has grown into a play field for drugs of every kind and the sections of people most affected are the youth in sports, literature and popularity and fame which includes films, theatre and music . ....

Hindi cinema and some of its leading celebrities have also been caught in the grips of the vice of drugs and this vice has been at its peak during the last eighty years.

In the initial stages, drugs only meant the kind of drugs inhaled by elderly and uneducated actors who were as good or as bad as the saadhus and other kind of holy men who it seemed couldn't live without drugs like tobacco, gaanja, charas, opium, mahua and other home made drugs which were smoked in every nook and corner in and around the country.

These desi drugs soon found competition from other drugs from countries in the Middle East, in the whole of Europe and America and even from countries like China and Russia and soon India was a jalsa of nasha all over and stars and other creative people from the world of films were no exception .....

The first time I saw drugs being used openly on the sets of a film was when I watched the shooting of a film inside the Mahakali Caves which were said to be more than two thousand years old and the scene of old and bearded men smoking chillums made me go back to the times when such scenes were a part and way of life.

The village in which I lived had a number of strugglers from films and they literally lived on cheap liquor and cheaper drugs and some of them even died drinking this kind of liquor and drugs.

Incidentally writers like Javed Akhtar and lesser known writers and poets also lived at the foot of the Mahakali Caves and survived on country liquor and mosquito bites but only Javed Akhtar lived on to be a success story.

His affair with alcohol however continued way after he grew into one of the most popular and successful writers with Salim Khan and split with him . He has now given up both drinking and smoking.

The first time I heard about excessive drinking and taking to drugs was when I heard about Guru Dutt and his favourite writer Abrar Alvi, it is said that they did their best and most creative work together when they drank whiskey and were on some drugs which only they knew of.

In fact, it is well-known now that Guru Dutt and Abrar Alvi spent the last evening and night of Guru's life drinking and after Abrar Alvi left Guru had several sleeping tablets together with glasses of whiskey which ultimately led to his early death ( he was only 39 )

K Asif didn't drink but he was a chain smoker and that one addiction according to his doctors left to his death.

Years later, his best friend Sanjeev Kumar also turned out to be a heavy drinker and a chain smoker and many believed that it was these two enemies who killed him.

Mehmood was a healthy man till he took to making films and till he had domestic problems.

He tried to fight his problems with smoking but when smoking didn't help, he took to taking sleeping tablets and a time came when he used to take hundred tablets at a time and sometimes fall asleep or fall down in between shooting or discussing a script or the dialogue of a film.

He was ultimately diagnosed for serious kidney problems and he finally died in America before his time.

In the early 70s the country was ravaged by the Hippy cult which was followed by the "conquest" of Bhagwan Rajneesh . Both these movements were heavily based on drugs, alcohol and free sex.

Some of the best talent from the world of films and theatre was swayed by these two movements and the movements destroyed the psyche of millions of old and young people.

However, these movements came to a disastrous end and the industry came back to normal for a while. But the addiction towards alcohol and drugs continued in some way or the other.

In the 80s, it was Parveen Babi, Mahesh Bhatt, Kabir Bedi and others like them who literally thrived on alcohol and drugs .

Sanjay Dutt

But, if one goes by the reality and the media reports, the one man who has been " the superstar addict" it has been Sanjay Dutt.

He has gone on record to say that he has been on every possible drug in the world before his father, Sunil Dutt got him admitted to a rehab in America after which there has been a sea change in his life.

In 2000, it was a young Kangana Ranaut who came out in the open to talk about her addiction to drugs and how they had affected her life and career.

Ranbir Kapoor took the industry by shock when he spoke about his addiction to drugs and how he had fought it and succeeded.

There have been any number of other cases of addiction, the most infamous being the case of Sushant Singh Rajput who his girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty has said was an addict after his suicide .

And now talking about addicts and addiction is not considered shocking in the brave and bold society we are all living in .

And with the Aryan Khan story, I am sure that the drugs story in Bollywood will take a new and may be uglier turn

And even as I complete writing this sad and mad story about drugs, a friend tells me that there are drug addas in all the so called sophisticated suburbs of Mumbai. Catch them if you can .