Editorial: Drugs and Antisocial Behavior

Abstract

A heading in one of the recent East African dailies prompted me to write this editorial. The heading
“Unrest in Schools Blamed on Drugs” sent my mind racing back in time to the early 1960s when it
was fashionable to dismiss young people opposed to the American involvement in Vietnam war as
social miscreants who used drugs 24 hours a day. It did not matter that many of these young people
were able to defend their anti-war stance eloquently with a clarity of mind which their accusers could
only envy. As an undergraduate, I found the whole fiasco funny and occasionally joined in the
demonstration just to unwind after a boring lecture. As an African from a newly independent
country, I was least concerned with the convoluted arguments for or against the Vietnam War. The
rest of course is history.