Save our youth from the destructive PUFA!

Ismail Al-Halouti
Many are the Moroccan families whose lives have turned into an unbearable hell in recent years, not only due to the series of high prices, following the continued rise in fuel prices, which cast a shadow on the rest of the basic materials, but also because of the expenses of treating their daughters or sons from drug addiction such as hashish and hallucinogenic pills. Especially what has come to be known today as the most dangerous and brain-destroying drug “buffa”, which has spread terribly among young people, especially the unemployed, as well as among students of secondary education institutions, and is being publicly promoted under the eyes of the local authorities in several popular neighborhoods in the city of Casablanca and elsewhere.
And “puffa” or what is also known as “crack”, according to a number of scientific references, is a type of drug that is deadly to human health, both physically and mentally, which some unscrupulous drug dealers manufacture from the remains of cocaine and other various hallucinogens. It is one of the fastest acting and most effective drugs on the central nervous system. It has appeared among the youth of the United States of America since 1986, and includes in its composition a mixture of cocaine, ammonia, cornstarch and sodium bicarbonate.
And in view of the huge increase in cases of violence and insanity, due to the massive and unprecedented demand for the consumption of “buffa”, also called “cocaine of the poor”, which is one of the most dangerous types of new drugs in the drug market, many civil associations seeking to combat smoking and drugs rushed , to warn of the seriousness of the social and health situation, stressing that this destructive drug is produced and promoted by some immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa, and the price per gram of it ranges between 50 and 60 dirhams.
This horrible and destructive drug has been widely and horribly widespread among children and young people, believing that it is just a stimulant that creates an atmosphere of activity and vitality, rids the user of his personal problems and makes him feel a kind of joy and relief, and helps schoolchildren to absorb quickly and focus, while in reality it is closer. To the addiction of “silicone and mica”, and the most dangerous remains for its consumer through absent-mindedness and the possibility of complete impotence, not to mention prompting its consumer to practice violence even on the closest people to him for various reasons and to attempt suicide in many cases.
Although reports of national institutions and international organizations, along with community activities, sounded the alarm on more than one occasion, warning of the worsening health situation of a number of our children and youth, as a result of the widespread phenomenon of drug consumption, as is the case with the Economic, Social and Environmental Council, which issued a report on the subject within a month. December 2021, based on the latest research carried out by the government authorities in charge of health regarding addiction, through which it was revealed that the use of psychotropic substances among adolescents is no less dangerous, and he explained that 64 percent of those included in the “interrogation” had used cannabis before they reached the age of 14. years of age, and that 13.3% of the respondents had experience of consuming alcohol, while 5% stated that they had previously consumed psychotropic substances, and 1.4% had previously used cocaine.
And before that, a report issued by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in 2019 revealed that the rate of cocaine abuse among students of secondary educational institutions reached 1.2 percent for males, and 0.4 percent for females, while the percentage of drug abusers among them reached “Puffa” or “crack” was 1 percent among males and 0.2 percent among females, and the use of narcotic sedatives reached 2.3 percent among students between the ages of 15 and 17 years, during the years 2017 and 2018. This requires officials to carry out wide and continuous security campaigns until the sources of this dangerous scourge, which is destroying the lives of our youth, are dried up.
It is in front of the number of tragic stories whose chapters tell about the suffering of many families in the search for saving their children from the victims of the scourge of drug addiction, especially “PUFA”, where there are those whose consumption led them to enter the world of crime in order to provide their daily dose of the drug, and some of them are languishing today in Prisons, and there are some of them who have lost their minds and their job positions, at a time when the dilemma still does not receive the necessary recognition and follow-up by social protection agencies, and does not find a place for it in government policies that remain below the level of aspirations of citizens, as a result of the continuation of Relying on an outdated legislative framework that is incapable of providing the necessary protection, and not developing a modern and strong national strategy to combat addiction and limit its spread.