US-born
Punjabi youngsters taking to drugs, says expert
Chandigarh, Sep. 17, 2005
Varinder Singh
Tribune News Service
A large number of the US-born Punjabi youngsters
are falling prey to killer drugs like cocaine, smack
and marijuana as soon as they graduate to high schools.
What is more shocking is that the Punjabi community
in general is neither much aware of the seriousness
of the problem nor is it doing anything tangible to
curb the abuse of drugs. Mostly, the Punjabi community
is not even aware that their innocent-looking school-going
kids are deeply into drug addiction. This revelation
was made by Mr Tarlochan Sohal, the Reserve Police
Officer working with the Livingston City Police Department.
He claimed to be the lone Punjabi police officer
in entire Merced County of California state. Of 2.5
lakh people of the county, nearly 10 per cent or 25000
were Punjabis. Interestingly, the entire county had
the lowest police-public ratio. There was one cop
for 15000 residents, he said.
I feel pained to tell you that roughly about
10 per cent US-born Punjabi youngsters, particularly
in California, are hooked to drugs. The reasons for
drug-addiction are mainly frustration, lack of inspiration
and deprivation from cultural roots. But I am more
concerned about what I would say is the sheer indifference
of Punjabi people towards this serious problem. They
are hardly doing anything to save their wards from
falling prey to drugs, he said during a chat
with Jalandhar Plus.
Domestic violence, according to Mr Sohal, was another
malady which afflicted the Punjabi society there.
Reporting to police about this social problem was
almost negligible.
Referring to the crime situation in California, he
made an interesting revelation that incidents of hate
crime against Asians were on the rise and so were
the cases of burglaries. In fact, about 10 per
cent of Americans are intolerant towards Asians to
an extent. There has been four to five per cent increase
in crime in California during the past two years,
said Mr Sohal, who belonged to Athola village here
and had migrated to the US in 1986 after saying goodbye
to his job with the Punjab police.
He had to work hard and improve his educational qualifications
in the foreign land. He was appointed as a Reserve
Police Officer by Livingston City Police Chief two
years back. The only difference between regular
police officers and us is that we are free to fix
our duty schedule.
He said despite his being the lone Punjab-born officer
in the Livingston Police Department, he had never
faced any discrimination on any account. No
question of that. The police department there is so
professional that there is no scope for any kind of
discrimination or indifference towards anyone. Everyone
has to be very alert when on duty. Those found misusing
the positions on or off duty are taken to task,
he added.