THE man who slit his stomach in Chegutu and later died in hospital is another graphic case of the dangers that come with drug abuse.
Widely known as Marabha, he was a well-known drug addict in this small but vibrant farming and mining town.
Some claim the man had been taking crystal meth and other hard drugs.
There is a consequence to the consumption of such drugs and such a horrific death is one of the ugly products of a flirtation with these drugs.
Medical experts have told us again and again that such drugs have the tendency of taking away our ability to think in a proper way.
They strip us of our ability to reason and they drag us into an imaginary world where we begin to behave like animals.
They make us feel like we own the world and we are in control of everything.
They give us a false conviction that we can do whatever we want and, sadly, this also means that we end up believing that we can also kill people.
Or, in the case of Marabha, we can also kill ourselves.
Marabha claimed that he could feel something moving inside his stomach.
Of course, we know that there was nothing like that but, because of the drugs, he could feel it and thought that the best response was to remove it in a violent manner.
This meant he could slice his stomach, in a bid to remove whatever object was moving inside his belly, and that is exactly what he did.
The drugs meant that anyone, who tried to make him understand that what he was about to do was a threat to his life, was dismissed by Marabha.
He even threatened those who came close to him with the knife he had used to slice his stomach open.
The residents managed to overpower and handcuff him but it was too late to save him.
The tragic Chegutu case, which has left the community shell shocked, is another reminder of the dangers of taking drugs.
Those who have never tasted drugs should simply abstain.
Drug and substance abuse campaigns are currently underway after the Government declared it a national disaster last year.
It seems we still have a long way to go before winning this battle.
But, what we can never do is to give up.
No matter how difficult this fight is, it needs to be fought because that is the only way we can tame this beast.
It’s destroying our communities and destroying our people.
It is dragging them from the real world into some imaginary world where they believe everything, including slicing their stomachs, is fine.
It is also high time that the police and various stakeholders intensify such campaigns.
We also need to turn the heat on the drug lords and ladies who are powering this trade and making profits while our people suffer.
They are heartless individuals.
