The boys, who were high on N 10 and Relipen, hit the victim with bricks until he fainted.

Another group of intoxicated students assaulted a civil servant severely.

In another incident, a group of high school boys battered an old man from Umling for accidently dashing against one of them. The old man was lashed and kicked until he bled.

A few months ago, a student was left bruised, injured, and warned, ‘If you report the case to the school authority or police, the gang is going to kill you.’ The victim’s mother said her son’s case was not an isolated incident of gang violence.

Besides cigarettes, substances mostly abused include marijuana, correction fluid, dendrite, and tablets. “Drug abuse amongst the youth in Gelephu is growing, giving rise to a number of crimes. The trend is affecting our society and pushing up the number of dropouts,” a resident said.

The neigbouring Indian town of Dathghari is where the students buy most of their drugs. “Every time I visit the market for inspection, I catch five to seven young students from Bhutan buying drugs from medical shops or already high on them,” a Shastriya Sheema Bal (SSB) officer said.

The SSB officer warned that parents should keep shoe polish away from young people because the youth in the north-eastern India have lately picked up a habit of sniffing shoe polish, which contains more destructive and addictive substances.

Source: http://www.bhutanobserver.bt