World Anti-DrugTransnational Internet contest - "Maya"

Questions

• Doctors tend not to talk about "recovered drug addicts," and prefer the term "inactive addicts" those who dont use drugs right at given moment. In your opinion, is it not possible to get rid of this label? Even in the opinion of drug treatment experts, patients remain forever addicted. How can the modern society be taught to have an adequate attitude toward former drug addicts and consider them as a part of the society?

  In fact, drug addicts are people who desperately need care and help. We should be kind to them and give them a chance for self-improvement, because aspiration of the soul is crucial for the existence in this world. Let everyone love the life and stay away from drugs! Namo Amitabha Buddha!

• In you opinion how important is parental education and relationships within the family in preventing drug addiction?

  My spiritual brothers are my family. The absence of religion affects human lives destructively. Emptiness and apathy reign inside peoples’ minds and they decide to fill with drugs the loneliness of their inner worlds. Spirituality gives us strength and necessary support. I believe that it is very important to work with young people within religious communities; we should give them a correct view of what is happening and explain the life values.

• What should be in the Internet age and growth of online communities informational methods to combat drug addiction? What do you think, what means will be most effective today, and how the state should behave in order to successfully affect the suffering of drug addiction and to conduct prevention among healthy population?

  Let us remember that Buddha, The Great Buddha, the Enlightened one, who deserved the eternal rest and glory of Nirvana, abandoned his award in order to continue to support fire in the lamp, directing mankind. We should follow his example and carry the light of education for our descendants through Buddhism, because it is very flexible religious confession, which is sympathetic to many phenomena. There is nothing wrong if the person uses drugs for treatment, but if he uses them for another purpose – it is unacceptable. Buddhists understand how drugs influence human minds.