While addressing over 100 youths at Centenary Park, Detective Assistant Commissioner of Police, Halima Namatovu from the Narcotics department revealed that shisha smoking is directly linked to the rampant strikes by university students and youths in general.
“The root causes of endless strikes in universities according to our finding indicate that you take Shisha and that’s why whenever, there is a strike, you fight with police without any fear,” Namatovu said.
The gathering followed a charity walk aimed at sensitising youths to stop drug abuse. The walk was spearheaded by Youth Power, an Non-Government Organisation .
Namatovu added that students are smoking Shisha which in the end provides them agitation and energy to aggressively confront the police. She further narrated that students have moved away from drinking alcohol to smoking shisha and other deadly drugs.
While trying to make her point clearer, Namatovu added that university students collaborate with gate keepers at their hostels and campus to sneak in the deadly drugs in a bid to make themselves high.
Recent statistics have showed that at least one or two universities conduct strikes in every semester with the recent being Kyambogo. However, Makerere University tops the list of most students’ strikes and at least 20 students have been arrested and hundreds left wounded while trying to fight and run away from Police.