Addiction, murder, and a mother's cry!

In our country, where we have not received good news for a long time, we were shaken a few days ago by news that once again broke our hearts. Our young police officer Şeyda Yılmaz was martyred, and it was revealed that the person who committed this massacre was a "crime machine." The process of the 19-year-old killer—who had 26 different criminal records including abuse, sexual assault, drug dealing, theft, and robbery, and who had more criminal records than his age—being taken into custody, his arrest, and the statement he gave to the judge caused a severe public outcry.

There were many reasons for this public outcry. How was it possible for someone with so many criminal records not to be arrested, or even if arrested and sent to prison, to be released in a short time and walk the streets freely? How could someone known to be a drug addict who had been involved in so many crimes be released under judicial control? Why was someone released under judicial control not monitored and not re-arrested even though they failed to sign in for control several times? Why was no action taken against this individual, who was reported multiple times by his mother for being a drug addict and dealer? Among the many unanswered questions that caused this public outcry, one of the things that caught my attention most in this case was the statements of the mother, Pınar Geçti.

In her statements, Pınar Geçti expresses that her son was a drug addict and also a drug dealer; that she personally reported her son several times to save him from this scourge, but unfortunately her efforts remained fruitless, and she cried out: "I wish I had died instead of our police officer Şeyda Yılmaz!" 

Those who have children know that—with exceptions—all mothers want the best and most beautiful things for their children; they work and strive for their children, they go without so their children can eat. Keeping this in mind, think about how difficult it must be for a mother to want her child to be arrested or to report her own child. Think and see that drug addiction means a mother reporting her son so that other lives are not harmed; it means wanting her son to remain in custody in the hope that he might recover, or wanting to give her own life by her child's bullet rather than a police officer being martyred!

This scourge, from which it is very difficult to recover once infected, which leads to a quagmire of crime, and which causes individual and social disasters during moments of withdrawal, is unfortunately now very common in our society. Accessing addictive substances is very easy, there is no oversight, and the age of introduction to synthetic drugs has dropped to primary school levels. Children and families are unaware, and some degenerates on social media are advertising these substances. Especially among adolescents, the tendency toward drugs due to reasons such as imitation, the need to prove oneself, family neglect, and environment is very high, and the worst part is that they can easily access these substances!

So, what should we do to ensure we don't have to make the cries that Pınar Geçti made tomorrow? First of all, we must be conscious and vigilant about addiction. By the word "addiction" here, I do not mean only drug or synthetic substance addiction. When we say addiction, we should think of all kinds of addictions—such as cigarettes, alcohol, social media, phones, brands, or the addiction to attention—which may seem more innocent at the beginning compared to drug addiction but cause a lot of indirect harm to individuals in the long run. 

As adults, we must protect both ourselves and the children and young people around us from all kinds of addiction. We must provide addiction education to children and young people and add the subject of addiction to the curriculum. In cooperation with institutions like the Green Crescent (Yeşilay) or non-governmental organizations, and with the guidance and permission of the Council of Higher Education and the Ministry of National Education, we should teach courses such as "Addiction Awareness" in schools and organize seminars. Under the leadership of the Ministry of Justice, we must implement heavy and deterrent penalties and solve this problem by working together.

Please, from today on, let us be conscious to protect our children, our youth, and our future, let us take the necessary precautions, and let us implement such heavy sanctions that no one else gets hurt from now on, and no one's world goes dark!