| Drug abuse spreading across city of temples, govt clueless | | |
Pankhuri Aggarwal
JAMMU, Nov 16: A fifteen-year-old student of a prestigious school in the city started taking drugs after a girl in his classroom wrote on the blackboard that she 'likes bad boys'. The boy was lucky that his family came to know about his habit at an early stage and he was treated at a rehabilitation centre in the city.
However, drug abuse in Jammu has spread at an alarming rate. "The drug abuse in Jammu has spread like an epidemic and around 30 to 40 per cent of youths here are addicted to some kind of drugs," Shagun Sharma, general secretary of drug de-addiction-cum-rehabilitation health centre said, "This health centre in the Jammu is run by an NGO, and in the past few years has treated more than 6,500 addicts".
She further added, "Most drug addicts in the Jammu are in the 14-35 age group and a majority of them either belong to affluent families or live below the poverty line".
Currently, 20 per cent people between 18 and 35 years in rural areas alone are said to be abusingdrugs. The figure emerged from a recent joint drug de-addiction camp organized in the various segments of Jammu, where 400 and 523 persons, respectively, disclosed their substance abuse history and sought help.
Of these, 90 per cent people said, "They were abusing medicinal opiods like pentazocine (high-intensity pain killer used in labour) and buprenorphine (used mainly to ease pain in cancer patients) in solid and injectible forms. The remaining were either on cannabis or opium and brown sugar.
"Conflict, unemployment, family feud, fun and failed love affairs are some of the factors responsible for the youths here taking to drugs as these provide them temporary relief from stress. The 13-year-boy I just mentioned wanted to become bad so he took drugs and also liquor, but now he is rehabilitated," Shagun Sharma said.
Not only boys, but girls too are taking drugs in the Jammu, but they are not treated in the rehabilitation centre as doctors from this centre visit their house. "Girls take brown sugar, cannabis and other medical drugs, besides shoe polish and Iodex. In some cases, girls don't remove their socks for several days and when it becomes stinky they shred them and eat them," she further added.
The police also admit that drugs are easily available in Jammu and schools, colleges and other educational institutes has become an easy target for drug dealers to lure the youths. Drugs are also easily available at all tourist places, including hotels.
With the problem worsening, the police have started cracking down on cannabis and opium cultivators in the area. They have already cleared 500 acres under opium cultivation in these areas and have shut down several small-scale cottage industries processing opium into brown sugar.
"But the problem will be finally solved only when the drug control and excise departments wake up to its urgency. We also need more de-addiction centres. Currently, we have only two in Jammu," says Arvind Kapoor, a clinical psychologist. Health experts also want the unauthorized sale of prescription drugs to be made a cognizable offence. These days, a Re 8 strip of medicinal opiods is being freely sold to addicts for Rs 200.
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