State turning into safe haven for drug mafia

Amit Khajuria

Tribune News Service

Jammu, June 5

After gripping neighbouring Punjab in its clutches, the drug menace is spreading among youth in the state even as the authorities are yet to establish a full-fledged de-addiction centre in the Jammu region.

The state has become a soft target for drug mafia, as it is being used as a transit route from Pakistan, Afghanistan to Punjab and Delhi.

According to Team Jammu, an organisation which has been working in the Jammu region for the past five years, about 15 per cent of the youth in Jammu are addicted to different forms of drugs.

“More than 300 deaths have been reported due to drug-related problems in Jammu district in the past five years,” said Zorawar Singh Jamwal, chairman, Team Jammu, and member of State Drug De-Addiction Centre Monitoring Committees. “There are limited de-addiction facilities in Jammu,” Jamwal added.

The police had established a centre at the Police Lines in 2012, where 7,799 patients were treated till 2018.

Pertinently, the Central government had stopped the cross-border trade from Salamabad in Kashmir and Chakan da Bagh in Poonch on April 18, saying that “there had been regular reports that Pakistan is sending narcotics, illegal ammunition and funding terror in the state using this trade.”