State rehab centres paint a grim picture

Rifat Mohidin
Tribune News Service
Srinagar, June 26

On Wednesday, as the World observed International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking — themed ‘health for justice, justice for health’— in Kashmir the day was a grim reminder of youth, particularly students, getting caught in the den of drugs, ruining their lives and their families.

At the two government-run de-addiction centers in Srinagar, there is an overwhelming rush of patients, which the authorities find hard to accommodate. At Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital (SMHS), 15 patients are admitted in the de-addiction ward.

“The ward is full and every day we get nearly 150 patients in the OPD, 20-30 of them with the issue of drug addiction,” said Dr Maqbool Dar, Head of Department of Psychiatry, SMHS Hospital.

One of the patients admitted to the hospital is Ahmad, a 22-year-old boy from South Kashmir, who came in contact with drugs when he was taken by a friend to buy heroin from Bijbehara. Ahmad said it was for the first time he had heard the name heroine.

“My friend told me to taste it for fun and I did and started liking it. He gave it for free for many days, till I started feeling I cannot do without it,” Ahmad said.

It was not only Ahmad who was affected by his habit of substance abuse, his parents and siblings too felt drained, financially and emotionally.

“I would fight with everyone at home, force my mother and sisters to give me money to buy drugs. One gm of the drug, which could last only two days, cost me Rs 3,000. In around a year, I spent around Rs 8 lakh on drugs,” Ahmad rued.

On Thursday, a seminar was held at the Department of Psychiatry to create awareness among people towards the growing menace in Kashmir.

The experts in the seminar emphasised that parents should look into the activities of their children.

“In many cases, we see children as young as 10 years old hooked on to drugs. It is due to easy availability of money from parents, who never check what their children do with the money. We too get shocked on seeingsuch cases,” a doctor at the hospital said.

The experts suggested creating pressure groups, which would ask the government to take steps to bring an end to the menace in the Valley.