Drug abuse on rise in Kashmir; females also affected

Suhail Bhat
SRINAGAR, Aug 3: The trend of substance abuse among youngsters is on rise in Kashmir and experts have warned that lack of family supervision could take a toll on the entire society.
Experts said that predominant abuse is medicinal opioids, which include Spasmo-proxy vom capsules, Codeine phosphate syrups and Benzodiazepine tablets while abuse of cannabis, alcohol and solvents is showing an alarming trend.
The data available with the Department of Psychiatry revealed that in the year 2014, 3808 patients were received at two centers, one in GMC and the other at Psychiatric Diseases Hospital Rainawari but in 2015-16, this number rose to 4658. However, the number stood at 2692 in year 2016-2017 as related cases couldn’t be reported due to five-month long lockdown and unrest.
In the last two years, 3864 patients have been treated in the four drug de-addiction centers across Kashmir. Srinagar topped the list of substance abusers with 2260 cases followed by 610 in Jammu while as 603 and 391 patients were treated in the de-addiction centers of Anantnag and Baramulla.
Director, Police Drug De-addiction Center Srinagar, Dr Muzaffar said the menace of drug addiction has penetrated every section of society and more alarming was that the first time users belong to the much younger age group. He said that only 5-10 percent of the substance abusers make it to the de-addiction centers while the rest went unnoticed.
“What we see is the tip of an ice berg. The problem is much deeper. It is shocking but at the same time it highlights how badly the drugs have eaten our youth,” he said.  Dr Muzzafar said for last six months, nearly 1140 patients were seen at their drug de-addiction center and 149 were admitted. “The existing infrastructure is proving insufficient as it is unable to cater to the huge rush of patients. The center is 15 bedded and an extension of ten more beds is under consideration,” he said.
Of late, a large number of teenage girls and women had turned into substance users and, according to United Nations International Drug Control Programme Survey in 2008, out of 70,000 drug addicts in Kashmir, 4000 were female.
Doctors said that the rehabilitation of the drug abuse patients begins with the first contact with the counselor for motivational assessment and enhancement followed by medical review, necessary investigations, basic screening for HIV, HCV, HBV and other routine investigations in order to screen high-risk patients. Medical detoxification, if admitted, is conducted later, they said.
“Then the patients have to go through individual counseling, group counseling, yoga and meditations sessions every day, recreation and gymnasium each day, group family sessions every Saturday, relapse preventions sessions and regular follow ups are some of the practices followed at drug de-addiction center for rehabilitation of the patient,” the doctors said.
Dr Muzaffar Khan addressed some of the challenges faced by patients addicted to drugs. “Insufficient treatment facilities, stigma associated with the illness, no rehabilitation plan in place, high vulnerability for relapse, Magisterial orders/ Court directions not easily available, lack of crisis team/ dedicated Helpline number, lack of financial assistance for patients /families, ever increasing wait list for in house treatment and lack of clear cut policy visa viz de-addiction center / temporary nature,” he reported in his presentation.
“We are both addicted to the drug and cultivate it as well. We want cooperation from all departments to remove it,” Dr Muzaffar added.

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