Kashmir’s maiden drug de-addiction policy makes it to Royal College of Psychiatry

The newly instituted drug de-addiction policy of Kashmir has been selected for poster presentation at the prestigious Royal College of Psychiatry (RCP) London congress in this July. 

In January this year, State administrative council (SAC)approved the first drug de-addiction policy of J&K. Devised by theInstitute of Mental Health and Neuroscience’s, Government Medical College,Srinagar, Dr Syed Bushra, a resident at the Institute, proposed the policy forposter presentation to the jury of RCP congress. The poster has been acceptedfor presentation between July 1 and 4, an official from the department said.

   

The poster is titled ‘formulation of drug de-addictionpolicy for a resource limited, conflict affected state and proposing theconcept of demand reduction, integration and community participation’.

The poster proposal underlined the “steep rise is burden ofsubstance use disorders during the past two decades in Kashmir”. “Most of thedrug policies are based on western model focusing on prohibition andharm-reduction which becomes difficult to apply in Kashmir – a regionculturally, politically, economically and geographically in contrast to thewest,” notes the presenter. Therefore, the policy, according to her is based onthe principles of “prevention, integration and community participation”.

The policy allows sharing of resources with easy access tomedical services to effectively deal with drug-related emergencies. “Inaddition,” the policy states, “the model decreases stigma and ostracizationthat comes with isolating treatment centers”.

“The implementation of the policy is underway,”said commissioner secretary health and medical education, Atal Dulloo . He saidthat Government recently drafted and notified guidelines for de-addictioncenters. “We have sought action plan from all the 14 departments involvedin the implementation of the policy and these are almost ready,” he said addingthat a meeting with all stakeholders was in offing next week to give a finalshape to implementation strategy.

Speaking about the problem of substance abuse, Dr Bushrasaid, “Kashmir was kind of immune to drugs for centuries, despite being in themidst of the notorious golden crescent.” She said that the uniquecharacteristics of the “epidemic of drugs” here required an out-of-box approachand the policy does justice to that requirement. “The presentation at Londonwould give us a chance to take the model to a larger audience and possible helpreplicating it at other places with similar resource constraints,” she said.

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