Heroin blowing lives into dust in Kashmir: Doctors

Srinagar: Heart wrenching faces greet one at the Drug De-Addiction Center (DDC) in GMC Srinagar. Heroin has become the main drug of abuse in Kashmir with a staggering 95 percent of patients addicted to this lethal psychotropic drug, hospital data reveals.

On the ground floor, in the Female Ward, a visibly pregnant woman in her late 20s is seen pacing about, her gaze anxious and grim. She walks to the door and a man, almost her age, meets her with a bottle of juice.

   

They exchange a few words and the man enters the Male Ward, adjacent to hers. They both lie down in their respective hospital beds. The couple, married for two years, is admitted for de-addiction of IV Heroin.

“Our social fabric, hundreds of lives and the prospect of a safe future for the young generation is being blown to dust with heroin abuse,” says Dr Yasir Hussain Rather, In-Charge of the DDC.

He says that in the past two years, he and his colleagues have been overwhelmed by the huge proportion of heroin abusers among people seeking treatment for addiction.

While revealing the figures, he said, in the past 14 months up to June, since COVID19 lockdown was imposed in Kashmir, 6234 patients have been seen, all of them for abuse of substances. Of these, 4830, that is, over 70 percent were abusing heroin intravenously (IV). An additional 1054 were abusing heroin through other routes (chasing). A total of 5894 patients amounting to 95 percent that the doctors saw during this period were abusing heroin through intravenous and other routes. IV abuse constituted 70 percent of the drug abuse in Kashmir, a glimpse of the hospital figures show.

“This, while most healthcare services were suspended and people found it difficult to seek treatment,” he said, adding that the proportion of people seeking treatment for abuse and addiction is just ‘tip of the ice-berg’.

Expressing grave concern over the scenario, Dr Rather said, “We as a society and the healthcare system along with other departments must act fast before it’s too late.”

Government in January 2019 launched J&K’s drug de-addiction policy which envisaged 15 government departments to act in coordination to reduce the menace of drugs. While the department of police, narcotics and excise are required to reduce the availability of drugs through various measures including cracking down on supply chain, departments of education, information and broadcasting and social welfare are entrusted with the responsibility of reducing demand. The policy was beginning to get implemented in February 2020, just before the epidemic hit.

In the past one and a half year, doctors feel the coordination and policy implementation has failed to move ahead.

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