Drug abuse is a dark and stark reality of Kashmir and not a secret any more. It is down to the bottom and up to the brim. It is in tonnes and not in traces. It is not a casual concern but a calamity that has befallen us.
The exponential rise in the substance abuse in Kashmir has been reported by prestigious national newspapers like The Hindu, Hindustan Times and Deccan Herald besides other reputed and responsible agencies across and outside the country.
Quite a few months old study by the Psychiatry department of Government Medical College across 10 districts of Kashmir has revealed that we have surpassed Punjab in drug abuse cases and are currently at position two in the country with Northeast in India topping the drug abuse list.
According to the United Nations Drug Control Program, around 70000 people in Kashmir are addicted to drugs of which 4000 are females. The deity of drug was a declared devil in the land where it has thousands of devotees today.
We were ironically the land of Rishis and Munis. We are still not publicly owning any pubs and bars. Very few take the brew and we would sink in shame to have had a drink. That makes drug menace more of an ambiguity, an anonymity, besides a great source of anxiety.
The ease of inflow and availability is ridiculous. The question is not direct and the answer does not come straightaway. Debate, discussion and drama can go on and on, only to keep the anxiety alive and the problem pending.
It has to be rather worked out like mathematics. Let us pick up the parameters and build the formula that may provide the necessary solution. Let the inflow of drugs be denoted by ‘I’, immaterial of whom and where from these are pumped in and let their consumption be denoted by ‘C’. If one abuser is influencing ‘M’ more acquaintances, then the multiplication factor is ‘M’. All these three parameters ‘I’, ‘C’ and ‘M’ follow in a row and form a horrible mathematical product ICM. However, ICM can also be an acronym for I Can be Mitigated if we have the necessary will and resolve to do so. Lesser value of M and C should mean bringing down ‘I’ anyway.
And the inflow can be checked by the peers at entry and exit points. We trust that we own a vigilant entry-exit operational system or do we not?
Moreover, we have a claim that we are not clueless but clear about who, whom and whence, then the fence should break, the graph should fall and the ill aim should fail.
How can a let go approach let go a problem. Or tell us if you are not letting it go? On the other hand, if S denotes all sorts of sense and strength of a person to resist drugs and T denotes the temptation for it, then a healthy reciprocal relationship between S and T can be entrusted to parents, peers and priests.
Therefore, if X represents the number of drug abusers, then to diminish its value would mean improving upon the S/T ratio and bringing down three other parameters viz; ‘I’, ‘C’ and ‘M’ for which the onus lies squarely on the system in-charges in place. This is the simplest formula that comes out to be, which we should be ready to work with. Nothing less, nothing more. At this juncture, one cannot be assertive in a better way than this
Tu idhar udhar ki na baat kar ye bata ki qafila kyun luta
Mujhe rahzano se gila nahi teri rahbari ka sawal hai
This famous couplet of Shahab Jafari has been repeatedly recited in Parliament at the times of crisis. It was also once recited by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad to Jawaharlal Nehru.
At the time of crisis we curtail on formalities. There are no inaugurals and no valedictories. We straightaway talk the business and business alone. Even a particular chapter in the holy Quran does not begin with the formal opening of ‘Bismillah’ given the urgency of the matter to be addressed. Crises are dealt with coercively and not casually.
For the youngsters, I would like to quote Anne Clendening and that is sufficient, “Addiction, at its worst, is akin to having Stockholm syndrome. You are like a hostage who has developed an irrational affection for your captor.
They can abuse you, torture you, even threaten to kill you, and you will remain inexplicably and disturbingly loyal.” More than that, I don’t want to do a show of diction and fiction. It is a time to be practical than merely passionate, be action-oriented than articulately expressing our enriched vocabulary.
It is good that we can explain a problem and do the necessary condemnation but someone who has a bit of solution to provide should be made to sit in the front row. The issue needs a sound measurement of things besides a heartfelt pain. What cannot be measured cannot be managed, what cannot be said will be wept.
Dr. Qudsia Gani, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Physics, Govt. College for Women, Srinagar
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author.
The facts, analysis, assumptions and perspective appearing in the article do not reflect the views of GK.
