Addiction is a disease that affects your brain and behavior. When you are addicted to drugs, you can’t resist the urge to use them, no matter how much harm the drugs may cause. Drug addiction is not about just heroin, cocaine or other illegal drugs. You can get addicted to alcohol, nicotine, opioid painkillers, cannabis, fevicol and other legal* substances (*legal/illegal as per govt). At first, you may choose to take a drug because you like the way it makes you feel. You may think you can control how much and how often you use it. But over time, drugs change how your brain works. These physical changes can last a long time. They make you lose self-control and can lead you to damaging behaviors. Kashmir has been through the several decades of turmoil that resulted in an increase of psychiatric illness and psychosocial disturbances. A number of psychiatric problems have emerged like
Depression, OCD, PTSD, Drug Addiction, etc. As long as the problem of drug addiction in Kashmir is concerned it has been observed that this conflict ridden region has a tremendous rise in substance abusers over the past decade. United Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) reported that around 70000 people are drug addicts in Kashmir valley alone among which 4000 are females. Several studies conducted in the valley revealed that youth particularly between the age group of 17-30 are involved in this menace of drug addiction. Government Psychiatric Hospital only mental health hospital in the valley in one of its
report stated that most numbers of drug addiction cases belong to a very young generation. The common substances used by drug addicts in Kashmir are cannabis, brown sugar, heroine, SP tablets, anxit, alprax, inhalants like fevicol, SR solution, thinner, shoe polish, paint varnish and dirty socks. The alarming rate of this menace in Kashmir leads the academicians and experts to comment that “we have lost one generation to bullets and we may lose another generation to drugs”. Studies had revealed that conflict and unemployment are the main reasons of drug addiction among the youth of Kashmir. Other reasons are family/relationship problems, work pressure and loneliness.
The trouble starts among the school going children but the problem is
exacerbated with abetment by those who wish to earn money out of selling drugs. The problem among children and youth arises because of a perception that they seem to harbor the notion of their inadequacy for failing to measure up to their expectations of their elders. Nowadays it has become fashionable for the actors and singers to include tales of drug addiction in their music. So instead of inculcating good values in the youth, the entertainment industry is responsible for propagating the use of drugs, which is further fuelling the addiction to drugs. The griming picture of drug abuse in the Kashmir valley has put a lot of challenges for the people of valley in general and for government agencies, NGO’s in particular. The biggest challenge is the illegal trafficking and sale of drugs within the valley to which police and general public have an important role to play. Some recent reports suggest that there is large number of opioid cultivation going on in Kashmir that makes it more readily available for consumption and other psychotropic medicines are also easily accessible. The police have to act more strictly against the drug peddlers. They should use their intelligence to locate and act against the drug peddlers. With full public support and cooperation, police can work more efficiently towards this menace. The other challenge is the limited facilities available for rehabilitation of drug addicts. More drug de-addiction centers are
needed to rehabilitate the victims. Lack of awareness about both drug addiction and the process of detoxification and rehabilitation is also a challenge. Government agencies, NGO’s and other social work institutes need to educate people especially young generation about this problem. Religious organizations need to stop the sectarian debates and start working on eradicating the evils from the society. The awareness on the part of parents and caretakers is also an issue to tackle so that they can detect the problem as early as possible and they can provide immediate help to the person. The parents whose children are studying outside valley and staying in hostels or rented rooms should keep watch on their activities as about 30% of students residing in hostels and rented rooms get addicted to drugs. A large amount of the literature suggests that enhancing a victim’s social support and inculcate in him or her some positive behaviors can help him get rid of this menace. Drug addicts often feel isolated and sense of alienation, so providing them certain kind of social and moral support help them more empowered to get over this problem.
(The author is a freelancer. Views are his own [email protected])
