We complain globally that the India is taking our lives but some of our own brothers are doing the same openly without feeling any guilt. If you kill one person, the Qur’an says, you have killed the entire humanity. Because one person is part of a community called humanity. I wonder what these people will do in front of Allah (SWT) on the Day of Judgment. Evidently, Allah (SWT) will disgrace them in front of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and then will throw them into hell. These days, youth in Kashmir valley is facing a rising number of problems. One of these is drugs. A large number of people, whether male or female, are taking drugs and have become addicted to these drugs. What does drug addiction means? Why young people fall into this trap? Should we blame only the users or the people who let these drugs into the state? These are the questions we should ponder upon. Currently, if we see our Kashmir which once was thought to be Jannat on the surface of the earth has become worse than hell. The political conflict prevalent in Kashmir valley since decades has left people broken and disheartened. The Kashmir valley is facing challenges like unemployment (despite high literacy rate), bribery or corruption, poverty, begging, jobbery, underdevelopment etc. and the result of all these problems throw in a new problem that is drug addiction which is more harsh. Kashmir has been through the two 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 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 the 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 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 director of Drug De-addiction center Srinagar Dr. Khan stated that “the trend of drug abuse is on the rise among school children as we have registered many such cases, where students of Class IX to XII are involved with drugs”. A renowned psychiatrist in Kashmir Dr. Maqgoob and Dutta in one their book has reported that around 2.11 lakh drug addicts are in Kashmir valley. The common Substance 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 are used as substances. 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 .I conclude with the words that drug addiction is a grave sin and serious evil impacting our society. The need of hour is that police should start to act and bring the drug peddlers to book. The easy availability of these drugs in market needs to be checked and awareness programs need to be organized so that people know the ill consequences of these intoxicants or drugs.
(Views of the author are her own, [email protected])
