Drug abuse is emerging as the big challenge in Jammu & Kashmir to be tackled as it continues to spread like wild fire with the passing of each day. The newspapers are witness to the unprecedented rise in drug menace. The accounts are disappointing and draw a clear picture about drug seizures, arrests of the paddlers also stories about the victims.A report was published by the United Nation Drug Control Program (UNDCP), few years ago that revealed around 70 thousand people, including 4000 women, in Kashmir were addicted to drugs. Moreover, experts say that the situation has worsened and aggravated even further since that report came into the light. As the Situation can be traced from the fact that the number of people who used to visit the de- addition centers for treatment and rehabilitation purposes in past years annually has now seen drastic increase. Experts are to be believed when they say that all drug victims do not show up for the treatment, neither are all cases reported due to the social stigma attached to the menace. Also there are many Drug De-addiction centers established across the Valley including a major one, run by the Jammu & Kashmir police, in Srinagar.A number of doctors and social workers have dedicated themselves to serve in this regard in terms of helping the addicts to overcome the menace and start their lives afresh. Most of the patients we have been receiving from the past years are heroin addicts and there is a drastic increase in their numbers now,” said Dr. Yasir Rather, a consulting psychiatrist.
Reasons Underlying Drug Menace: Unfortunately, all these efforts seem lacking something fundamental as the results aren’t really encouraging and the spread of drug addiction is picking up pace rather than slowing down. Those who are working to help drug addicts to overcome the addiction say that the phenomena cannot be controlled without addressing the underlying reasons for it. They believe unemployment, poverty, prevailing political uncertainty and other such issues that ultimately give rise to anxiety, depression and frustrations, form the basis for most of the drug addicts and without addressing these issues one should not expect encouraging results.The raging conflict is one of the major causes of the surge in drug abuse in Kashmir. It is a proven fact that the drug menace is one of the offshoots found at the places marred with enduring conflicts. Youth have fallen into drug abuse while trying to get rid of day-to-day life stresses. They have negatively adopted drugs as a coping strategy and then fallen into the trap. Such kids basically lack life skills and assertiveness. They do not know how to tackle and solve problems. They are mostly unable to share their feeling with others.Therefore, they don’t want to share their Story and involve in such activities by which they think they will get rid of all this. In another situation where youth become drug addicts due to their innocence and ignorance. These victims have been told by the paddlers that drugs would help them build their body in the gym and give them enough confidence to face routine life difficulties. We must understand the gravity of the problem and play a pivotal role to handle it.
Change in family Structure: Change in lifestyle and family structure has also contributed to the rise in drug addiction. Earlier, we had a joint family culture, where people would find many helping hands to cope up with depressions and anxieties. In those days, kids would feel happy and vibrant in the company of their grandparents and other elders in the family. Now everything has changed. While growing up to the teenage their depression gets accumulated and then many of them fall prey to the drugs. Even some of the drug peddlers have been caught outside the schools while luring the students into buying drugs. Need of the hour is to look after our spiritual health. Unfortunately, we get always attracted to the money and materialistic things, forgetting our spirituality. We must understand that spiritual health is the most important part of our overall health. Not only that the lives of these youngsters who have fallen prey to the drugs are at stake, but their families are also crumbling down. Accordingly government has to play a major role in curbing the drug menace. An important question that needs to be answered is how these drugs are available so easily that such a large number of people are falling prey to them. Public awareness campaigns such as webinars, seminars and radio programs are important in order to curb this menace.
(The author is students of Law at Kashmir Uiversity.Views are his own)
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