Rameez Makhdoomi
The menace of Drug Addiction is eating the vitals of Kashmiri society. Every statistics related to the menace of Drug addiction in the state of Jammu& Kashmir is alarming. Pertinently, Jammu and Kashmir, which is otherwise a conservative society, too has also not been able to safeguard its youth from this dangerous menace.
A recent statistics of the J&K Drug De-addiction Center Srinagar indicate that of the five million Kashmiris, 80,000 people are addicted to narcotics.
Experts say that drug addiction is on the rise in the state. Over the past few years Instances of suicides and deaths caused by drug overdose have been coming to the fore. All the concerned voices are pained and worried over the growing drug addiction in Kashmir. A pilot study by a non-governmental organization ‘Concerned About Universal Social Empowerment’ (CAUSE) in which it took a sample of 610 students revealed shocking results. In the study, near about 22 percent graduates, 6 percent post graduates and over 2 percent PhD holders have been found involved in drug addiction.
Advocate Gowhar Makhdoomi states –“Drug Addiction is a serious evil impacting our society. Currently nail polish, ink remover, shoe polish and dozens of such abnormal things are used as the alternative addiction by the drug addicts especially belonging to young age group. We are coming to know through various studies that this dangerous phenomenon is showing an abnormal increase. The need of the hour is that law enforcement agencies start to act and bring the drug peddlers to book .Drug Addiction is proving a nuclear catastrophe for our nation. The religious scholars especially the priests of mosques also need to come forward to play a proactive role in curbing this menace. Our younger generation will vanish in tin air if this menace continues.”
Many blame the concerned revenue and excise department for its inability to control opium cultivation as a main reason behind growing drug addiction in Kashmir, especially in South Kashmir. “The concerned revenue & excise department need to show vigor to eradicate opium cultivation which they are failing to do .As a result of their inability pockets in South Kashmir have turned into hub of drug addiction. All of us need to play a role to eradicate this abject menace from our society,” says, Mudasir Hamid, a Police Official.
On the other hand, the easily availability of drugs like korexin, Codeine is compounding the problem related to drug addiction and selling drugs without prescription by medical stores is impacting the whole scenario in a grave manner.
According to inputs available to The Kashmir Scenario, the assessment of the drug related material caught by a particular police station in Srinagar in just past few weeks shows huge cache of different drug abuse related material caught and thus hinting towards grave nature of the problem.
Although, recently Chief Minster Omer Abdullah while speaking at a function organized by National Commission of Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) here to observe National Children’s Day, described drug-abuse as the worst enemy of the civilization which he said is dangerous than militancy, Chief Minister, appealed all sections of the society to work together to save children from illicit use of drugs.
“It is being observed that notorious elements induce drug addiction in children”, he said and called for united approach to fight the drug addiction. But many believe that there is much talk and no implementation as a result from North to South the Valley of Kashmir is falling prey to this menace.
While speaking to The Kashmir Scenario on the issue, Sham Lal Sharma Minister for Health, Floriculture & Horticulture stated-“Drug Addiction is a serious problem and mere sloganeering wont yield any positive results. We have deterrent laws to curb this evil what we need is an effective will to ensure proper implementation of laws & regulations to curb this menace. I always ask police officials to deal with this menace with iron hand and in a place like Kashmir wherever people have undergone trauma for decades the menace of drug addiction is posing serious challenges and needs special attention.”
Syed Ilyas, a social activist from Ganderbal and chairman young Kashmir states -“There is not even a single village in Ganderbal District that is not affected by the menace of drug abuse. There is unfortunately no coordination between the concerned authorities and related organizations and drug addicts so as to curb this menace. We are tragically losing our younger generation to this evil with no effective mechanism to tackle it.”
Many intellectual voices currently urge that we as a society of Kashmir direly are in need of a personality like Len Zexu, Governor-General of Hunan and Hubei, who in 17th century after recognizing the consequences of opium abuse, embarked on an anti-opium campaign in which 1,700 opium dealers were arrested and 2.6 million pounds of opium were confiscated and destroyed.